Social and emotional cognition in Pleistocene hominin evolution: The role of biocultural processes

Abstract

Patterns and processes of social cognition underlie much of the behavioral and ecological flexibility and adaptive capacity that characterizes the primate order. The hominin lineage emerged from a branch of primates, hominoids, particularly reliant on the navigation of complex intra and inter-group social relations as a central dynamic of their niche. Over the past few decades much research on hominin evolution has resituated focus from explaining the uniqueness of the big-brain, hyper-social, cognitively distinct Homo sapiens, to a broader inquiry into the potential process, pathways, and dynamics of the evolution of a hominin niche, or niches, rooted in increasingly complex social cognition. In this essay we review key aspects of this current paradigm and argue for the expanded inclusion of the possibilities of socio-emotional cognition in a biocultural approach as advantageous in developing a more robust descriptive framework for theory and method in the study of human evolution. We combine several sources and examples to highlight specific theoretical approaches to assist in developing a common and more integrative framework for investigating social and emotional cognition as a key component of the biocultural niche in Pleistocene hominins.