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Rethinking Sociality in Language Evolution: Enlanguagement as a Catalyst for Shifts in Developmental Pathways Cover

Rethinking Sociality in Language Evolution: Enlanguagement as a Catalyst for Shifts in Developmental Pathways

Open Access
|Jul 2024

Abstract

A significant body of research on the roots of human language highlights the crucial role played by changes in ancestral sociality. Recent studies have revived the hypothesis of human self-domestication, arguing that it provides new insights into the development of human sociality, cultural evolution, and symbolic communication. While the concept of domestication offers an intriguing interpretation of the co-evolution of body, cognition, and behavior, its application to human evolution is controversial. This paper explores an alternative perspective, suggesting that the enlanguagement of interactions may have acted as a catalyst for evolutionary change. We propose that the consolidation of enlanguaged practices, underpinned by the amplification of social dispositions, set in motion an evolutionary spiral. We explore how this process may have reshaped ancestral developmental trajectories and niches, ultimately culminating in the distinctive mode of life that characterizes our species.

Language: English
Page range: 1 - 11
Submitted on: Dec 27, 2023
Accepted on: Mar 5, 2024
Published on: Jul 5, 2024
Published by: Palacký University Olomouc
In partnership with: Paradigm Publishing Services
Publication frequency: 3 issues per year

© 2024 Vincenzo Raimondi, published by Palacký University Olomouc
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.