The Human Revolution

Abstract

S.A., was born in I9I6 (Ph.D., Yale University, I939). Although he has worked in almost every phase of pure and applied linguistics, his central concern is shown by the present paper and by a few earlier ones (cited in the bibliography) on closely related topics. ROBERT ASCHER, Associate Professor of Anthropology at Cornell University, U.S.A., was born in I93I (Ph.D., University of California at Los Angeles, i960). His interests are expressed in publications dealing with size estimation of prehistoric populations, human evolution and interstellar communication, ethnographic analogy in archaeology, computer-aided chronological ordering, and the logic of the experimental method in archaeology. Currently he is concerned with biocultural evolution and problems of relative time. The present article, submitted to CURRENT ANTHROPOLOGY on May 2i, I963, represents a departure from traditional CA* treatment in that it was first sent to 7 scholars of whom the following responded with comments: Weston La Barre, Frank B. Livingstone, and George G. Simpson. Authors Hockett and Ascher then wrote a reply and the whole (article, 3 comments, and reply) was sent for CA* treatment to 57 scholars of whom the following responded with written comments:

Origin of human bipedality

“…Bipedalism provided the possibility of improved efficiency of travel with modification only of hindlimbs while leaving the hominoid structure of forelimbs free for arboreal feeding. We therefore concur with Romer, as have others, 10 that the hominid ancestor 'may have evolved potentialities as a ground walker so that he could live successfully in the trees . .…”

Culture: A Human Domain

“…In transcending the protocultural stage, the cultural stage adds the design features (see Hockett 1960, andHockett andAscher 1964) of productivity, traditional transmission, and duality of patterning. Reading further, one finds other attributes such as self-objectification (p. 44), symbolic reference (p. 42), self-identification (p. 44), self-awareness (p. 46), and self-appraisal (p. 49) appearing as concomitants of this psychological reorganization in the cultural stage.…”

“…A critical-point argument such as Kroeber's (see also Geertz 1962Geertz , 1964 need not be interpreted as a literal overnight or single-generation propulsion of apehood to manhood. No one is necessarily denying evolution or gradation in emphasizing, as have Hockett and Ascher (1964), the revolutionary changes which came with symbolization. The entire Pliocene bears witness to gradation within Hallowell's protocultural stage, yet it is not a logical requisite that the australopithecines are simply the end product of such a stage.…”

“…Obviously, if one asserts that at some time x the human type of conceptual interaction based on arbitrary symbols through arbitrary non-iconic tool types appeared, this still leaves the problem of what preceded it. My point is that without evidence concerning their behavior, we are lost (but see Leakey, cited below) and must rely almost exclusively on such educated speculations as those of Hockett and Ascher (1964), Reynolds (1966), andFox (1967), which are based on current behavioral studies of monkeys and apes in the field and, in the case of Hockett and Ascher, on our knowledge of the fossil record. Obviously, each of these methods has its own epistemological shortcomings.…”

Domestic Fire as Evidence for Language

“…Successfully keeping fire required testing cause and effect relationships (as between air, humidity, and fuel), learning from past experience and planning (Parker and Milbrath 1993:329), instructing prohibition, especially to children, and systematically using units of measurement (fuel quantity), hence, mathematical abstraction. Providing for the fire requires yet another feature which is absent in all communication systems but the human: displacement (Hockett and Ascher 1964). Displacement means a message with no immediate sensory contact with the event to which the message refers, as is the case of fuel which is only indirectly related to the fire (the "detached provision system" discussed above).…”