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Human Language May Have Evolved To Help Our Ancestors Make Tools
sciencehabit writes: If there's one thing that distinguishes humans from other animals, it's our ability to use language. But when and why did this trait evolve? A new study concludes that the art of conversation may have arisen early in human evolution, because it made it easier for our ancestors to teach each other how to make stone tools — a skill that was crucial for the spectacular success of our lineage. The study involved getting a number of college students to try to make their own primitive stone tools, some using language, others not. The team discovered that only those that used language were able to make effective tools.
Human language _is_ a tool.
Dumbass.
... speaking to each other improves communication. Brilliant.
TK
Maybe human language evolved so we could share cooking tips, or maybe so we could more easily find a mate, or raise kids, or navigate using the night sky, or yell "HELP! I'm being eaten by a tiger!", or tell our fellow tribe members that a flood is coming, or that we have a thorn in our foot that the local witchdoctor needs to pull out...
The ONLY way to find out things like this (historical FACTs, rather than historical POSSIBILITIES) is with a time machine, which nobody has.
The sort of people who write this drivel are the sort who major in "women's studies", "ethnic studies", "journalism", or "education" .... people who like majors where everything is subjective and there are no fixed standards of proof. I have come to DETEST the phony quasi-sciences.... gimme plain-old physics and chemistry and engineering ANY DAY! (I like objective truth and objective reality)
PC LOAD LETTER? What the fuck does that mean?
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"Man invented language to satisfy his deep need to complain." -- Lily Tomlin
From what I can tell from TFA, this study purports to test the hypothesis that language evolved as a means to transmit the knowledge of how to make tools. The researchers found that present-day humans (college students, to be exact) can best teach other how to make a stone tool if they are allowed to talk to each other. The authors interpret this as evidence in support of their hypothesis.
The obvious problem, though, is that they ran the experiment on a bunch of subjects that have spent their entire lives (minus the first year or so) using language as their primary means of communication. So what result would you expect with this study population? The experiment is hardly a test of the conditions under which early language might have evolved.
Recent evidence has come to light that suggests that pyramid style chain
letters may have pre-dated Dave Rhodes by a considerable margin.
Palaentologists recently deciphered the following, painted on a cave
wall on the slopes of Kilimanjaro.
MAKE POINTY STICKS FAST!!!
Hello, not-tribe-member. Urk name Urk. Many moons ago, Urk in bad way.
Urk kicked out of cave by Thag. Thag bigger than Urk, Thag take Urk
spiky club, Urka (Urk wo-man). Urk not able kill deer, must eat leaves,
berries. Urk flee from wolves.
Today, Urk big chief. Urk have best cave, many wives, many pointy sticks.
Urk tell how.
WHAT DO: make one pointy stick and take to cave places below. Add own
cave place to bottom of list, take cave place off top. Put new message
on walls many caves. Wait. Many pointy sticks soon come! This not crime!
Urk ask shaman, gods say okay.
HERE LIST:
1) Urk
First cave
Olduvai Gorge
few) Thag (not that Thag, other Thag)
old dead tree
by laked shaped like mammoth
few) Og
big rock with overhang
near pig game trail
Many) Zog
river caves
where river meet big water
Urk hope not-tribe-member do what Urk say do. That only way it work.
(c) Dave Hemming 1998. Circulate how you please, but keep my name on it.
You're a __douchebag__ and a tool
Folks, we have a perfect specimen of the original reason why human invented language ...
TO CURSE AT ONE ANOTHER
The study involved getting a number of college students to try to make their own primitive stone tools, some using language, others not. The team discovered that only those that used language were able to make effective tools.
Did they also try hunting a mammoth with language vs. without language? Or caring for an elderly tribe member with/without language? Or building a hut?
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Somehow it still annoys me that people think of evolution in terms of some sort of deliberate purpose or 'providence'. It gives a completely skewed idea of what evolution is and it feeds religious superstition.
Evolution has no 'direction' - life doesn't evolve from 'worse' to 'better'; those terms have no meaning in this context. If one must assign some sort of direction to evolution, it would be something like 'life often tends to become more complex over time' - the word 'often' being central here, as there are many examples of organisms becoming simpler with time.
Evolution most certainly has no purpose - a trait evolves because it happens to be advantageous at that given moment. The ability to speak - ie. communicate vocally, following a sort of grammar - seems to have very deep roots, and it is easy to understand why: a sound signal is fast and carries far in both water and air, and it allows you to communicate with little expenditure of energy. You can use it for mating calls or warnings, it can be used to maintain group integrity etc. It is, incidentally, also useful for communicating knowledge: 'I know where there is water, follow me' or 'avoid humans, they are dangerous'.
Clearly the ability to communicate clearly is an advantage when you teach others how to make tools, but it is false to look for purpose in this - the only purpose of communication is the purpose the communicator puts into it.
If there's one thing that distinguishes humans from other animals, it's our ability to use language.
Hate to break it to you, but humans aren't the only ones who know and use language. We're not really that distinguishable from many animals if thats your deciding factor. Dolphins, Whales, Octopus ... they all probably would like to have a word with you.
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There are many more animals that are known to communicate through sound, some rather sophisticated. Various whales and dolphins are known to use different calls, some primates, even some species of bat are believed to exchange information such as where to find food through sounds. Calls are also a common way of parents finding their children when living in big groups. Of course it's not as advanced as human speech, and almost certainly not useful to communicate about abstract topics. To me, it is a form of speech nonetheless.
Language provides a capacity for learning that is collective and cumulative. The usefulness of language in tool-making and vast numbers of other tasks is obvious.
First, that doesn't tell us whether tool-making preceded language or the reverse.
Second, it doesn't tell us anything about how humans acquired language. Using sounds and/or gestures as symbolic communication elements is hard enough, but that's the easy part, and it can't happen until there is a common set of thoughts to exchange. You need shared language inside the head before you can start speaking and being understood - that's the hard part that linguists puzzle over.
I encourage you to read more about language. It is NOT equivalent to communication, and despite you ostensibly detesting "thinkers in ivory towers", you simple are not going to understand something as complex as language by sitting around anthropomorphizing farm animals.
I studied comparative cognition (anthropology branch) and I can tell you that there are many studies that show that Dolphins use complex, syntactically based language in the wild. Chimps can learn complex language in the lab, but they don't have it in the wild like Dolphins do.
Dolphins also aren't known to use tools. So, this seems to be a obvious counter example to their hypothesis.
My God can beat up your God. Just kidding...don't take offense. I know there's no God.