The Evolution of Social Communication in Primates: a Multidisciplinary Approach

✍ Scribed by Pina, Marco(Editor);Gontier, Nathalie(Editor)

• Publisher: Springer
• Year: 2014
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 326
• Series: Interdisciplinary evolution research
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

How did social communication evolve in primates? In this volume, primatologists, linguists, anthropologists, cognitive scientists and philosophers of science systematically analyze how their specific disciplines demarcate the research questions and methodologies involved in the study of the evolutionary origins of social communication in primates in general and in humans in particular. In the first part of the book, historians and philosophers of science address how the epistemological frameworks associated with primate communication and language evolution studies have changed over time and how these conceptual changes affect our current studies on the subject matter. In the second part, scholars provide cutting-edge insights into the various means through which primates communicate socially in both natural and experimental settings. They examine the behavioral building blocks by which primates communicate and they analyze what the cognitive requirements are for displaying communicative acts. Chapters highlight cross-fostering and language experiments with primates, primate mother-infant communication, the display of emotions and expressions, manual gestures and vocal signals, joint attention, intentionality and theory of mind. The primary focus of the third part is on how these various types of communicative behavior possibly evolved and how they can be understood as evolutionary precursors to human language. Leading scholars analyze how both manual and vocal gestures gave way to mimetic and imitational protolanguage and how the latter possibly transitioned into human language. In the final part, we turn to the hominin lineage, and anthropologists, archeologists and linguists investigate what the necessary neurocognitive, anatomical and behavioral features are in order for human language to evolve and how language differs from other forms of primate communication.

✦ Table of Contents

Preface and Acknowledgments......Page 6
Contents......Page 7
Abstract......Page 11
1 Introduction to the Theme and Outline of the Book......Page 12
2 Brief Sketch of the Various Epistemic Frameworks Available for Researching Social Communication and Language in Primates......Page 13
3.1 Philosophical and Historical Roots of Social Communication Studies......Page 17
3.2 The Elements of Social Communication in Primates and Humans......Page 19
3.3 Evolutionary Transitions from Social Communication Systems to Language......Page 24
3.4 Evolutionary Origins of Human Language......Page 28
4 Current Trends, Future Questions, and Concluding Remarks......Page 34
References......Page 36
Part I Philosophical and Historical Roots of Social Communication Studies......Page 39
1 Introduction......Page 40
2 Ourang-Outang in the Enlightenment......Page 41
3 Ourang-Outang: Animal or Man?......Page 42
4.1 Why Language is Not Essential to Man......Page 45
4.2 Language and the History of Man......Page 46
4.3 Ourang-Outang and the Natural State of Man......Page 48
4.4 Ourang-Outang and Language......Page 49
5 The Modern Monboddo......Page 50
6 Concluding Remarks......Page 51
References......Page 52
1 Introduction......Page 54
2 Deprived or Depraved?......Page 56
3 The Animal Human and the Human Animal......Page 57
4 Fostered by the Wild......Page 58
5 Primacy of Primates?......Page 59
6 Feral Fictions......Page 65
7 Experimental Ethics?......Page 66
8 Conclusion......Page 67
References......Page 68
Part II The Elements of Social Communication in Primates and Humans......Page 70
Abstract......Page 71
2.1 Chimpanzees as Cross-Fosterlings......Page 72
2.2 Sign Language Immersion......Page 73
3 Systematic Records......Page 74
3.2 Vocabulary Test of Communication......Page 75
4.2 Project Loulis: A Case of Transmission......Page 76
5.2 Private Signing......Page 77
6.1 A Bottom-up Approach to Linguistics......Page 78
6.2 Experimental Conversational Breakdowns: Human Studies......Page 79
6.5 Results......Page 80
6.6 Systematic Responses to Chimpanzee Requests......Page 82
6.8 Conditions......Page 83
6.9 Transcription......Page 84
6.10 Results......Page 85
7 Conversations Versus Drill......Page 86
References......Page 87
Abstract......Page 91
1 Ecological-Linear Approach......Page 92
1.1 How This Approach is Used in Most Mother–Infant Studies in Non-human Primates......Page 94
1.2 Notion of Communication......Page 95
2 Limitations of This Model......Page 96
3 An Alternative Approach......Page 99
4 Application of this Definitions of Communication to Non-Human Primates Studies......Page 100
5 Conclusion......Page 104
References......Page 105
Abstract......Page 108
1 Studying Expressions: From Darwin Over the Differential Emotions Theory to the Facial Affect Program......Page 109
2 Problems with the Facial Affect Program......Page 110
3 What Do We Actually Know About the Human Facial Behavior of Emotion? Spontaneous Facial Behavior from Naturalistic and Experimental Studies......Page 113
3.2 The Almost Undocumented Faces of Fear......Page 114
3.3 Pain Versus Pleasure in the Face......Page 115
3.4 Disgust......Page 116
3.5 Happy Faces, Playful Faces, and Laughter......Page 117
3.6 Anger, Threat Facial Displays, and Attention Faces......Page 118
4.1 Attention Processes and Physiological Responses......Page 119
4.2.1 The Earlier and the Easier Identifications......Page 121
4.2.2 The Role of Contextual Cues......Page 122
5 Evolutionary Significance: Why Should We Expect to See Prototypical Facial Expressions and to What Extent?......Page 123
6 Conclusions......Page 126
References......Page 128
Abstract......Page 134
1 Introduction: Language, Social Communication, and Joint Attention......Page 135
1.1 Joint Attention and a Motley Crew of Related Social Cognitive Concepts......Page 137
2 Joint Attention: Continuity or Discontinuity?......Page 138
3 Evolutionary Theories of Joint Attention......Page 141
3.1 Intersubjectivity and the Perils of Innatist Explanation......Page 142
3.2 Evolution Psychology: Massively Modular and Massively Ambitious......Page 143
3.3 Core Knowledge Theory: Massively Modular and Massively Innate......Page 145
3.4 The Shared Intentionality Hypothesis: Explicitly Adaptationist and Implicitly Innatist......Page 146
4 Beyond Innate and Adaptation: The Reintegration of Evolution and Development......Page 147
References......Page 149
1 Introduction......Page 153
2 Psychology as a Science: From the Inner to Behavior......Page 154
3 Brain as Scientists See It......Page 155
4 Reconstructing the Introspective Method: Neurophenomenology......Page 157
5 Folk Psychology Revisited......Page 159
6 A Phenomenological Viewpoint......Page 161
7 Intuition, Inference, and Learning......Page 163
8 Concluding Remarks......Page 165
References......Page 167
Part III Evolutionary Transitions from Social Communication Systems to Language......Page 168
1 Introduction......Page 169
2 Bodily Mimesis......Page 170
2.1 Paleoanthropology......Page 171
2.3 Comparative Psychology......Page 172
2.4 Gestures and Ontogeny......Page 173
2.5 Semiotic Analysis and Experiments......Page 175
3 But Why Speech?......Page 176
4 Conclusions......Page 179
References......Page 180
Abstract......Page 183
1 Introduction......Page 184
2 Primate Calls......Page 186
3 Evidence from Attention-Getting Behaviour......Page 187
5 Evidence from Patchy Distribution of Calls......Page 188
6 Evidence From Language-Trained Apes......Page 189
7 Evidence from Oro-Facial Asymmetries......Page 190
10 Evidence from Comparative Neurobiological Studies......Page 191
11 Summary of Evidence and Relation to Corballis and Dunbar......Page 192
References......Page 194
Abstract......Page 199
1 Questioning an “Evolutionary Novelty”......Page 200
2 “Communicative Displays” and “Intentional Signals”......Page 202
3 Social and Asocial Learning......Page 203
4 Contextual Flexibility and Smart Receivers......Page 206
5 Intentionality, Theory of Mind, and the Logical Problem......Page 212
6 Conclusions......Page 216
References......Page 217
Part IV Evolutionary Origins of Human Language......Page 220
1 Introduction......Page 221
3 History of the Human Clade......Page 223
4 Archeological Evidence......Page 225
5 Origin of the Human Capacity......Page 226
References......Page 227
Abstract......Page 230
2.1 Modern Empiricism as Background for the Focus on Language......Page 231
2.1.1 Skeleton of the Model......Page 232
2.3 A Note on the Terms “Art” and “Language” as Used Here......Page 234
2.3.2 Language......Page 235
3 Twenty-First-Century Approaches to the Question of Behavioral Modernity......Page 236
4 The Blombos Conjecture: The Invention of Meaning......Page 237
4.1.1 Shared Intentionality via Language......Page 238
4.2 Mirror Neuron Systems (MNS)......Page 240
4.3 The Blombos Artifact and the Invention of Meaning......Page 242
4.3.2 Tools, Ornaments, and Status Symbols......Page 243
4.3.3 The Institutional Creation of Deliberate Symbolic Artifacts of Material Culture......Page 245
5 Conclusion......Page 246
References......Page 247
1 The Cultural Evolution of Language......Page 250
1.2 Evolutionary Processes......Page 252
2.1 The Emergence of Conventions......Page 254
2.2 The Spread of Conventions......Page 259
2.3 The Cultural Emergence of Systems......Page 261
2.4 The Evolution of Regular Linguistic Structure: Systematicity Between Signals and Meanings......Page 264
3 Elements for a Theory of the Cultural Evolution of Language......Page 271
3.1 What Evolves in Language Evolution?......Page 273
3.2 Selection for Replicability in Language......Page 275
3.3 Selection for Function in Language......Page 277
3.4 Cultural-Evolutionary Dynamics in Language......Page 281
4 Conclusion......Page 285
References......Page 286
Abstract......Page 290
2 The Evolutionary Puzzle......Page 291
4 The Computational Hypothesis: Overview......Page 293
5 The Computational Hypothesis: Comparative Evidence......Page 295
6 The Computational Hypothesis: Fossil Evidence......Page 298
7 The Computational Hypothesis: Neurobiological Evidence......Page 299
8 The Computational Hypothesis: Constraints on Language Evolution......Page 303
9 Conclusions......Page 304
References......Page 305
1 Introduction......Page 313
2 Novelty......Page 315
3 Complexity......Page 319
4 Evolutionary Pluralism......Page 321
References......Page 322