From: Piotr Gasiorowski
Message: 258
Date: 1999-11-13
----- Original Message -----From: Marc VerhaegenSent: Saturday, November 13, 1999 3:07 PMSubject: [cybalist] Re: Proto-World, Nostratic, etc.... Who doesn't speak, doesn't make plans and doesn't have a future. SabineThat's probably exaggerated. In one of the books of Frans de Waal ("Chimpanzee politics"?), chimps planned to attack one of the other males that night. Even without language they can form coalitions etc.Marc
My impression, too. In a specimen of Homo sapiens the inability to speak is a serious impairment just because our species relies so heavily on this mode of communication. I wouldn't conclude a priori that their can be no thought, planning or modelling reality without language. I've no idea what kind of communication the rest of the genus Homo was capable of, but they had some sort of social organisation, made flint tools and used fire (at least some of them). There is some convincing evidence that H. neanderthalensis had burial rites as well. In my view, that makes our closest cousins intelligent beings, whatever degree of linguistic sophistication they had.Piotr