0196 Chapters ten, eleven and twelve of Mithen’s book, titled “Fire”, “Language and the Brain” and “The Genetics of Language” reflect “period three” in Comments on Michael Tomasello’s Arc of Inquiry (1999-2019) (by Razie Mah, available at smashwords and other e-book venues).

0197 Here is a picture.

This diagram presents an evolutionary scenario… a “just-so” story… for the evolution of fully linguistic hand-talk during and after the domestication of fire.

0198 First, the domestication of fire shifts selection pressure to the community, where new cognitive spaces support the team of teams.  

The community constructs traditions that bind all to the community, so much so that “I “do not identify with “my” team to the detriment of other teams that are not “mine”.

0199 Second, in teams, hand-talk yields sensible construction.  Only the content and situation levels are in play (unless something goes horribly wrong).  The team itself constitutes the perspective-level.

For the community, content and situation-level hand-talk supports social construction.  Grammatically correct, but counter-intuitive statements demand social construction.  Social construction builds perspective-levels for the community.  This is an incredibly different task.  But, all the social circles must come into harmony.  The collapse of a community is a disaster for all.

0200 Third,  the vocal tract comes under voluntary control due to singing.  Singing adapts to the occasionally gathering social circles that are larger than community (150).   Homo heidelbergensis has a brain size that comports with groups the size of communities, so resonant larger social-circles are empowered.   These include seasonal (mega-band (500)) and occasional (tribe (1500)) gatherings.  In our current Lebenswelt, communal singing remains a path for social synchronization.

0201 These take-home messages are implicit in The Language Puzzle and explicit in Comments on Michael Tomasello’s Arc of Inquiry.  These messages explain why the voice comes under voluntary neural control.  These messages account for that back of the mouth turn down the throat for our lineage (but not for the Neanderthal lineage).  Humans have flat faces and globular brains because the voice is added to hand-talk at the start of our species.

But, at this moment, I have not convincingly said how.

0202 Plus, there is piece of information on in chapter twelve, The Genetics of Language, that offers a cause to pause.

Here is a timeline for hominin evolution during and after the domestication of fire.

0203 Take a look at the last item.

How amazing is that?

When humans, having evolved in Africa, move into Europe, they interbreed with Neanderthals. Today, current populations carry several percent of the Neanderthal genome.

Who would have guessed?

0204 What does this imply?

The Neanderthals practice only hand-talk, presumably fully linguistic.  The humans practice what may be labeled, “hand-speech” talk, because the voice has been added to hand talk (remember, I have not mentioned how).  For interbreeding to occur, humans probably rely primarily on hand-talk (day-time talk).  So, the voice, even though linguistic, is not important enough to interfere.  We love the Neanderthals, even though they can’t follow our voices very well.

0205 Why is this important?

It tells me that the voice is added to fully linguistic hand-talk as an adornment.

0206 An adornment?

Imagine two rings that, once you and your betrothed place on your fingers, as an adornment, change your language, perceptions and thoughts.