The gestures that chimps and bonobos make while communicating with one another offer interesting clues to support the gesture hypothesis of how language evolved. Dr Amy S. Pollick and Dr Frans B. M. de Waal at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center in Atlanta have published a paper in a recent issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences reporting their observations.
The investigators studied chimps and bonobos, a total of 34 primates. They found that chimps and bonobos use facial / vocal signals in a similar way but the way the two groups used gestures to communicate varied significantly both, within and between the two species.
The investigators conclude their interesting paper by saying, “Gestures seem less closely tied to particular emotions, such as aggression or affiliation, hence possess a more adaptable function. Gestures are also evolutionarily younger, as shown by their presence in apes but not monkeys”. The team conclude their paper with the confident assertion that their study supports the gestural origin hypothesis of language.
References: Ape gestures and language evolution. Amy S. Pollick, and Frans B. M. de Waal. doi:10.1073/pnas.0702624104. published online Apr 30, 2007; PNAS
http://www.pnas.org/cgi/reprint/0702624104v1.pdf
Corballis MC (2002) From Hand to Mouth: The Origins of Language (Princeton Univ Press, Princeton).
The investigators studied chimps and bonobos, a total of 34 primates. They found that chimps and bonobos use facial / vocal signals in a similar way but the way the two groups used gestures to communicate varied significantly both, within and between the two species.
The investigators conclude their interesting paper by saying, “Gestures seem less closely tied to particular emotions, such as aggression or affiliation, hence possess a more adaptable function. Gestures are also evolutionarily younger, as shown by their presence in apes but not monkeys”. The team conclude their paper with the confident assertion that their study supports the gestural origin hypothesis of language.
References: Ape gestures and language evolution. Amy S. Pollick, and Frans B. M. de Waal. doi:10.1073/pnas.0702624104. published online Apr 30, 2007; PNAS
http://www.pnas.org/cgi/reprint/0702624104v1.pdf
Corballis MC (2002) From Hand to Mouth: The Origins of Language (Princeton Univ Press, Princeton).
image source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Bonobo_009.jpg
2 comments:
good and interesting one. But please post more primate related stuff more regularly. Also post some issues, nes , snippets related to northeast India.
We will try to add more primate related news as well as more news from the northeast.
thank you for the suggestion
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