Development of dancing dates close to linguistic skills in human evolution

[Noku]

Read an article about this. Neuroscientists have discovered that same area on the other side of the brain is active when dancing and the other is active when talking. They concluded it as mening that the cognitive abilities for communicating with symbols either by using voice or gestures (related to dancing) developed pretty much hand in hand. More structured language and more artistic symbolism developed afterwards.

This might be interpreted as a supporting evidence for the "Aquatic Ape Theory" where our bipedalism is related to the period of time we came back on the ground from watery environment, which lead us to lose fur and made our body less ape-like in other obvious ways also. The "Aquatic Ape Theory" sees this as the time when we needed to develop new ways of communicating the social affection since our fur was gone. Language has been introduced as the choice because the watery environment had given as the trait to hold breath conciously, which enables us to make wider variety of sounds than apes can.

The weak point here in my opinnion is that how did we communicate in watery environment, if not with some pre-linguistic skills... on the other hand perhaps hand gestures could also have been used. I dunno, discuss.

[Smokey D]

It is my understanding that aquatic ape theory isn't very popular these days, but I could be wrong.

Also, primates are incrediby vocal animals so even if we lacked language per se we could still communicate. I'm no biologist/linguist but I'd hav thought that language was evolved out of primate vocalisations. And I imagine there are far simpler ways of communicating affection than language. Humans engage in non-vocal affection displays all the time, so I don't imagine there was any selective pressure in that regard.

[Jude]

Oh, not the aquatic apes again...

The finding sounds interesting though. Where's the article?

[andyneverstoppingmachine]

yeah aquatic apes is sort of laughed at these days i think

sounds like a cool article tho

[Noku]

Yes, the aquatic ape theory is dead today, but as far as I don't find better theory for "why we are different than the apes" I will refer to it, even just for fun.

I read the article from a Finnish science journal but the study was conducted by professor Lawrence Parsons group at Sheffield University in Britain. I found at least this small description of what was studied:

http://cercor.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/16/8/1157

There was also further combined effort by Lawrence Parsons, Steven Brown (Simon Fraser Univeristy Vancouver Canada) and Richard Ebstein (Hebrew University, Jerusalem) for making some conclusions about the results and their relation to human evolution from neurological and cultural history aspects. I can't find the paper for this though.

[Mr. Ron]

well yeah body language says more than words, really.

[ridethelib]

Which is why a dumb woman can be tolerated for a long time if she has a nice rack

[Mr. Ron]

idk, call me crazy but good physical features won't keep me around a moronic woman. I need to be able to talk to them.

[Berner]

Just do what I do. Insult them so that if there is anyone else around they'll pick up on it but she won't. It's hilarious and cruel.

[Mr. Ron]

~*omG u jErk!*~

[Berner]

lol

[Iskandar]

well yeah body language says more than words, really.Maybe if you're a dog, but in humans it serves to reinforce what we say.

[Mr. Ron]

Maybe if you're a dog, but in humans it serves to reinforce what we say.
You can say something very insightful and intelligent, but if you look uncomfortable, or don't use your body in a confident and assertive way, it won't be as effective.

[Iskandar]

Yeah, because body language gives feedback on what we're saying.

It's not a substitute for verbal communication though.

[Mr. Ron]

Yeah, because body language gives feedback on what we're saying.

It's not a substitute for verbal communication though.
Not saying its a substitute, but I think at times it can be MORE effective than words.

[Iskandar]

I don't really get your point. If body language said more than words, we wouldn't have developed language.

[Mr. Ron]

I don't really get your point. If body language said more than words, we wouldn't have developed language.
SOMETIMES body language says more than words. There is a time and place for everything, you know? Looking into a girl's eyes and having a moment can be more than saying something. Things like that.

[GorgeousGabe]

I think Ron's point is that the little things that you can say with your body, the less complex ideas, are more universally understood and often more important. For example, it's utterly necessary for a human child to be shown affection and to be hugged and treated kindly. Children starved of affection become crippled socially. Even before language, humans have had to be able to work together and this ability is destroyed if children aren't shown affection. In other words, we NEED the ability to communicate things non-verbally to survive and succeed as a species, but we don't need to be able to communicate vocally

I would say that the ability to communicate non-vocally is more important to survival than vocal communication. Many animals can communicate using body language or can communicate with displays of affection, including humans- only humans can talk.

It could furthermore be argued that our ability for language and for social advancement is a detriment to survival, since it has paved the road that has led to our capacity for nuclear weaponry, global warming, etc

[Gattsu347]

how you say something is far mor important then what you say in a lot of situations.

[ridethelib]

idk, call me crazy but good physical features won't keep me around a moronic woman. I need to be able to talk to them.

BOY U CRAZY

also

sarcasm

[Noku]

Yeah, because body language gives feedback on what we're saying.

It's not a substitute for verbal communication though.

It would be interesting to see some follow up reasearch in the field, linguistic skills improved and we all are pretty aware of where it lead us. But what were the next steps from dancing, more artistic ways to express ourselves? It's also important to remember that one side of our brain is better at logical tasks and the other is more creative.

By the way, is there good research papers on why the halves of brains have specialized on certain tasks, since it certainly is not just a human thing.

[die of starvation]

aren't there animals that dance

i know animals gesture

[Stig Caraveo]

i know animals that dance.

[Noku]

Parrots.

[Berner]

aren't there animals that dance

i know animals gesture


Bees.