270 lines
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270 lines
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<title>The gradual evolution of primitive spiritual animals</title>
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<meta name="author" content="Amr Gharbeia">
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<font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman, serif"><font size="3" style="font-size: 12pt"><font color="#993366"><font face="Verdana, sans-serif"><b>T<img src="data:image/png;base64,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" name="TtsOtkCRS08_13" align="right" hspace="5" width="300" height="44" border="0">he
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gradual evolution of primitive spiritual animals. </b></font></font>Having
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seen how the evolution of a primitive language of natural sentences
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in nomadic bands of hominids was both functional and possible, we
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conclude that its evolution was inevitable. It remains only to be
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seen what evidence there is for such a stage of evolution on earth.
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It is not obvious from fossils or artifacts when language first
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evolved, and so it will help, if we are clear about the traits we are
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looking for.</font></font></font></p>
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<p lang="en-US" align="left" style="margin-left: 2.54cm; margin-right: 1.27cm; text-indent: 0cm; margin-top: 0.49cm; margin-bottom: 0.49cm; line-height: 100%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">
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<font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman, serif"><font size="3" style="font-size: 12pt">What
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makes primitive spiritual animals different from nomadic bands of
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hominids is the use of language to coordinate the members’ behavior
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in controlling conditions that affect the reproduction of the
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spiritual animal as a whole. Since the main relevant condition that
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could have be brought under control by a primitive language was
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acquiring free energy, coordinating behavior in hunting large animals
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was probably its original function. But the capacity to coordinate
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their behavior would have caused many other changes. </font></font></font>
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</p>
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<p lang="en-US" align="left" style="margin-left: 3.81cm; margin-right: 2.03cm; text-indent: 0cm; margin-top: 0.49cm; margin-bottom: 0.49cm; line-height: 100%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">
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<font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman, serif">The
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leader’s plan for hunting behavior is only the simplest and most
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obvious use of language to coordinate behavior, but the capacity to
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share a common intention would also have changed the relations of
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members within spiritual animals. Nomadic bands of primates would
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acquire customs, but in spiritual animals, such habits and
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expectations would come to be mediated by the exchange of linguistic
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representations. Ways of behaving in certain situations would be
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named, and the capacity to refer to such roles would tie different
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practices together. Given the crucial role of the leader in guiding
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social level behavior, for example, there would be a special name for
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the member playing that role, and they might insist on customary
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behavior in other situations by referring to them as his
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instructions. Special words would evolve to describe kinship
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relations (though it the leader were the father of most of the
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children in the group, only the mother child relationship would need
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to be mentioned). </font></font>
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</p>
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<p lang="en-US" align="left" style="margin-left: 3.81cm; margin-right: 2.03cm; text-indent: 0cm; margin-top: 0.49cm; margin-bottom: 0.49cm; line-height: 100%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">
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<font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman, serif">This is
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probably also the stage at which food-sharing evolved. The use of
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language to coordinate behavior made it possible to arrange for one
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group to wander around gathering vegetables while another group
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hunted animals, and then all meet again later at a specific location
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to share food. In the evolution of human beings, this division of
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labor was made along lines of gender. Thus, language use may have
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been responsible for the evolution of the unusually extreme sexual
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dimorphism between females and males, including perhaps the
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year-round sexual activity, frontal sexual intercourse, and the
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emotionally revealing facial expressions that transformed mating into
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a tighter social bond. </font></font>
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</p>
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<p lang="en-US" align="left" style="margin-left: 2.54cm; margin-right: 1.27cm; text-indent: 0cm; margin-top: 0.49cm; margin-bottom: 0.49cm; line-height: 100%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">
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<font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman, serif"><font size="3" style="font-size: 12pt">What
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is required to have the power of spiritual animals was not that a
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plan be distributed by the leader, but that everyone somehow share
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the same plan for social level behavior. That is the essence of the
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spiritual animal, for it includes both the social and the cultural
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aspect. And though it could also be accomplished without formal
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instructions from a leader, it is language that ties those two
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aspects together. </font></font></font>
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</p>
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<p lang="en-US" align="left" style="margin-left: 3.81cm; margin-right: 2.03cm; text-indent: 0cm; margin-top: 0.49cm; margin-bottom: 0.49cm; line-height: 100%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">
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<font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman, serif">The
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combination of a verbal and nonverbal side in linguistic
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representations it what ties them together, for the verbal side is
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responsible for the social aspect and the nonverbal side is
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responsible for the cultural aspect. Since the nonverbal side
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consists of naturalistic images in the faculty of imagination, it is
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private. But the verbal side can be generated overtly, and its status
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as a public, observable object makes it possible for linguistic
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representations to serve as a structural cause for coordinating the
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members’ behavior. Without public linguistic interactions, it would
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not be possible to distribute a plan of social level behavior. The
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social aspect of the spiritual animal is the continual linguistic
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interactions among its members. </font></font>
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</p>
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<p lang="en-US" align="left" style="margin-left: 3.81cm; margin-right: 2.03cm; text-indent: 0cm; margin-top: 0.49cm; margin-bottom: 0.49cm; line-height: 100%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">
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<font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman, serif">What
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enables linguistic interactions to provide a structural cause for
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social level behavior is that they are representations which can
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correspond to the world. The verbal side of linguistic
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representations is just a re-representation of representations in
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naturalistic imagination, for their function is to control the
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construction of naturalistic images in the listeners’ faculties of
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imagination. This public control of the images formed in imagination
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can induce in each brain a representation of the same state of
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affairs in the world. Each brain has <i>object images </i>for the
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same members and other objects in the local scene, and each brain
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combines them in the same way so that each corresponds to the same
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social level behavior of the whole. And this shared plan can
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coordinate their behavior, as we have seen, because each member
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recognizes a different one of the <i>object images</i> representing
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members as his own body and understands that the behavior predicated
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of it is how he must behave. This unique part-whole relationship is
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crucial, for it is essential to its function as a structural cause
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that each member of the spiritual animal see itself as a different
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part of the whole plan. But otherwise, the exchange of linguistic
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representations causes each brain to contain the same kind of
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nonverbal representation of their social level behavior as taking
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place in the same natural world. That is the cultural aspect of the
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spiritual animal. And since all such linguistic representations are
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(potentially) complete in each brain, the cultural aspect is as much
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a structure of the spiritual animal as a whole as the social aspect. </font></font>
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</p>
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<p lang="en-US" align="left" style="margin-left: 1.27cm; margin-right: 2.54cm; text-indent: 0cm; margin-top: 0.49cm; margin-bottom: 0.49cm; line-height: 100%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">
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<font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman, serif"><font size="3" style="font-size: 12pt">Evidence
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of such primitive spiritual animals (stage 8) depends on being able
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to distinguish them from nomadic bands of hominids, which are part of
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the radiation of primates (stage 7). There is good evidence that
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primates radiated into the grasslands around their arboreal homes in
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Africa 5 or even 10 million years ago, when large regions of forests
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were replaced by grasslands as the climate changed. </font></font></font>
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</p>
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<p lang="en-US" align="left" style="margin-left: 2.54cm; margin-right: 1.27cm; text-indent: 0cm; margin-top: 0.49cm; margin-bottom: 0.49cm; line-height: 100%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">
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<font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman, serif"><font size="3" style="font-size: 12pt">Bipedalism,
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the defining trait of hominids, is evident in the earliest fossil,
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know as “Lucy”, which dates back about 3.5 million years. With a
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brain the size of a gorilla, but a smaller body, she represents a
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species called <i>Australopithecus afarensis</i>. Apparently, there
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were also several other forms of <i>Australopithecus</i> at the time,
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such as<i> africanus</i>, <i>robustus</i>, and <i>boisei</i>, all of
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which were extinct by about 1.3 million years ago. (See Fisher,
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1988.) </font></font></font>
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</p>
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<p lang="en-US" align="left" style="margin-left: 2.54cm; margin-right: 1.27cm; text-indent: 0cm; margin-top: 0.49cm; margin-bottom: 0.49cm; line-height: 100%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">
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<font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman, serif"><font size="3" style="font-size: 12pt">The
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greater facility at tool use that we expect to evolve in primates
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carrying clubs is evident in <i>Homo habilis,</i> which showed up
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about two million years ago. <i>Habilis</i> was still quite small,
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about three feet, the size of <i>Australopithecus afarensis</i>
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(judging by a fossil from 1.8 million years ago that was discovered
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in 1986). But <i>Habilis</i> is distinguished by evidence of greater
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use of stone tools. Whereas <i>Australopithecus</i> cracked pebbles,
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presumably to use as cutters and scrapers, <i>Homo habilis</i> made
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bi-facial stone tools (Acheulian culture), which could have been used
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for hunting animals. Some refinement of the primate structural
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imagination may have enabled them to use stones more effectively. Or
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perhaps it was the evolution of an opposable thumb.</font></font></font></p>
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<p lang="en-US" align="left" style="margin-left: 1.27cm; margin-right: 2.54cm; text-indent: 0cm; margin-top: 0.49cm; margin-bottom: 0.49cm; line-height: 100%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">
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<font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman, serif"><font size="3" style="font-size: 12pt">There
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are two candidates for primitive spiritual animals in the
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archeological record, <i>Homo erectus</i> and archaic humans (such as
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Neanderthal Man, or <i>Homo sapiens</i>). <i>Homo erectus</i> evolved
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some 1.6 million years ago, about the time that <i>Homo habilis</i>
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became extinct (dated by fossils at 1.8 million years ago). But <i>Homo
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erectus </i>had become extinct by 250,000 years ago, about the time
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archaic humans evolved. It was Neanderthal Man, a species of archaic
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humans, that Cro Magnon Man replaced in Europe 35,000 years ago, not
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<i>Homo erectus</i>. It is agreed on all sides that Cro Magnon Man is
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our own species, and since that is, as we shall see, a later stage in
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the evolution of spiritual animals, the question is, Which species,
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<i>Homo erectus</i> or archaic humans, were the first spiritual
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animals (stage 8)? </font></font></font>
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</p>
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<p lang="en-US" align="left" style="margin-left: 1.27cm; margin-right: 2.54cm; text-indent: 0cm; margin-top: 0.49cm; margin-bottom: 0.49cm; line-height: 100%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">
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<font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman, serif"><font size="3" style="font-size: 12pt"><i>Homo
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erectus </i>had larger bodies than <i>Homo habilis</i>, within the
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modern body-height range, and their skulls indicate a relatively
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greater increase in brain size (1000cc on average, compared to about
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500cc for <i>Habilis</i>). </font></font></font>
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</p>
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<p lang="en-US" align="left" style="margin-left: 2.54cm; margin-right: 1.27cm; text-indent: 0cm; margin-top: 0.49cm; margin-bottom: 0.49cm; line-height: 100%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">
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<font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman, serif"><font size="3" style="font-size: 12pt">There
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are two reasons for thinking that their larger brains gave <i>Homo
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erectus</i> the use of a primitive language. </font></font></font>
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</p>
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<p lang="en-US" align="left" style="margin-left: 3.81cm; margin-right: 2.03cm; text-indent: 0cm; margin-top: 0.49cm; margin-bottom: 0.49cm; line-height: 100%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">
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<font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman, serif">First, <i>Homo
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habilis</i> became extinct about the time <i>Homo erectus</i>
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evolved, and the inherently greater power of spiritual animals would
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explain why nomadic bands of hominids became extinct. </font></font>
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</p>
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<p lang="en-US" align="left" style="margin-left: 3.81cm; margin-right: 2.03cm; text-indent: 0cm; margin-top: 0.49cm; margin-bottom: 0.49cm; line-height: 100%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">
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<font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman, serif">Second,
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<i>Homo erectus</i> were the first species of this lineage to leave
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Africa and invade territories ranging from Europe to the Far East.
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This could be explained by the evolution of the use of natural
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sentences, because the increased capacity to coordinate behavior in
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hunting would have enabled them to acquire energy from larger
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animals, and that could have been what opened up those new habitats
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to them. </font></font>
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</p>
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<p lang="en-US" align="left" style="margin-left: 2.54cm; margin-right: 1.27cm; text-indent: 0cm; margin-top: 0.49cm; margin-bottom: 0.49cm; line-height: 100%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">
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<font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman, serif"><font size="3" style="font-size: 12pt">On
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the other hand, these facts can also be explained on the assumption
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that <i>Homo erectus </i>was just a late phase in the evolution of
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animal societies of hominids. We have seen that societies of
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non-primate animals can evolve instincts for more complex forms of
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social coordination using animal cries as signals, such as the wild
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dogs of Africa that are supposed to prey on ungulates by herding them
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into ambushes. Such an increase in their power to acquire free energy
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would explain both the extinction of <i>Homo habilis</i> in Africa
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and the ability of <i>Homo erectus</i> to migrate out of Africa. More
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sophisticated signs also explains two other facts that would be
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surprising, if <i>Homo erectus</i> could speak. </font></font></font>
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</p>
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<p lang="en-US" align="left" style="margin-left: 3.81cm; margin-right: 2.03cm; text-indent: 0cm; margin-top: 0.49cm; margin-bottom: 0.49cm; line-height: 100%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">
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<font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman, serif">First, it
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would explain why there is no great change in their technology. The
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use of natural sentences should greatly improve their technology,
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because it would enable individuals to share their understanding of
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causal connections and accumulate culture based on tools. However,
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<i>Homo erectus </i>still used bi-facial stone tools, like <i>Homo
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habilis</i>. Even if they needed to control fire with them in order
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to invade colder climates, that is something that could be
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accomplished by simply carrying small fires with them. </font></font>
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</p>
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<p lang="en-US" align="left" style="margin-left: 3.81cm; margin-right: 2.03cm; text-indent: 0cm; margin-top: 0.49cm; margin-bottom: 0.49cm; line-height: 100%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">
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<font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman, serif">Their lack
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of language would also explain why there is no evidence in <i>Homo
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erectus</i> of the changes in the larynx that seem to be required to
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generate the highly modulated types of sounds required for speech. </font></font>
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</p>
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<p lang="en-US" align="left" style="margin-left: 1.27cm; margin-right: 2.54cm; text-indent: 0cm; margin-top: 0.49cm; margin-bottom: 0.49cm; line-height: 100%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">
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<font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman, serif"><font size="3" style="font-size: 12pt">In
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archaic humans, such as Neanderthal Man, by contrast, the fossils and
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tools that remain indicate both kinds of changes, technological and
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physiological, as well as the fate of <i>Homo erectus</i>. </font></font></font>
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</p>
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<p lang="en-US" align="left" style="margin-left: 2.54cm; margin-right: 1.27cm; text-indent: 0cm; margin-top: 0.49cm; margin-bottom: 0.49cm; line-height: 100%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">
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<font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman, serif"><font size="3" style="font-size: 12pt">First,
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flint tools and hafted stones indicate that archaic humans had a more
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advanced (Mousterian) culture, as we would expect of animals with a
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greater understanding of causal connections. </font></font></font>
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</p>
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<p lang="en-US" align="left" style="margin-left: 2.54cm; margin-right: 1.27cm; text-indent: 0cm; margin-top: 0.49cm; margin-bottom: 0.49cm; line-height: 100%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">
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<font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman, serif"><font size="3" style="font-size: 12pt">There
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is also fossil evidence of changes in the larynx that suggest a much
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increased reliance on highly modulated sounds. </font></font></font>
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</p>
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<p lang="en-US" align="left" style="margin-left: 2.54cm; margin-right: 1.27cm; text-indent: 0cm; margin-top: 0.49cm; margin-bottom: 0.49cm; line-height: 100%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">
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<font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman, serif"><font size="3" style="font-size: 12pt">Moreover,
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if archaic humans did have a primitive language of natural sentences,
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their capacity to coordinate behavior could explain why <i>Homo
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erectus</i> became extinct about the time that Neanderthal Man and
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other species of archaic humans showed up. That is, <i>Homo erectus</i>
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were the societies of hominids on which archaic humans preyed, before
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they took up war against one another.</font></font></font></p>
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<p lang="en-US" align="left" style="margin-left: 1.27cm; margin-right: 2.54cm; text-indent: 0cm; margin-top: 0.49cm; margin-bottom: 0.49cm; line-height: 100%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">
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<font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman, serif"><font size="3" style="font-size: 12pt">It
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seems likely, therefore, that Neanderthal Man (that is, archaic
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humans, or <i>Homo sapiens</i>) represents the primitive spiritual
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stage of evolution in the history of evolution on Earth. </font></font></font>
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</p>
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</body>
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</html>
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