DEVELOPMENT AND EVOLUTION OF
Signals Involved: A Non-exhaustive List
LANGUAGE
-It is now generally accepted communication among
members of animal species is widespread and that most
vertebrates transmit information by acoustic signals. In
this chapter we will examine how the evolution of
language might have taken place.
COMMUNICATION AND ITS CHANNELS
Communication among members of animal species is
universal because it is important to their survival; it
takes place whenever one organism receives a signal
that that has originated with another. An early (from
1940s) but serviceable model of communication uses
components: the sender, the channel, the receiver, and
the effect. These components take into account the
entire process of transmitting information.
Although communication among members of any
particular species is to be expected, interspecific
communication. That is transmission of signals between
members of different species, and is far from rare.
*An experienced horseback rider transmits commands
to a horse and expects them to be received and
followed.
* A dog whining outside its owner's door conveys its
wish to be let in.
-Communication between people on the one hand and
their pets or work and farm animals on the other is very
common and not limited to sounds.
(TOUCHING,HOLDING, AND GROOMING)
MOST COMMON AND EFFECTIVE CHANNEL OF HUMAN
COMMUNICATION IS THE ACOUSTIC CHANNEL.
1. Acoustic channel – whenever people speak to each
other as well as in whistle speech
2. Optical channel – related to vision
3. Tactile channel – sense of touch
4. Olfactory channel – sense of smell
COMMUNICATION AMONG SOCIAL INSECTS
Karl Von Frisch (Austrian Ethologist)
-One of the most famous examples is the dance
language of honeybees.
-He showed that honeybees dance in order to inform
their nestmates about the location of resources, a
breakthrough for which he was granted the Nobel Prize
in 1973.
Communication Contexts in Insects and Modes and
I. MATING. (in solitary and all social insects): Individuals
attract the opposite sex over a distance, recognize their
own species, and choose between mating partners (e.g.,
sex pheromones, acoustic signals such as chirping).
II. BROOD CARE. (in brood-caring and eusocial insects):
Offspring signals hunger or other needs (e.g.,
pheromones, tapping).
III.CONCERTED ACTION. (in gregarious and eusocial
insects): Group members warn each other of potential
danger (e.g., alarm pheromones or drumming) and
inform others about where to find resources (e.g., trail
pheromones, tandem running, waggle dance).
IV.DIVISION OF LABOR. (in eusocial insects): Queens
specialize in reproduction and signal their presence and
fertility to others (e.g., queen pheromones); workers
take over specific duties (e.g., nursing, entrance
guarding, or foraging) and can signal their task to other
workers (e.g., task-specific cuticular profiles).
V. GROUP COHESION. (in eusocial insects): To keep
resources safe from outsiders, group members must be
able to discriminate group members from non-
members (nestmate recognition).
WHEN COMMUNICATION SYSTEM DOES BECOMES
LANGUAGE?
WHEN LANGUAGE DID ORIGINATE?
LANGUAGE DEVELOPS AS HUMAN SPECIES EVOLVED
ANIMAL SPECIES HAVE A WAY OF TRANSMITTING
INFORMATION AMONG THEMSELVES
COMMUNICATION SYSTEM OF THE EARLY HOMINIDS
LIKELY EMPLOYED SIGNALS:
1. VISUAL
2. ACOUSTIC
3. FACTORY
4. TACTILE
LIMITED MEANS OF COMMUNICATION- A MERE CALL
SYSTEM -> FULL BLOWN LANGUAGE
-PRELANGUAGE

BRIEF HISTORY OF
ANTHROPOLOGY
What is Anthropology?
-the holistic study of human kind.
Overall Scope of Anthropology
1. Because members of the species Homo Sapiens are
biological organism, the study of human being must try
to understand their origin and nature in the appropriate
context.
2. As hominids strove to adapt to a great variety of
natural and safe made conditions, they engaged in a
long series of innovations referred by the term culture.
3. In the course of their cultural evolution during the
past million years, humans were immeasurably aided by
the development of an effective means of
communication which is the human language.
HERODOTUS (Fifth Century B.C)
- Greek Historian of the fifth century B.C
- Wrote briefly “The Ethnic Origin of the Carians
and Caunians of Southwestern Asia Minor and
took into consideration the language they
spoke.
- European Scholars became intrigued by the
many different peoples of the American
Continents and the language they spoke.
THOMAS JEFFERSON (1743-1826)
- He collects the vocabularies of
- Native American Languages
- In his “Notes on the State of Virginia (1787)”
he wrote “Great question has arisen from
whence came those aboriginals of America”.
- He also offered a suggestion that “Were
vocabularies formed off all the languages
spoken in North and South America and
deposited in all the public libraries.
MIDDLE OF 19TH CENTURY
- The world was basically a well-known place ,
both Geographically and Culturally
- No one expected to find a new hemisphere or
uncover an unknown civilization
- They spoke different languages , religions ,
practices and other customs
MODERN ANTHROPOLOGY
- The study of subject was not already claimed
by scholars in other fields.
- “Race , language and culture”
- The Tribal people considered ‘Primitives” and
“Savage”
DURING THE 19TH CENTURY
JOHN WESLEY POWELL (1834-1902)
- First person to run the Colarado River of the
Grand Canyon
- The Native Americans and their languages
occupied both distinguish Americans and a
number of European explorers.
- In 1891 he published the American Indian
Languages north of Mexico
FRANZ BOAS (1858-1942)
- He held the first academic position in
Anthropology in the United States at Clark
University in Worcester, Massachusetts from
1888 – 1892.
- He authored more than 700 publications
ranging from articles on Native American.
- He emphasized the writing grammars, the
compiling of dictionaries and collecting of texts
concerning the place of languages in Native
American societies in relation of language
culture.
World War II
- Anthropology was well established as an
Academic Field and taught at major U.S
Universities
- It recognized the four main subfields in a
large part of a Boas legacy ;
o Biological Anthropology – Seek to understand
how human adapt to different environments
 o Cultural Anthropology – Explore how people in - Anthropological linguistics has frequently been
different places live and understand the world employed to refer to the subfield of
around them anthropology.

o Archeology – Study human culture by analyzing

the objects people have made.

o Linguistic Anthropology – Study the many ways

people communicate across the globe.

SAPIR ON LINGUISTICS AND CULTURAL

- Intimately related to culture

- Culture moves along Parallel Lines
- Desired level of Cultural Advance

KARL V. TEETER

ON LINGUISTICS CONTRASTED WITH LINGUISTIC

ANGHROPOLOGY

- Anthropology is the study of humanity.

- Unlike linguists, anthropologist have never
considered language in isolation
from social life.
- Anthropologists study topics such as the
relation between world views, grammatical
categories and semantic fields.
- Language is not everywhere equivalent in
communicative role and social value
- A subfield concerned with culture is
referred to as cultural anthropology and the
one that concerned with language is
referred to as linguistics anthropology

ANTHROPOLOGY, LINGUISTICS, AND LINGUISTIC

ANTHROPOLOGY

- One characteristic that sets anthropology is a

strong fieldwork component by work in the
laboratory.

- They study such topics such as the relationship

between culture and disease, behavior of
nonhuman primates

- If anthropology is truly the study of humankind,

then it must concern itself with all of
humankind.

- Another discipline that focuses on uniquely

human attributes is linguistics which is the
study of language.

- Linguistics does not refer to the study of a

particular language to speak it.