First of all, we have to ask this question: Is paleoneurology
paleophrenology? The answer is: You
better believe it. If you don't have localization of function,
somewhere to look to, the game is lost at the
very beginning. [Referring to slide] Here is our father
figure, Frantz Gall. He's not a hero figure in anthropology,
as you can well understand, but at least in his
very early days he came up with the ideas of localization
and demonstrated that the brain was not some
homogenous blob or mass without distinctions.
[Referring to slide] These are endocasts, or are they
really? You really can't be sure that I haven't put a couple
of different kinds of baking potatoes in there. But
these are really true brain endocasts; they are the dorsal
view. What you're seeing at the top is the anterior
frontal portion and what you're seeing in the bottom,
of course, is the inferior portion. Pan paniscus, the
bonobo or pygmy chimpanzee; Pan troglodytes; and
Gorilla gorilla - this gives you some idea of the size of
these. The collections that I have put together over the
last 30 years include about 44 Pan paniscus, roughly
34 Pan troglodytes, and roughly 44 Gorilla.