Anthropology and Cognition at CINCCO

A small embodied experiment before talking about the evolution of the mind

Before continuing, try something simple.

Stand up.

Take three slow steps.

Now pause.

Walking feels natural, almost automatic.
Yet those few steps contain millions of years of evolution.

The way humans walk, breathe, gesture, and coordinate with others has shaped the development of the human mind.

This is precisely the type of question explored in the Seminario de Antropología y Cognición at the Centro de Investigación en Ciencias Cognitivas (CINCCO) in Mexico.

Anthropology and Cognition at CINCCO

When anthropology and cognition meet

For a long time, two scientific fields developed largely separately.

Anthropology
studied human evolution, culture, and behavior.

Cognitive science
studied perception, memory, language, and the brain.

But the human mind did not emerge from the brain alone.

It emerged through interactions among:

• the body

• the environment

• social cooperation

• evolutionary pressures

The CINCCO seminar “From the First Step to the Human Mind” explores this integration by examining how evolutionary changes—such as bipedalism—may have influenced the development of cognition.

Experiment 1 — The first step reshaped the mind

Walking on two legs may seem simple.

But bipedalism fundamentally changed how early humans interacted with their environment.

When hominins began walking upright:

• the hands became available for tool use

• the visual field expanded

• gestural communication increased

• cooperative interaction intensified

Research in human evolution suggests that locomotor and anatomical changes played a crucial role in shaping cognitive and social capacities (Antón et al., 2021; Tomasello, 2019).

In other words:

the body helped shape the mind.

Experiment 2 — Cooperation generates intelligence

Now imagine two situations.

Situation A
One individual tries to solve a problem alone.

Situation B
A group works together to solve the same problem.

In many cases, collective problem solving leads to faster and more creative solutions.

Studies in social cognition suggest that cooperation played a major role in the evolution of human intelligence, including language, cultural learning, and shared decision-making (Tomasello, 2019; Henrich, 2020).

This implies something fundamental:

human intelligence is not only individual—it is also collective.

Experiment 3 — The mind emerges through the body

Now shift your attention to your posture.

Notice your breathing.

Observe how bodily sensations influence your awareness of the environment.

Research in embodied cognition shows that cognitive processes depend strongly on bodily states and interactions with the surrounding world (Barsalou, 2020; Varela et al., 2017).

This perspective reconnects anthropology and neuroscience by suggesting that the human mind emerges through the integration of:

• brain processes

• bodily action

• environmental interaction

Why CINCCO matters in this discussion

The Centro de Investigación en Ciencias Cognitivas (CINCCO) at the Universidad Autónoma del Estado de Morelos has developed interdisciplinary activities that connect:

• human evolution

• anthropology

• cognition

• social behavior

This approach is important because it studies the human mind not only as a neural phenomenon but also as an evolutionary and cultural process.

By integrating anthropology and cognitive science, CINCCO contributes to a growing field that seeks to understand the mind within the broader history of human evolution and social life.

A final experiment

Return to the first exercise.

Take a few steps again.

Notice how naturally your body moves.

Now imagine millions of generations of human ancestors walking, cooperating, and learning together.

Each step contributed to shaping the human brain.

Perhaps this is why understanding the human mind requires looking not only at neural circuits, but also at the evolutionary history of the moving body.

References

Antón, S. C., Potts, R., & Aiello, L. C. (2021). Evolution of early Homo: An integrated biological perspective. Science.

Barsalou, L. W. (2020). Challenges and opportunities for grounding cognition. Journal of Cognition.

Damasio, A. (2021). The feeling of life itself and the construction of consciousness. Nature Reviews Neuroscience.

Henrich, J. (2020). The WEIRDest People in the World. Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

Khalsa, S. S., et al. (2022). Interoception and mental health: A roadmap. Biological Psychiatry.

Pereira Jr., A., & Furlan, F. A. (2021). Triple-aspect monism and the science of consciousness. Frontiers in Psychology.

Tomasello, M. (2019). Becoming Human: A Theory of Ontogeny. Harvard University Press.

Varela, F. J., Thompson, E., & Rosch, E. (2017). The Embodied Mind: Cognitive Science and Human Experience. MIT Press.