Dawn The Origins of Language and the Modern Human Mind 1st Edition by Rik Smits 9781351523592 1351523597

Dawn The Origins of Language and the Modern Human Mind 1st Edition Rik Smits – Ebook Instant Download/Delivery ISBN(s): 9781412862578, 9781412862653, 9781412862103, 1412862574, 1412862655, 1412862108, 9781351523592, 1351523597

Product details:

• ISBN 10: 1351523597
• ISBN 13: 9781351523592
• Author: Rik Smits 

In this work, originally published in Dutch, Rik Smits theorizes that language could not have developed originally as a system of communication. It is, instead, the result of combining separate abilities, each of which developed independently to aid the survival of early humans. Lacking strength and speed, man relies on wisdom for survival. Smits theorizes that human skills in calculation and estimation continued to develop until they were sufficient to accommodate a system as complex as grammar. Only after our linguistic ability emerged could humans think logically and share our reasoning with others, at which point almost everything we now call culture began to flourish. Smits concludes that language cannot have long predated the invention of agriculture in the Middle East, some 14,000 years ago. The huge advance in civilization represented by language made abstract powers of reasoning indispensable for the first time, along with highly developed concepts of identity, past, present, and future, all of which rely upon language. This explanation of the origins of language throws new light on cave paintings by Cro-Magnon man, whose masterpieces date from about 40,000 to 15,000 years ago. Anatomically Cro-Magnons were modern humans, but they had no language in the modern sense. Their absence of language gave them no true sense of individual identity. This translation was made possible by a grant from the Dutch Foundation for Literature.

Table contents:

1 Night
2 The Animal Inside Us
3 Goodbye to the Animal Kingdom
4 Phantom Limbs and Figments of the Mind
5 Shamans in the Shadows
6 Voices on the Plains
7 Dawn

People also search:

what was the origin of language

development of language origins and dialects

what is the origin of the word language

a description of the history and development of language

origins of language pdf