ISS 210 1st Edition Lecture 11Outline of Last Lecture I. The Roots of ConsciousnessII. Increasing Brain SizeIII. Why Language? IV. Structures in the BrainV. Language and ExperienceVI. LanguageVII. The Limbic System or “Mammalian Brain” VIII. Language and Call systemsIX. Back to the Genes X. FOXP2 and the Mystery of SpeechXI. Basic Terms and Concepts XII. Components of Language XIII. Phones XIV. PhonemesXV. MorphemesXVI. SyntaxXVII. Larnyx, Pharnyx, and SpeechXVIII. Neanderthal and Human Vocal TractsXIX. The Neanderthal Hyoid BoneXX. FOXP2 and Speech and Culture Outline of Current LectureI. The cognitive leap II. Stealing Fire from the Jaguar III. Symbolic thought IV. Blombos Cave, South AfricaV. Hohlenstein-Staedl “Lowenfrau” VI. Sungir (28kya) nr. Moscow VII. Culture as Adaptation VIII. Lunar “Calendar” Inscribed on AntlerIX. Why Language? X. Verbal StrokingXI. Childs PlayCurrent LectureI. The cognitive leap – How do you explain the origin of the cognitive chasm that separates humansfrom the rest of nature– Wallace was disturbed by the discontinuous nature of cognitive ability of humansand other organisms – The problem is natural selection is not a creative force, it cannot create newoptimized genes, it can only work with what’s there– Modern behavior lagged behind “modern” anatomy by tens-of thousands ofyears – Darwin ascribed modern cognition to eons of natural selection implyingcontinuity – We do not know what selective pressure led to bigger brains but we do knowthat the big brain alone did not make the competitive difference– When modern symbol equipped Homo sapiens came along the competitionsuddenly disappeared everywhereII. Stealing Fire from the Jaguar – Levi-strauss in Mythologiques recounts the story the Bororo people of the Mato Grosso region of Brazil about how humans stole fire and with it language and culture from the Jaguar III. Symbolic thought – Co-Magnon left behind products that are clearly the product of symbolic processes – Animal images in cave art represent animals in the landscape – Strange geometric symbols were probably meaningful to the artists who made them but unknowable to us– Experiencing their art, you stop merely asking “what is it?” and start asking “what does it mean?”– Burials with “grave goods” suggests belief in afterlife and social stratification in this life – Human culture is flexible within technological and environmental constraints – Adaptation is no longer a matter of natural selection acting on existing genetic variability due to drift and exaptation’s– Humans invent new behaviors in response to changes in their environments and transmit them to future generations– Cro-Magnon art was the first discovered and remains the best known but not theearliestIV. Blombos Cave, South Africa– 7500 year old ochre plaques engraved with geometric designs V. Hohlenstein-Staedl “Lowenfrau” – 32000 year old ivory lion-headed sculpture with the body of a (wo)man– Example of reordering and recombination of symbols characteristic of human thought VI. Sungir (28kya) nr. Moscow– A adult and two children dressed in clothing with thousands of mammoth trust beads– First evidence of social stratification and love of bodily ornamentation– The vogelherd horse, the oldest known animal sculpture, was carved in mammoth ivory 30000 years ago– Aurignation Flute from l’sturitz in South Western FranceVII. Culture as Adaptation – Animals cannot re-create and transmit experience (information) in symbols– The experience of a single human being can become the experience of all other human beings– The collective knowledge of a society can be must be transmitted to the next generation– The symbolic capacity is the ability to bestow meaning on things or acts and thenlive according to those meanings VIII. Lunar “Calendar” Inscribed on Antler– 32000 year old engraved antler plaque from Abri Blanchard in France– Alexander Marshack interprets this as a calendar based on the phases of the moon – What day is it?IX. Why Language? – Anatomical Homo sapiens arose in Africa symbol-ready but not linguistic– The theory of Mind: The ability of one individual to read what’s going on in an others head, and thus anticipate what he will do – The bushman hunter imagining the behavior of his prey– Belle and Rock: “Intentional deception” – Increased primate intelligence resulting from feedback look based on the “order of intentionality” – If so, why hasn’t it developed in other primates?X. Verbal Stroking– Dunbar suggests language arose as a substitute for physical grooming– Assume a long, gradual process– Conversation “gossip” provides a bonding function– How do you “reach out and touch someone” in a society where physical contact is restricted?XI. Childs Play – Language might simply have been invented by children and passed to their children– Reference to a positive feedback: loop whether intentionality or grooming assumes that evolution and optimization are the same thing and we know they are not – Language involves forming and manipulating symbols in the mind and recombining them in complete isolation from referents in the outside would– Symbolic thought without language is almost impossible to