Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id PAA09782 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Fri, 12 Apr 2002 15:15:31 +0100 X-Originating-IP: [137.110.248.206] From: "Grant Callaghan" <grantc4@hotmail.com> To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk Subject: RE: Re Grammar Date: Fri, 12 Apr 2002 07:09:24 -0700 Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed Message-ID: <LAW2-F97C0FUXPMzWmf00002b36@hotmail.com> X-OriginalArrivalTime: 12 Apr 2002 14:09:25.0074 (UTC) FILETIME=[A6AA6320:01C1E22B] Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
>
>It works once you have language but Morgan's argument in the Aquatic Ape
>Hypothesis (sorry my copy of the book is in a crate at the moment so no
>detailed references) is that the variety of vocalisation we can make, and
>other primate species cannot, is only possible because of a particular
>arrangment of the respiratory and digestive systems. How did that get
>selected pre-language. A breathing explanation seems more plausible.
>
>If
>
>Date: Thu, 11 Apr 2002 06:30:51 -0700
>
>From: "Richard Brodie" <richard@brodietech.com>
>
>Subject: RE: Re Grammar
>
>The straightforward explanation is that language allows communication of
>important survival information both in the moment and from old to new
>generations.
>
Although it's hard to assert that one event in a chain of cause and effect
is more important than all of the others, the evolution of a brain that is
too big to get through the birth canal and the adjustments the platform it
rested on had to make to accommodate it probably had more to do with what we
ended up with than trying to retain air under water. Why are we the only
species that increases its cranial capacity by three quarters after leaving
the womb?
It seems to me that such a course of evolution would owe more to
communication than anything else. The hunter who can communicate to
cooperate is more likely to bring back game when it's scarce. The gatherer
who can communicate acquires the same advantages for finding food as the bee
in the insect world. The capacity for retaining memes beyond the lifespan
of the person who invented them gave additional power to survive in a world
that went through several ice ages. If a wolf develops a new hunting
technique, the technique dies with him. But man's capacity to retain ideas
and pass them on to his children as they are growing up had a survival value
beyond anything any other mammal developed.
The communicating insects have outlived just about every other insect on the
planet. It seems reasonable to me that mammals that developed the same
capabilities would have the same advantages in the game of survival.
Grant
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