2 results for stemmed:neanderth
Present linguistic thinking assigns the burgeoning of a “modern” language ability to late Neanderthal man, who existed across southern Europe and other lands in the Eastern Hemisphere during part of the last Ice Age glaciation (from about 70,000 to 10,000 years ago). Some 40,000 years ago, in Europe at least, Neanderthal man either evolved into or was supplanted by Cro-Magnon man (Homo sapiens sapiens) our immediate predecessor.
Numerous forms of vocal communication — whether “true” speech or not, in current opinion — undoubtedly existed among the ancestors of our species for many millennia before the appearance of late Neanderthal man, however; according to conservative estimates such methods could have been in use for well over two million years, perhaps beginning even with our prehuman or animal stages. Jane and I find certain other research claims inconceivable: that in some of those earlier times verbal exchanges between members of the species, whether they be called prehuman or human, could have been a hindrance rather than an asset. To us, even the potential for audible communication has always been as much a part of our creature states as arms and legs. I’m only noting that such abilities represent one more means, upon a vast time scale, by which consciousness inexhaustibly seeks to know itself in this camouflage reality.