Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Grammatical equivalents of Palaeolithic tools: a hypothesis

  • Original Paper
  • Published:
Theory in Biosciences Aims and scope Submit manuscript

‘Then, fire, becoming word, entered his mouth

(the mouth of man)’

Aitareya Upanishad

Abstract

In this article, language is considered as a behavioural trait evolving by means of natural selection, in co-evolution with the Palaeolithic tool industries. This perspective enables an analysis of the grammatical and syntactic equivalents of the multiple abilities and effects of lithic tools across the successive modes of their development and consider their influence in intra-group communication and the social biology of the hominine species concerned. The hypothesis is that grammatical equivalents inherent to stone tool work guide the evolution of language.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. In the last decade the taxonomy of anthropoids and humans was revised, since it was proved that the molecular distance Pan-Homo is shorter than Pan-Gorilla: the family Hominidae (hominines), that in traditional taxonomy included man and his bipedal relatives, gave rise to a broader taxon including the subfamily Homininae (hominines), subdivided in two tribes, the Panini (panins) and the Hominini (hominines), that comprise the subtribes Australopithecina (austhralopiths) and Hominina (hominans, just including genus Homo).

  2. When anticipation and planning become important enough in the social lives of hominines, the very idea of death appears in their existential horizon and opens their minds to mythical and religious explanations.

  3. Two disciplines help to explain the evolutionary trends of language: palaeoneurology, which studies the endocasts of palaeospecies comparing them with the brains of living primates (in what concerns asymmetry of hemispheres, relative importance of cerebral lobes, petalias, size of arteries, etc.); and glossogenetics, which deals with the evolution of the glottic apparatus. We know, for instance, that the fossil Neanderthal hyoid bone found in Kebara, Israel, is identical to those of anatomically modern humans (Bar-Yosef and Vandermeersch 1993).

  4. Using this perspective, the proven ability of the great apes to learn human lexicons in a laboratory setting and use them as elementary sign languages (they can understand and display over 300 words, even if they cannot master syntax) is rendered possible since they develop material cultures in the wild and skilfully use a certain number of opportunist tools in stone, wood and other vegetable materials, according to their geographical distribution. Even if they cannot articulate, because of the high position of their larynx and the structure of the tongue, their cultural experience with tools renders their brain competent to that kind of proto-language.

References

  • Aboitiz F (1996) Does bigger mean better? Evolutionary determinants of brain size and structure. Brain Behav Evol 47:225–245

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Aiello LC (1998) The foundations of human language. In: Jablonski NG Aiello LC (eds) The origin and diversification of language. Mem Calif Acad Sci. San Francisco, pp 21–34

  • Aiello LC, Dunbar RIM (1993) Neocortex size, group size, and the evolution of language in the hominines. Curr Anthropol 34:184–193

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ambrose SH (2001) Paleolithic technology and human evolution. Science 291:1748–1753

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Bar-Yosef O, Vandermeersch B (1993) Modern humans in the Levant. Sci Am 268(4):64–70

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Boesch C, Boesch H (1990) Tool using and tool making in wild chimpanzees. Folia Primatol 54:86–99

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Buettner-Janusch J (1973) Physical anthropology: a perspective. Willey, New York

  • Bunn HT, Kroll EM (1986) Systematic butchery by Plio-Pleistocene hominids at Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania. Curr Anthropol 27:431–452

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Carbonnel E (2005) Homínidos: las primeras ocupaciones de los continentes, Ariel/Fundacion Atapuerca, Barcelona

  • Davidson I (2003) The archaeological evidence of language origins: states of art. In: Christiansen MH, Kirby S (eds) Language evolution. Oxford University Press, New York, pp 140–157

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Decety J, Perani D, Jeannerod M, Bettinardi V, Tadary B, Woods R, Mazziotta JC, Fazio F (1994) Mapping motor representations with positron emission tomography. Nature 371:600–602

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Dunbar RIM (1995) Neocortex size and group in primates. A test of the hypothesis. J Hum Evol 28:287–296

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dunbar RIM (1998) The social brain hypothesis. Evol Anthropol 6(5):178–190

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dunbar RIM (2003) The origin and subsequent evolution of language. In: Christiansen MH, Simon K (eds) Language evolution. Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp 219–234

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Falk D (1990) Brain evolution in Homo: the ‘radiator’ theory. Behav Brain Sci 13:333–381

    Google Scholar 

  • Gould SJ (1977) Ontogeny and phylogeny. Belknap Press, Cambridge, Mass

    Google Scholar 

  • Gowlett JAJ (1984) Mental abilities of early man. A look at some hard evidence. In: Foley RA (ed) Hominid evolution and community ecology. Academic Press, New York & London, pp 167–192

    Google Scholar 

  • Gowlett JAJ (1998a) Early human mental abilities. In: Jones S, Martin R, Pilbeam D (eds) The Cambridge encyclopedia of human evolution. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp 341–345

    Google Scholar 

  • Gowlett LAJ (1998b) Tools, the Palaeolithic record, ibid, pp 350–360

  • Gowlett LAJ, Hallos J (2005) Lucy to language: the archaeology of the social brain. Before Farming 2005/1, article 7

  • Harris JWK, Williamson PG, Verniers J, Tappen MJ, Stewart K, Helgren D, De Heinzelin J, Boaz NT, Bellomo RV (1987) Late Pliocene hominid occupation at the Senga 5A site, Zaire. J Hum Evol 16:701–728

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hassan FA (1988) Prolegomena to a grammatical theory of lithic artefacts. World Archaeol 19(3):281–296

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Heinzelin J, Clark JD, White T, Hart W, Renne P, Oldegabriel G, Beyene Y, Vrba E (1999) Environment and behavior of 2.5-million-year-old Bouri hominids. Science 284:625–629

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Holloway RL (1969) Culture: a human domain. Curr Anthropol 10:395–413

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Isaac GL (1976) Stages of cultural elaboration in the Pleistocene: possible archaeological indicators of the development of language capabilities. In: Harnad SR, Steklis HD, Lancaster J (eds) Origins and evolution of language and speech. NY Acad Sci, New York, pp 275–288

    Google Scholar 

  • Isaac GL (1989) Foundation stones: early artifacts as indicators of activities and abilities. In: Isaac B (ed) The archaeology of human origins: papers by Glynn Isaac. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp 352–379

    Google Scholar 

  • Keeley LH, Toth N (1981) Microwear polishes on early stone tools from Kooby Fora, Kenya. Nature 293:464–465

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Leakey R (1994) The origin of humankind. Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London

  • Leroi-Gourhan A (1983) Les chasseurs de la préhistoire, AM Métailié, Paris

  • Lewin R, Foley RA (2004) Principles of human evolution, 2nd ed. Blackwell Publishing, Boston & Oxford

  • Martin RD (1990) Primate origins and evolution. A phylogenetic reconstruction. Chapman and Hall, London

  • Martin A (1998) Organisation of semantic knowledge and the origin of words in the brain. Mem Calif Acad Sci 24:69–88

    Google Scholar 

  • Matsuzawa T (1999) Communication and tool use in chimpanzees: cultural and social contexts. In: Hauser M, Konishi M (eds) The design of animal communication. MIT Press, Cambridge, pp 645–671

    Google Scholar 

  • Mayr E (1974) Behavior programs and evolutionary strategies. Am Sci 62:650–659

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Mazza PPA, Martini F, Sala B, Magi M, Colombini MP, Giachi G, Landucci F, Lemorini C, Modugno F, Ribechini E (2006) A new Palaeolithic discovery: tar-hafted stone tools in a European Mid-Pleistocene bone-bearing bed. J Archaeol Sci 33(9):1310–1318

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McGrew WC (1992) Chimpanzee material culture. Implications for human evolution. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

  • Mellars PA (1998) Neanderthals, modern humans and the archaeological evidence for language. In: Jablonski NG, Aiello L (eds) The origin and diversification of language. The University of California Press, San Francisco, pp 89–115

    Google Scholar 

  • Napier JR (1993) Hands (revised by Tuttle RH). Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey

  • Nowak MA, Komarova NL (2001) Towards an evolutionary theory of language. Trends Cogn Sci 5:288–295

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Panger MA, Brooks AS, Richmond BG, Wood B (2002) Older than the Oldowan? Rethinking the emergence of Hominin tool use. Evol Anthropol 11:235–245

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pétrequin P (1985) La hache polie en Nouvelle-Guinée: approche ethno-archéologique. Bull Soc Prehist Fr 82(8):226–230

    Google Scholar 

  • Pollard KS (2009) What makes us humans? Sci Am 300(5):32–37

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Potts R, Shipman P (1981) Cutmarks made by stone tools on bones from Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania. Nature 291:577–580

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Roche H, Delagnes A, Brugal JP, Feibel C, Kibunjia M, Mourrel V, Texier PJ (1999) Early hominid stone tool production and technical skill 2.34 myr ago in West Turkana, Kenya. Nature 399:57–60

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Semaw S, Renne P, Harris JWK, Feibel CS, Bernor RL, Fesseha N, Mowbray K (1997) 2.5-Million-year-old stone tools from Gona, Ethiopia. Nature 385:333–336

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Shipman P (1993) Life hisory of a fossil. An introduction to taphonomy and paleoecology. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass

    Google Scholar 

  • Susman RL (1988) Hand of Paranthropus robustus from Member I, Swartkrans: fossil evidence for tool behavior. Science 240:781–784

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Susman RL (1994) Fossil evidence for early hominid tool use. Science 265:1570–1573

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Tobias PV (1987) The brain of Homo habilis: a new level of organization in cerebral evolution. J Hum Evol 16:741–761

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Toth N, Clark D, Ligabue G (1992) The last stone age makers. Sci Am 267(1):66–71

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Van Schaik CP, Ancrenaz M, Borgen G, Galdikas B, Knott CD, Singleton I, Suzuki A, Utami SS, Merrill MY (2003) Orangutan cultures and the evolution of the material culture. Science 299:102–105

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Vieira AB (1984) Técnica e causalidade. Reflexão sobre o problema da técnica a partir da primeira indústria lítica. Revista de Filosofia e Epistemologia 5:137–163

    Google Scholar 

  • Webb J, Domanski M (2009) Fire and stone. Science 325:820–821

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Whiten A, Goodall J, McGrew WC, Nishida T, Reynolds V, Sugiyama Y, Tutin CEG, Wrangham RW, Boesch C (1999) Cultures in chimpanzees. Nature 399:682–685

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Wood B, Lonergan N (2008) The hominin fossil record: taxa, grades and clades. J Anat 212:354–376

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Wynn T (1991) Tools, grammar and the archaeology of cognition. Camb Archeol J 1:191–206

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wynn T (1993) Layers of thinking in tool behaviour. In: Gibson K, Ingold T (eds) Tools, language and cognition in human evolution. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp 389–406

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

We thank Dr. Nathalie Gontier for her strong support, and Prof. Alexandre Castro Caldas, Dr. Brian Hannon, Luisa Lehner and Gilda Oswaldo Cruz for their valuable help.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centro de Filosofia das Ciências da Universidade de Lisboa, Campo Grande, Edifício C1, 3º piso, sala 1.3.35, 1749-016, Lisbon, Portugal

    Antonio B. Vieira

Authors
  1. Antonio B. Vieira
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Antonio B. Vieira.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Vieira, A.B. Grammatical equivalents of Palaeolithic tools: a hypothesis. Theory Biosci. 129, 203–210 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12064-010-0094-8

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12064-010-0094-8

Keywords

Search

Navigation