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A note on the dialectical evolution of human communications systems
A Note on the Dialectical Evolution of Human Communications Systems
Peter H. Stephenson Department of Anthropology McMaster University Hamilton, Ontario Canada L8S 4M4
In this brief note it is suggested that gesture may have constituted the dominant form of communication for humans during an intervening phase between the use of calls and spoken language. A “dialectic” is also proposed to expose the dynamic interrelationship between the controlled use of silence and sound in the evolution of human communications systems.
Received 5 February 1979 and accepted 29 June 1979
Linear
ofspeech have
causal models of the evolution
tended to ignore the overall context
of communication and so gesture is excluded from sonic hypotheses of glottogenesis. In sonic hypotheses speech is understood as directly related to a prior call system. For example, Bone
recent
(1977)
Recent
papers
research
conducted
by Carini
(1970),
assume a consistently on gestural
Livingstone
sonic context
communication
by the Gardners
(1971)
Stephenson,
1974). *
which occurred hibition
be derived
silence in the evolution Call systems
a previously
are involuntary
could produce
new meanings
Kordtlandt accounted
to its present (1973)
and closed into language
state in human
has hypothesized
for the inhibition
we know of predation
communication
such as that
once again (Hewes,
that 1973;
was probably
phase of hominid
evolution
and followed from the inAs such, gestural communi-
call system.
The concept
relationship
of a “dialec-
between
sound and
systems.
to a recombination
of sound
units which
against
Since it is difficult to explain how a perhaps an explanation for how it could
beings may be more fruitful.
that noise is costly to prey species and has thereby babbling
on Australopithecines
found in chimpanzee
infants.
(A. robustus) by leopards
seems likely that noise could have proved costly to early hominids
as well.
of an emotion-laden call system and a concomittant growth in gestural could have ultimately led to the evolution of speech. Human
and
and new sounds.
call system could be expanded be diminished
of predation.
“closed”
to expose the dynamic
of human
Primates
to suggest
communication
of spoken language
of an earlier call system in the context
cation may have “opened”
(1975)
of speech.
system of communication
during an intervening
prior to the appearance
tic” may ultimately
authors
In this note I propose that gestural
form of communication
Lieberman
among non-human
has led other
speech may have been derived from a gestural the dominant
(1973),
for the evolution
beings still possess the remnants
of a limbically
oriented
From what
(Brain,
1970) it
The inhibition communication
call system (weeping,
* Recent suggestions concerning the importance of gestures for the origin of speech represents a resurgence of this point of view. Early adherants to this position include both Tylor (1868) and Morgan (1877) as well as Wundt (1919), Paget (1944) and Itani (1950). Journal of Human Evolution (1979) 8, 581-583 0047-2484/79/060581
+ 03 $02.00/O
0 1979 Academic Press Inc. (London)
Limited
582
P. H. STEPHENSON
screaming, laughter) but no longer possess discrete calls along this gradient as do other Primates. Human gesutres are culturally elaborated but they are also grounded in a large repertoire of signals indicating basic emotional states. Furthermore, a large amount of human gestural communication is unconscious behaviour on both the part of the sender and receiver. Spoken language is, however, a more conscious and relatively abstract form of communication than gesture. An increased selection of individuals who could control the sounds which they made (via their inhibition) would lead to an increase in cortical-cortical nervous pathways and a reduction in cortical-limbic pathways. Indeed, Geschwind’s work (1965) on the comparative anatomy of the brain suggests that this is a general difference between humans and other Primates. It is also the case that some of the most prominent corticothalmic fibers which project into the dorsomedial and submedial nuclei of the thalmus in humans originate in the extreme prefrontal lobe, whereas similar tracts in monkeys originate from a wider sample of frontal sources (Truex & Carpenter, 1969: 578-579). The importance of prefrontal cortex for the control of basic emotional responses is well known and needs no elaboration here. All of this may be why human beings no longer possess a call system yet retain the remnants of one. There is no necessary reason why language could not co-exist with a call system. The fact that it does not, and that gesture runs the gamut between learned and inherited dimensions while speech is learned and yet an inherited capacity, suggests an evolutionary dialectic. This dialectic consists of an increase in the level of complexity of messages coincident with a decrease in the limbic content of messages as one proceeds from calls, through gesture, to spoken language and into written language. Moving between the sonic and aphonic contexts of communication has thus produced increasingly powerful syntheses of the two contexts. The evolution of human communication systems can be understood as an elaboration of communicative abilities through a process whereby our species has alternately readapted to conditions where the facilitation or inhibition of sound was possible and ultimately adaptive. This occurs when over-reliance on communication at either the sonic or aphonic pole begins to represent an exceptional loss in the communication process and a high cost in evolutionary terms. The transition from often being a prey species to more often being a predator may explain the shift back to the sonic context and to spoken language. The successive displacements of different systems of communication are then pushed into the unconscious. Perhaps more correctly, the grafting on of more abstract communicative abilities coterminous with an evolutionary increase in the size of the neocortex has made an unconscious out of past communications systems. Therefore, the evolution of human communication systems represents a dimunition of limbic content in messages over the long span of evolution. The most recent phase, based in the silent action of the hand in writing seems to represent yet another increase in abstraction. Both the first written language, which was for record keeping, and subsequent numerical and computer languages represent the level of abstraction which is attained in written communication. However, reading poems, songs, or myths in written language seems to render them less effectively because their proper media are sounds. References Bon&, E. (1977). PaleontologicalIndications of the Appearance of Speech. JournalofHuman Evolution 6,279-291. Brain, C. K. (1970). New Finds at the Swartkranz Australopithecine Site. Nature 225, 1112-l 129.
DIALECTICAL
EVOLUTION
OF HUMAN COMMUNICATIONS
583
Carini, L. (1970). On the origins of language. CurrentAnt/@&~ 11, 165-167. Gardner, R. A. & Gardner B. (1971). T wo-way communication with an infant chimpanzee. In Behaviour of Nonhuman Primates A. Schrier & F. Stolnitz, Eds. New York: Academic Press. Geschwind, N. (1965). Disconnexion syndromes in animals and man. Brain 88, 237-294, 585-644. Hewes, G. W. (1973). Primate communication and the gestural origin of language. CurrentAnthropology, 14, (l-2) 5-24. Itani, J. (1950). The Gcstural Origin of Language. Nature 166, 60-61. Kortlandt, A. (1973). Comment on Hewes. Current Anthropology, 14, (l-Z), 13-14. Lieberman, P. (1975). On the Origins of Language: An Introduction to the Evolution of Human Speech. New York: MacMillan. Livingstone, F. B. (1973). Did the Australopithecine Sing ? Current Anthropology, 14, (l-2) 25-29. Morgan, L. H. (1877). Ancient Society. New York: Holt. Mourant, A. E. (1973). The evolution of brain size, speech, and psycho-sexual development. Current Anthropoloo, 14, (l-2), 30-32. Paget, R. A. S. (1944). The Origin of Language. Science, 99, 14-15. Stephenson, P. H. (1974). On the Possible Significance of Silence for the Origin of Speech. Current AnthropoloQ 15, (3), 324-325. Truex, R. C. & Carpenter, M. B. (1969). Human Neuroanatomy (6th edition). Baltimore: Waverly Press. Tylor, E. B. (1868). On the Origin of Language. Fortnight& Review, 1, 22. Wundt, W. ( 19 12). Valkerpqhologie : Eine Untersuchung der Entwicklungsgestetze von Sprache, Mytkos, und Sitte. Two Vols. Leipzig: Wilhelm Englemann.
Peter H. Stephenson Department of Anthropology McMaster University Hamilton, Ontario Canada L8S 4M4
In this brief note it is suggested that gesture may have constituted the dominant form of communication for humans during an intervening phase between the use of calls and spoken language. A “dialectic” is also proposed to expose the dynamic interrelationship between the controlled use of silence and sound in the evolution of human communications systems.
Received 5 February 1979 and accepted 29 June 1979
Linear
ofspeech have
causal models of the evolution
tended to ignore the overall context
of communication and so gesture is excluded from sonic hypotheses of glottogenesis. In sonic hypotheses speech is understood as directly related to a prior call system. For example, Bone
recent
(1977)
Recent
papers
research
conducted
by Carini
(1970),
assume a consistently on gestural
Livingstone
sonic context
communication
by the Gardners
(1971)
Stephenson,
1974). *
which occurred hibition
be derived
silence in the evolution Call systems
a previously
are involuntary
could produce
new meanings
Kordtlandt accounted
to its present (1973)
and closed into language
state in human
has hypothesized
for the inhibition
we know of predation
communication
such as that
once again (Hewes,
that 1973;
was probably
phase of hominid
evolution
and followed from the inAs such, gestural communi-
call system.
The concept
relationship
of a “dialec-
between
sound and
systems.
to a recombination
of sound
units which
against
Since it is difficult to explain how a perhaps an explanation for how it could
beings may be more fruitful.
that noise is costly to prey species and has thereby babbling
on Australopithecines
found in chimpanzee
infants.
(A. robustus) by leopards
seems likely that noise could have proved costly to early hominids
as well.
of an emotion-laden call system and a concomittant growth in gestural could have ultimately led to the evolution of speech. Human
and
and new sounds.
call system could be expanded be diminished
of predation.
“closed”
to expose the dynamic
of human
Primates
to suggest
communication
of spoken language
of an earlier call system in the context
cation may have “opened”
(1975)
of speech.
system of communication
during an intervening
prior to the appearance
tic” may ultimately
authors
In this note I propose that gestural
form of communication
Lieberman
among non-human
has led other
speech may have been derived from a gestural the dominant
(1973),
for the evolution
beings still possess the remnants
of a limbically
oriented
From what
(Brain,
1970) it
The inhibition communication
call system (weeping,
* Recent suggestions concerning the importance of gestures for the origin of speech represents a resurgence of this point of view. Early adherants to this position include both Tylor (1868) and Morgan (1877) as well as Wundt (1919), Paget (1944) and Itani (1950). Journal of Human Evolution (1979) 8, 581-583 0047-2484/79/060581
+ 03 $02.00/O
0 1979 Academic Press Inc. (London)
Limited
582
P. H. STEPHENSON
screaming, laughter) but no longer possess discrete calls along this gradient as do other Primates. Human gesutres are culturally elaborated but they are also grounded in a large repertoire of signals indicating basic emotional states. Furthermore, a large amount of human gestural communication is unconscious behaviour on both the part of the sender and receiver. Spoken language is, however, a more conscious and relatively abstract form of communication than gesture. An increased selection of individuals who could control the sounds which they made (via their inhibition) would lead to an increase in cortical-cortical nervous pathways and a reduction in cortical-limbic pathways. Indeed, Geschwind’s work (1965) on the comparative anatomy of the brain suggests that this is a general difference between humans and other Primates. It is also the case that some of the most prominent corticothalmic fibers which project into the dorsomedial and submedial nuclei of the thalmus in humans originate in the extreme prefrontal lobe, whereas similar tracts in monkeys originate from a wider sample of frontal sources (Truex & Carpenter, 1969: 578-579). The importance of prefrontal cortex for the control of basic emotional responses is well known and needs no elaboration here. All of this may be why human beings no longer possess a call system yet retain the remnants of one. There is no necessary reason why language could not co-exist with a call system. The fact that it does not, and that gesture runs the gamut between learned and inherited dimensions while speech is learned and yet an inherited capacity, suggests an evolutionary dialectic. This dialectic consists of an increase in the level of complexity of messages coincident with a decrease in the limbic content of messages as one proceeds from calls, through gesture, to spoken language and into written language. Moving between the sonic and aphonic contexts of communication has thus produced increasingly powerful syntheses of the two contexts. The evolution of human communication systems can be understood as an elaboration of communicative abilities through a process whereby our species has alternately readapted to conditions where the facilitation or inhibition of sound was possible and ultimately adaptive. This occurs when over-reliance on communication at either the sonic or aphonic pole begins to represent an exceptional loss in the communication process and a high cost in evolutionary terms. The transition from often being a prey species to more often being a predator may explain the shift back to the sonic context and to spoken language. The successive displacements of different systems of communication are then pushed into the unconscious. Perhaps more correctly, the grafting on of more abstract communicative abilities coterminous with an evolutionary increase in the size of the neocortex has made an unconscious out of past communications systems. Therefore, the evolution of human communication systems represents a dimunition of limbic content in messages over the long span of evolution. The most recent phase, based in the silent action of the hand in writing seems to represent yet another increase in abstraction. Both the first written language, which was for record keeping, and subsequent numerical and computer languages represent the level of abstraction which is attained in written communication. However, reading poems, songs, or myths in written language seems to render them less effectively because their proper media are sounds. References Bon&, E. (1977). PaleontologicalIndications of the Appearance of Speech. JournalofHuman Evolution 6,279-291. Brain, C. K. (1970). New Finds at the Swartkranz Australopithecine Site. Nature 225, 1112-l 129.
DIALECTICAL
EVOLUTION
OF HUMAN COMMUNICATIONS
583
Carini, L. (1970). On the origins of language. CurrentAnt/@&~ 11, 165-167. Gardner, R. A. & Gardner B. (1971). T wo-way communication with an infant chimpanzee. In Behaviour of Nonhuman Primates A. Schrier & F. Stolnitz, Eds. New York: Academic Press. Geschwind, N. (1965). Disconnexion syndromes in animals and man. Brain 88, 237-294, 585-644. Hewes, G. W. (1973). Primate communication and the gestural origin of language. CurrentAnthropology, 14, (l-2) 5-24. Itani, J. (1950). The Gcstural Origin of Language. Nature 166, 60-61. Kortlandt, A. (1973). Comment on Hewes. Current Anthropology, 14, (l-Z), 13-14. Lieberman, P. (1975). On the Origins of Language: An Introduction to the Evolution of Human Speech. New York: MacMillan. Livingstone, F. B. (1973). Did the Australopithecine Sing ? Current Anthropology, 14, (l-2) 25-29. Morgan, L. H. (1877). Ancient Society. New York: Holt. Mourant, A. E. (1973). The evolution of brain size, speech, and psycho-sexual development. Current Anthropoloo, 14, (l-2), 30-32. Paget, R. A. S. (1944). The Origin of Language. Science, 99, 14-15. Stephenson, P. H. (1974). On the Possible Significance of Silence for the Origin of Speech. Current AnthropoloQ 15, (3), 324-325. Truex, R. C. & Carpenter, M. B. (1969). Human Neuroanatomy (6th edition). Baltimore: Waverly Press. Tylor, E. B. (1868). On the Origin of Language. Fortnight& Review, 1, 22. Wundt, W. ( 19 12). Valkerpqhologie : Eine Untersuchung der Entwicklungsgestetze von Sprache, Mytkos, und Sitte. Two Vols. Leipzig: Wilhelm Englemann.