Re: Agreements on Archaeology

From: Glen Gordon
Message: 1425
Date: 2000-02-07

>John wrote:
>
>>The construction of such a vessel would presumably imply language of
>>some kind.

Sabine:
>Why that?

Pay no mind. There are chimps known to teach younger chimps to put a thin
stick into an ant hole to get at the ants easily. They then suck the ants
off the stick. The younger chimps then can be seen doing this. There is much
evidence of tool-use amongst chimps and the ability they have to teach
younger generations innovative techniques.

This vessel fabrication no doubt would require an ingenious use of a tool
but do chimps have language or are they simply good at observing and
imitating? In parallel, does the fabrication of a vessel necessarily imply
language or is there a similar learning by example? The existence of some
hypothetical vessel on its own doesn't suggest one way or another.

- gLeN

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