Sunday, March 04, 2018

Could Homo Erectus speak?

I just picked up Daniel Everett's book, "How Language Began", which argues that language goes back hundreds of thousands of years.  

On the other hand, there is another school of thought that says language and a fully functioning, self-aware mind was something that developed in the last 40,000 years, maybe the last 10,000.

Interesting.


Posted by Peter Sean at 11:12 AM
Labels: ,

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Its interesting that most (all?) of the evidence for language development that early in hominids is based on inference, not more direct evidence. To quote the authors article you linked o Aeon:

"Evidence that erectus had language comes from their settlements, their art, their symbols, their sailing ability and their tools."

In others words, they couldn't have had those things if they didn't have language. He also has a "lower level" description of language than some causal observers might assume.

Regardless, his arguments are compelling, and its a fascinating line of thought to examine when an Erectus starts being a Neanderthalus or a Sapiens. Would we recognize our brothers as such, or would we treat them the same way many modern European cultures treated the population of Africa over the last 2 millennia or so?

5:39 PM

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)
 
Who links to me?