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There are few problems in science that are perhaps quite so tantalizing, and so difficult, as the workings of the human mind. Over centuries, understanding our thoughts has attracted interest from many fields, ranging from philosophy, to neuroscience, to psychology, to computer science, to archaeology, and to anthropology. That variety of approach has inevitably led to an extraordinary diversity of ideas and models. Very often this has meant focusing on a particular ‘trick’ of the mind which underlies its evolution, operation, power, and success. Classically, this was the rational mind, our ability to reason our way through any problem. Many have focused on language, and on the way it provides flexibility of thought, and extraordinary combinatorial faculties. Archaeologists and anthropologists have paid particular attention to symbolic thought, often as an extension to language, for the way in which it allows detachment from the here and now, and opens up the possibilities for creating a world of the mind as important as the material one. In recent years we have seen the mind as a computer, with algorithms for everything; the mind as a series of modules like a Swiss Army knife, each one specialized to carry out its particular function, and, of course, the mind as a social diary, playing out the intricacies of our complex social lives. Music, emotion, technology, planning, all have been recognized as playing a part.
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