Lauer Gerhard
Gutenberg Institute of World Literature and Written Media, Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz, Mainz, Germany.
Front Psychol. 2022 Jan 27;12:787203. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.787203. eCollection 2021.
Stories do not fossilize. Thus, exploring tales shared during prehistory, the longest part of human history inevitably becomes speculative. Nevertheless, various attempts have been made to find a more scientifically valid way into our deep human past of storytelling. Following the social brain hypothesis, we suggest including into the theory of human storytelling more fine-grained and evidence-based findings (from archaeology, the cognitive sciences, and evolutionary psychology) about the manifold exaptation and adaptation, genetic changes, and phenotypic plasticity in the deep human past, which all shaped the emergence of storytelling in hominins. We identify three preconditions for humans sharing stories: first, the long evolution of language in the different taxa as one of the preconditions of ostensive signaling; second, the pivotal role of childhood in the evolution of collaborative intentionality; and third, the role of fireside chats in the rise of elaborative (i.e., narrative) sharing of stories. We propose that humans, albeit perhaps no other hominins learned to understand others through sharing stories, not only as intentional agents, but also as mental ones.
故事不会变成化石。因此，探索史前时期（人类历史最长的部分）流传的故事不可避免地会带有推测性。然而，人们已做出各种尝试，以找到一种更具科学效度的方式来探究人类讲故事的悠久历史。基于社会脑假说，我们建议在人类讲故事的理论中纳入更多关于人类深层历史中多样的功能扩展与适应、基因变化以及表型可塑性的细致且有证据支持的发现（来自考古学、认知科学和进化心理学），这些因素共同塑造了人类讲故事的起源。我们确定了人类分享故事的三个先决条件：第一，不同分类群中语言的长期演化是明示性信号传递的先决条件之一；第二，童年在合作意向性演化中的关键作用；第三，炉边闲谈在详尽（即叙事性）故事分享兴起中的作用。我们认为，人类，也许没有其他原始人类，学会了通过分享故事来理解他人，不仅将他人理解为有意向的主体，还理解为有思维的主体。
