Re: Human Language.
John Waters (jdwaters@dircon.co.uk)
21 Dec 1996 14:09:26 GMT
Thomas Clarke <clarke@acme.ucf.edu> wrote in article
<59e8mp$nfh@news.cc.ucf.edu>...
>
> >>Donald calls this stage of mind the mythic stage.
Language is
> >>developed and becomes the dominant mode of social
interaction -
JW: Phew. I nearly missed this bit.
Language is developed, eh? Does Donald say how, or why?
> >Brains are vastly expensive. They did not evolve for
the
> >purposes of entertainment or a kind of "social glue";
that
> >can be provided by a little elementary back-scratching.
>
> Precisely the point. Calvin says they evolved for
ballistic
> hunting at first. For survival in the cold north later.
> Then when they got big enough the possibility of tale
telling
> arose.
JW: An Elephant's brain is four times larger than a human
brain. Does this create the possibility of tale telling?
>Like sexual selection,
> what objective good is a peacock's tail? Other than for
getting laid?
JW: Gay Peacocks, eh? :-)
> Actually as I think, war is just a part of culture and
probably
> it is many aspects of culture, war included, that
participate
> in the feedback that makes modern man.
JW: Can I extend that concept to make modern language? And
if so, just how far can we take this line of argument back,
in respect of basic language development?
John.
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