Pleistocene Exchange Networks as Evidence for the Evolution of Language
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CONTRIBUTORS:
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JOURNAL:
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YEAR:
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2003
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PUB TYPE:
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Journal Article
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SUBJECT(S):
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Language evoltuion, raw material transfer, exchange networks, Pleistocene archaeology
Social Sciences: Communication
Humanities: Linguistics
Social Sciences: Anthropology
Social Sciences: Archaeology
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DISCIPLINE:
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Anthropology/Archaeology
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HTTP:
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http://eprints.anu.edu.au/archive/00002792/
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LANGUAGE:
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English
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PUB ID:
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103-426-799
(Last edited on
2006/05/22 23:59:02 GMT-6)
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SPONSOR(S):
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ABSTRACT:
Distances of raw-material transportation reflect how hominid groups gather and exchange information. Early hominids moved raw materials short distances, suggesting a home range size, social complexity and communication system similar to primates in equivalent environments. After about 1.0 million years ago there was a large increase in raw-material transfer distances, possibly a result of the emergence of the ability to pool information by using a protolanguage. Another increase in raw-material transfer occurred during the late Middle Stone Age in Africa (after about 130,000 years ago), suggesting the operation of exchange networks. Exchange networks require a communication system with syntax, the use of symbols in social contexts and the ability to express displacement, which are the features of human language. Taking the Neanderthals as a case study, biological evidence and the results of computer simulations of the evolution of language, I argue for a gradual rather than catastrophic emergence of language coinciding with the first evidence of exchange networks.
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