Doyle Saylor wrote: > > > Doyle; > I would think language began much further back than 40 50 thousand > years ago.
There can be no proof, so anyone is free to speculate as he/she pleases. But we do _know_ two things. 1. Biologically modern humans -- humans with the brains and physiology we have now -- have been around for at least 100,000 years. 2. There is no abrupt change in the cultural record until about 40,000 years ago, when things get interesting -- (painting, including teen-age amateur painting in the same caves, for example. One can add that Neanderthals & humans coexisted for about 60,000 years, and then (again 40,000 years bp) the Neanderthals began disappearing very quickly. SOMETHING happened 40,000 years +/- ago, something big. The invention of language seems a reasonable hypothesis. One can argue endlessly about the definition of "culture." I would think it reasonable to speak of cultures in various primates, including human ancestors. Hence language not identical with culture. But rapid cultural transformation seems to be intimately connected with language. Carrol
