What is autism

1. What is autism Barry Wright February 2013 With special thanks to Penny Spikins Department of Archaeology University of York

2. What is autism Difficulties with – Social reciprocity (Lord et al, 2012) Imagination (Woodard and Van Reet, 2012) Language use (Weismer et al, 2010) Repetitive and unusual behaviours (Leekam et al, 2011)

3. However, is there another way of thinking about this? Why does natural selection in evolution like autism, which it clearly does? Why is it for example that autism is polygenic? The answer must be that autism confers advantages!

4. Can we find any evidence for this in archaeological records? Lets think about society? Social reciprocity (Lord et al, 2012)

5. People with autism in society High moral stances with a reduced likelihood for untruthfulness (Sterponi 2004; Jaarsma et al. 2011). A liking for and an adherence to rules (Baron-Cohen 2009). Being very dutiful, predictable and reliable (Baron-Cohen 2009). Having greater concern with justice and wider societal concerns and a drive to develop and maintain ‘fair’ social rules (Batson et al. 1995)

6. People with autism and their use of creativity and imagination

7. Frieze of lions from Chauvet Cave, Ardèche, southern France, dated to 32-30,000 years ago (Wikimedia Commons). Horses depicted at Chauvet Cave, 32,000-30,000 years ago, Ardèche, southern France (Wikimedia Commons).

8. People with autism and repetitive and unusual behaviours An ability to more easily recognise patterns than neuro-typically developing people (Joliffe and Baron-Cohen1997), The ability to focus on the detail in any given situation or task (Chen et al. 2009; Happe and Frith 2009), An ability to be highly organised and methodical (Piven et al 1996) Enhanced discrimination and detection skills, and memory for visual patterns (Caron et al. 2004), Large over-representation of science, technology, engineering and mathematics amongst those with ASD (Wei et al, 2012)

9. People with autism and repetitive and unusual behaviours The Abri Blanchard plaquette: an engraved bone piece from Sergeac, France, 30,000 years ago A drawing of the Abri Blanchard plaquette showing positions of the moon superimposed. Provided courtesy of Johan De Smedt (figure ,1 DeSmedt and Cruz 2011).

10. Variants of bladelets from Dzudzuana Cave in the Caucaus foothills (Upper Palaeolithic). Figure courtesy of Ofer Bar-Yosef 30,000 years ago

11. What works against people with autism is: Societies intolerance to difference A belief in the notion of perfection that is flawed (cf versus genetic variation) Problems that sometimes occur alongside autism such as learning disabilities

12. What is autism So to return, can we look at these four things in a different way? Social reciprocity (Lord et al, 2012) Imagination (Woodard and Van Reet, 2012) Language use (Weismer et al, 2010) Repetitive and unusual behaviours (Leekam et al, 2011)

13. An alternative way of viewing the four main problems is: • Crucial social roles that are different from strong empathisers • Alternative creativities • Utilitarian use of language • Skills and thinking that makes use of logic, patterns, re-utilisation of memory, precision, detail and the capacity for repetition and focus.