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Autistic Spectrum Disorder in Prehistory

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 September 2011

Catriona Pickard ,
Ben Pickard  and
Clive Bonsall
Catriona Pickard
Affiliation:
School of History, Classics and Archaeology, University of Edinburgh, Doorway 4, Teviot Place, Edinburgh, UK, Email: [email protected]
Ben Pickard
Affiliation:
Strathclyde Institute of Pharmacy and Biomedical Sciences, University of Strathclyde, Andrew Hamnett Wing, 161 Cathedral Street, Glasgow, UK, Email: [email protected]
Clive Bonsall
Affiliation:
School of History, Classics and Archaeology, University of Edinburgh, Doorway 4, Teviot Place, Edinburgh, UK, Email: [email protected]
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Abstract

Individuals with ‘extraordinary’ or ‘different’ minds have been suggested to be central to invention and the spread of new ideas in prehistory, shaping modern human behaviour and conferring an evolutionary advantage at population level. In this article the potential for neuropsychiatric conditions such as autistic spectrum disorders to provide this difference is explored, and the ability of the archaeological record to provide evidence of human behaviour is discussed. Specific reference is made to recent advances in the genetics of these conditions, which suggest that neuropsychiatric disorders represent a non-advantageous, pathological extreme of the human mind and are likely a by-product rather than a cause of human cognitive evolution.

Type
Research Article
Information
Cambridge Archaeological Journal , Volume 21 , Issue 3 , October 2011 , pp. 357 - 364
Copyright
Copyright © The McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research 2011

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