{"id":9566,"date":"2025-09-24T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-09-24T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.raziemah.com\/blog\/?p=9566"},"modified":"2025-05-22T19:50:20","modified_gmt":"2025-05-22T19:50:20","slug":"looking-at-steven-mithens-book-2024-the-language-puzzle-part-6-of-23","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.raziemah.com\/blog\/?p=9566","title":{"rendered":"Looking at Steven Mithen&#8217;s Book (2024) &#8220;The Language Puzzle&#8221; (Part 6 of 23)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>0042 Here is a picture of&nbsp;<em>the perspective-level that the biologist introduces with his explicit abstraction<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.raziemah.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Slide12.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"600\" height=\"400\" src=\"https:\/\/www.raziemah.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Slide12.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-9567\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.raziemah.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Slide12.png 600w, https:\/\/www.raziemah.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Slide12-300x200.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>0043 On the content level, the normal context of a match<sub>3a<\/sub>&nbsp;brings the actuality of the dyad, {one edge [fits into] other edge}<sub>2a<\/sub>&nbsp;into relation with the potential of &#8216;locking in&#8217;<sub>1a<\/sub>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On the situation level, the normal context of wholeness<sub>3b<\/sub>&nbsp;brings the actuality of the dyad, {assemblies [fit with] one another}<sub>2b<\/sub>&nbsp;into relation with the possibilities of &#8216;assembling sections&#8217;<sub>1b<\/sub>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On the perspective level, the modern biologist explicitly denotes the possibility of &#8216;a big picture&#8217;<sub>1c<\/sub>, that carries&nbsp;<em>the message<\/em>&nbsp;that biology accounts for the underlying two-level interscope<sub>1c<\/sub>.&nbsp;&nbsp;If&nbsp;<em>the ability to solve cognitive challenges in order to get to a reward<sub>2c<\/sub><\/em>&nbsp;could speak, it would say, &#8220;I am a manifestation of general intelligence.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>0044 This implies that the discipline of biology identifies<sub>2c<\/sub>&nbsp;a big-picture<sub>1c<\/sub>&nbsp;(as&nbsp;<em>message<sub>1c<\/sub><\/em>) contextualizing the underlying sensible construction (as&nbsp;<em>presence<sub>1c<\/sub><\/em>) as a niche (as&nbsp;<em>meaning<sub>1c<\/sub><\/em>), within the normal context of&nbsp;<em>primate natural selection<sub>3c<\/sub><\/em>.&nbsp;&nbsp;Natural selection<sub>3c<\/sub>&nbsp;acts like a definition<sub>3c<\/sub>.&nbsp;&nbsp;One label for the adaptation<sub>2c<\/sub>&nbsp;is &#8220;general intelligence&#8221;<sub>2c<\/sub>.&nbsp;&nbsp;Or, maybe, the label is &#8220;solving challenges&#8221;<sub>2c<\/sub>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Uh oh, does that make sense?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Here is a picture of&nbsp;<em>what I just said<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.raziemah.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Slide13.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"600\" height=\"400\" src=\"https:\/\/www.raziemah.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Slide13.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-9568\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.raziemah.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Slide13.png 600w, https:\/\/www.raziemah.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Slide13-300x200.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>The perspective-level actuality<sub>2c<\/sub>&nbsp;is an adaptation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But, the word, &#8220;adaptation&#8221;<sub>2c<\/sub>, implicates&nbsp;<em>the entire nested form<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Is that&nbsp;<em>what is displaced?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>The entire nested form?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>0043 Hmmm, should I mention that&nbsp;<em>only spoken words<\/em>&nbsp;can apply&nbsp;<em>labels that serve as explicit abstractions?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Manual-brachial word gestures<\/em>&nbsp;do not apply labels.&nbsp;&nbsp;Instead, they offer&nbsp;<em>iconic and indexal sign-relations<\/em>&nbsp;that holistically yield&nbsp;<em>implicit abstractions<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In short,&nbsp;<em>the modern biologist<\/em>&nbsp;performs&nbsp;<em>displacement<\/em>&nbsp;for monkeys and apes through&nbsp;<em>explicit abstractions<\/em>&nbsp;based on&nbsp;<em>the disciplinary terminology of contemporary science<\/em>&nbsp;(circa 2024).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In&nbsp;<em>the Lebenswelt that we evolved in, hominins<\/em>&nbsp;somehow figure out&nbsp;<em>how to engage in displacement<\/em>&nbsp;(that is, use words), without the advantage of explicit abstractions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>0044 The problem with using the jigsaw puzzle as&nbsp;<em>a literal analogy,<\/em>&nbsp;rather than as&nbsp;<em>a metaphor for what the biologist is doing in the name of evolutionary science,<\/em>&nbsp;starts with this observation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Speech-alone talk<\/em>&nbsp;facilitates&nbsp;<em>explicit abstraction,<\/em>&nbsp;because spoken words can label anything, even&nbsp;<em>things that cannot be pictured and pointed to<\/em>.&nbsp;&nbsp;In other words,&nbsp;<em>speech-alone talk<\/em>&nbsp;always and automatically engages in&nbsp;<em>displacement<\/em>.&nbsp;&nbsp;So, how can&nbsp;<em>a symptom<\/em>&nbsp;explain&nbsp;<em>the cause that produces it?<\/em>&nbsp;&nbsp;It can only do so if&nbsp;<em>a symptom<\/em>&nbsp;pretends to harbor&nbsp;<em>its own cause<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>0045 Say what?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Without&nbsp;<em>displacement,<\/em>&nbsp;<em>the spoken word<\/em>&nbsp;does not exist. But,&nbsp;<em>displacement<\/em>&nbsp;can exist without&nbsp;<em>the spoken word<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Displacement<\/em>&nbsp;can exist when&nbsp;<em>a manual-brachial gesture<\/em>&nbsp;serves as&nbsp;<em>an icon or an index<\/em>&nbsp;(that is, a natural sign)&nbsp;<em>of its referent<\/em>.&nbsp;&nbsp;<em>The referent<\/em>&nbsp;exists before&nbsp;<em>the gesture-word<\/em>.&nbsp;&nbsp;<em>The word-gesture<\/em>&nbsp;pictures or points to&nbsp;<em>its referent,<\/em>&nbsp;even if the referent is not present.&nbsp;&nbsp;Yes, that sounds like &#8220;displacement&#8221; to me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>0046 What does this suggest?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Well,&nbsp;<em>Mithen&#8217;s text<\/em>&nbsp;projects &#8220;displacement&#8221; into&nbsp;<em>the sensible construction that describes how both words and jigsaw puzzle pieces share similar natures.&nbsp;<\/em>So, the biosemiotician in me (see Razie Mah&#8217;s blogs for January through June, 2025, collected into the e-books,&nbsp;<em>Biosemiotics As Noumenon, 1 though 3,<\/em>&nbsp;available at smashwords and other e-book venues)&#8230;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>0047 &#8230;offers&nbsp;<em>a biosemiotic version<\/em>&nbsp;of the perspective level.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.raziemah.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Slide14.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"600\" height=\"400\" src=\"https:\/\/www.raziemah.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Slide14.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-9569\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.raziemah.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Slide14.png 600w, https:\/\/www.raziemah.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Slide14-300x200.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><em>The perspective-level normal context of natural selection<sub>3c<\/sub><\/em>&nbsp;brings&nbsp;<em>the actuality of displacement (as an adaptation)<sub>2c<\/sub><\/em>into relation with&nbsp;<em>the potential of &#8216;the hominin niche, an evolutionary big-picture, and the discipline of biosemiotics&#8217;<sub>1c<\/sub><\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Does this option appear more elegant?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Surely,&nbsp;<em>the iconicity and indexality of manual-brachial gestures<\/em>&nbsp;offers&nbsp;<em>a realistic path<\/em>&nbsp;for&nbsp;<em>bipedal australopithecines<\/em>&nbsp;to perform&nbsp;<em>displacement.<\/em>&nbsp;&nbsp;<em>A manual-brachial gesture<\/em>&nbsp;can image (pantomime) or indicate (point to)&nbsp;<em>a referent,<\/em>&nbsp;even when the referent is not present.&nbsp;&nbsp;It does so because it is&nbsp;<em>a natural sign of the referent<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>0048 Of course, Mithen comes to an alternate conclusion in the section (in chapter four) titled &#8220;Are ape-gestures the equivalent of words?&#8221;.&nbsp;&nbsp;He rules out the option that language evolves in the milieu of manual-brachial gestures, rather than vocalizations.&nbsp;&nbsp;Why?&nbsp;&nbsp;Well, the gestural option does not explain&nbsp;<em>why all civilized folk practice speech-alone talk<\/em>.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>0049 Okay, somehow, in human evolution,&nbsp;<em>the oral-auditory system<\/em>&nbsp;gets drawn into&nbsp;<em>fully linguistic hand-talk<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And then, maybe,&nbsp;<em>a hominin species practices<\/em>&nbsp;this weird hybrid,&nbsp;<em>hand-speech talk,<\/em>&nbsp;for hundreds of thousands of years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And then, almost miraculously,&nbsp;<em>two of these many hand-speech talking cultures<\/em>&nbsp;get forced, by circumstances, into&nbsp;<em>the same territory,<\/em>&nbsp;where they don&#8217;t fight, but rather interbreed.&nbsp;&nbsp;In doing so, they end up with&nbsp;<em>a pidgin,<\/em>&nbsp;then&nbsp;<em>a creole,<\/em>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<em>this creole<\/em>&nbsp;doesn&#8217;t have&nbsp;<em>a hand-talk-component anymore.<\/em>&nbsp;&nbsp;<em>That one culture<\/em>&nbsp;is&nbsp;<em>the first to practice speech-alone talk<\/em>.&nbsp;&nbsp;Also, that culture creates&nbsp;<em>one of the first civilizations<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>0050 Oh, yeah.&nbsp;&nbsp;That option is totally outrageous.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>0051 Mithen has other reasons for rejecting consideration of&nbsp;<em>gestural origins of language<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Apes do not engage in iconic gestures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>How would apes distinguish one iconic gesture from another?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>The highly specialized nature of human anatomy and neurology for speaking and listening<\/em>&nbsp;implies a very slow and gradual evolution.&nbsp;&nbsp;What could have caused these changes in&nbsp;<em>the anatomy of the vocal tract<\/em>&nbsp;and in&nbsp;<em>the neurology of voluntary control of the voice<\/em>&nbsp;if language has already evolved in&nbsp;<em>the milieu of hand talk?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>0052 On these bases, Mithen focuses only on vocalization as the pathway to language.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Which is sort of funny, because this examiner will apply Mithen&#8217;s insights to manual-brachial gestures as&#8230; um&#8230; the milieu in which language evolves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>0042 Here is a picture of&nbsp;the perspective-level that the biologist introduces with his explicit abstraction. 0043 On the content level, the normal context of a match3a&nbsp;brings the actuality of the dyad, {one edge [fits into] other edge}2a&nbsp;into relation with the potential of &#8216;locking in&#8217;1a. On the situation level, the normal context of wholeness3b&nbsp;brings the actuality [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[417],"tags":[571],"class_list":["post-9566","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-review","tag-the-language-puzzle"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Looking at Steven Mithen&#039;s Book (2024) &quot;The Language Puzzle&quot; (Part 6 of 23) - An Archaeology of the Fall<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.raziemah.com\/blog\/?p=9566\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Looking at Steven Mithen&#039;s Book (2024) &quot;The Language Puzzle&quot; (Part 6 of 23) - An Archaeology of the Fall\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"0042 Here is a picture of&nbsp;the perspective-level that the biologist introduces with his explicit abstraction. 0043 On the content level, the normal context of a match3a&nbsp;brings the actuality of the dyad, {one edge [fits into] other edge}2a&nbsp;into relation with the potential of &#8216;locking in&#8217;1a. 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