Saturday, October 30, 2021

New Big Ideas About Stone Age Evolution, Language, Technology

3 New Big Ideas 
About Stone Age
Human Evolution, Language and Technology
by Rick Doble


This grass house (mudhif) was built entirely out of reeds, including the rope and mats. Many archaeologists believe this basic design was older than the first Mesopotamian cities and these types of buildings housed many people after the Sumerian civilizations had risen.
"Iraq's Marsh Arabs use reeds to build vaulted reception halls called mudhifs, such as this one at Albu Hamrah near the ancient Sumerian archaeological site of Lagash."


INTRODUCTION

I am a generalist when most people who study a subject are specialists. This is *not* a criticism of specialization but it is a criticism of overvaluing specialization. There is room for both disciplines although they approach their subject matter quite differently: the specialist approaches from the bottom up so to speak, the generalist from the top down.

What often gets lost, when a discussion about generalism occurs, is that there are rules. It is much too easy to weave together a number of ideas and then come up with a theory that attempts to prove aliens built Stonehenge, for example.

Like specialization, a generalist should rely on proven facts and accepted ideas. It is my opinion that generalists should provide ample substantiated evidence pointing to the truth of their ideas. And this evidence should come from a range of reliable sources and disciplines. Just because they/we are generalists does not free us from the burden of the scientific process. If anything, it requires that we do more.

The problem is that generalists often think outside the box. They often do not have major academic credentials, they often propose ideas about disciplines that they have not specialized in. They often have wide-ranging knowledge of several fields, for example, which they then weave together.

A good example is that of Charles Darwin whose wide-ranging interests allowed him to come up with his theory of evolution. It was his study of geology (and not biology) that provided the key because it became clear that the world was much, much older than previously believed which also meant that natural forms, including humans, could have evolved over long periods of time. He discovered clear evidence of this timetable when he found seashells in Cape Verde, high up in the mountains, indicating that the mountains had once been at sea level and then, over thousands if not millions of years, had moved. 


"Fossilized sea shells in sandstone outcroppings at the summit
of Mount Diablo, Contra Costa County, California (Altitude: 3,864 feet)"

Plate tectonics and continental drift are examples of a theory that was initially rejected as absurd, but that now is central to our understanding of the Earth's geology. There was considerable evidence pointing to the truth of this idea but no one, including its founder Wegener, could explain the dynamics that caused the continents to move. Alfred Wegener came up with this idea around 1915 but was often ridiculed by major authorities such as George Gaylord Simpson who attacked it as nonsense and instead promoted his own idea, which now seems absurd, a theory of periodic huge floods. Admittedly Wegener's ideas needed further proof. Yet when positive proof did appear the prestigious journal Nature refused to print an article that considered this theory. In the 1950s solid irrefutable proof was found based on the new study and technology of paleomagnetism which was able to show "seafloor spreading," i.e., that the floor of the oceans had moved, as shown by the timetable of the shifting polarity of undersea volcanic rock which records the shifting magnetism of the Earth over time. Continental drift is now considered one of the great scientific ideas of the last 100 years. And it caused a paradigm shift.

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The history of the continents and continental drift

While I, of course, do not consider myself to be in the same 'league' as these two monumental scientists, I think their examples are important. 


ABOUT MY WORK AND THIS BLOG

As of 10/26/2021, my blog has recorded: 116,561 page views along with total combined views of another 100k at two academic websites, academia.edu and figshare.com, along with about 17k PDF downloads of these articles.

I started this blog about the human experience of time in 2012. When I began I did not know where this inquiry would take me. But now years later it has yielded more ideas than I ever imagined. Often one initial idea lead to another and then another and before I knew it I had begun to map out a certain aspect. My blogs about basket weaving technology are a good example. I began with a basic idea that basket weaving technology (or woven-fiber technology as I have suggested it be called) had created a wide variety of products in prehistoric cultures. But almost two years later, I thought it was possible that this technology might have begun 2 million years ago with Homo habilis (or other hominins) who could have learned from the intricate nests of weaverbirds and also that the first civilizations of Mesopotamia and Egypt could not have emerged without a highly developed woven-fiber technology. 

So with this introduction, I will list three of my major ideas that I have formulated over the last ten years in this blog about the human experience of time. While I have an M.A. in Communication (minor in Anthropology) and a B.A. in English (with many Anthropology and Sociology courses), I clearly do not have the credentials in Anthropology, for example, that would normally be required if I were working in the academic world. Nevertheless, I have a lifelong interest in Paleolithic and Neolithic cultures -- as I collected Neolithic stone tools and other artifacts for my own personal "museum" starting at the age of 9. And now at the age of 75+, I want to put my ideas 'out there' while my thinking process is still clear and before old age closes in.

My hope is that some of my ideas have "legs" and that other researchers and specialists will consider them. In any case, I have hoped to add to the ongoing dialogue about the human condition.

All of my work is copyrighted under the Creative Commons Copyright meaning that you can quote as much as you like as long as you give me credit.


THE HUMAN SENSE OF TIME

In Brief: Homo sapiens have a unique part of the brain that may have led to the development of a 'sense' of linear time -- time with a past, present, future, and duration.

Animal Senses Compared to the Human Sense of Time

LEFT: Compound eyes of a Robber fly
RIGHT: Left eye of a girl

As we all know dogs have a much better sense of smell than we humans do. Their sense of smell is at least 1000 times more acute than that of Homo sapiens. Different animals often have different senses and their ability to sense things in the world can be quite unusual. In this article, I make the argument that humans have a unique sense of time -- a sense just like touch and sight. We are the only animal that understands linear time -- time with a past, present, and future and also a sense of duration. No other animal has this, although most have a sense of cyclical time, such as a dog knowing when it is time to be fed. 

Furthermore, it is this sense of linear time that allows us to work with time, to plan, and to coordinate. This gives us a power no other animal has and has allowed us to become the dominant species on the planet. Brain research has shown that we have a unique part of the brain known as the prefrontal cortex (PFC) which we are only beginning to understand but which definitely does involve working with time. Much of this was not understood when I wrote this article in August 2014 so my blog may be one of the first to suggest this.

This is my most popular article which has been viewed over 11,000 times: 9,064 times on my blog and these two academic sites: 1,408 (views & downloads) on Academia.edu and 855 (views & downloads) on Figshare.com. This has been viewed by researchers in about 90 countries.

THE PDF FILE ON ACADEMIC WEBSITES
Animal Senses Compared to the Human Sense of Time
Academia.edu
Figshare.com


HOW LANGUAGE BEGAN AND THE HUMAN UNDERSTANDING OF TIME

In Brief: If language developed over a million years as Dan Everett has suggested, the earliest languages would probably have had immediate concepts of time, since Homo sapiens or earlier species had just begun to emerge from the immediacy of animal existence.

How Language Began and the Human Understanding of Time: Daniel Everett's New Theories About the Evolution of Language

All linguists agree that reference to time is a universal aspect of all languages. In fact, language is the primary tool for communicating time concepts, for working with time, and for planning and coordinating. 

But since animals live in the immediate moment and we emerged from our animal existence to invent language and conceive of linear time, the concept of time was probably quite different in the beginning. In this article, I suggest that the early concepts of time were concepts of immediacy. And there is a 'primitive' tribe in the Amazon that refers to time in this manner. While the tribe is thought of as 'primitive' the language is quite sophisticated and is able to express a complex view of immediate time. 

This fits very nicely with Daniel Everett's new theory about the development of language. He believes that it developed over a million or so years. I believe an evolving concept of time from the immediate to the modern sense of linear time might have taken that long to come into being.

This article has been well received by the academic community. I posted this article on my blog and also on two academic websites, Academia.edu and Figshare.com. At these two academic sites, I recorded a combined 800 page views and 235 downloads. Here is one comment I got on Academia.edu from Terence Meaden, Alumnus of the University of Oxford, "Originality and likely correctness."

The initial posting on my blog.
Daniel Everett's New Theories About The Evolution Of Language 

Read more of my articles about the development of language:

Deafblind Helen Keller reading the lips of First Lady, Mrs. Coolidge, in 1926. Helen wrote that time did not exist for her until she learned language. "My inner life, then, was a blank without past, present, or future...There were no stars—no earth—no time."
See my blog about Helen Keller: 


EVIDENCE FOR A BASKET WEAVING AND WOVEN-FIBER TECHNOLOGY IN THE PALEOLITHIC ERA

In Brief: Basket weaving technology may have begun in the earliest days of hominin existence and helped these species survive and evolve. Later, when basket weaving technology was fully developed, it was a crucial technology for the emergence of the earliest civilizations.

Evidence for a Basket Weaving and Woven-Fiber Technology in the Paleolithic Era

LEFT: "Weaver bird (Southern Masked Weaver) nest of dry grass.
Near Pretoria, South Africa."
RIGHT: Random weave basket (Basket/Photo by Nan Bowles)

The third big idea is that 'basket weaving technology' (or 'woven-fiber technology' as I have suggested it be called) began very early in the evolution of hominins and continued to be a crucial technology for the emergence of civilization. 

Simple baskets made with a random weave at the beginning would have allowed more food to be gathered along with more resources such as carefully chosen quartz used in tool making that was collected at a distant location and for which there is evidence. In addition, I have shown that hominins lived in close association with weaverbirds who made elaborate strong nests, so these nests could have served as an early model for a basket technology. The problem, as I have pointed out, is that 'basketry can't get no respect'. 

Yet during the emergence of the world's first civilizations in Mesopotamia, this technology was used to build huge sophisticated grass houses and large boats along with important items for irrigation and the management of agriculture. So this was not a minor contribution to the rise of Sumerian civilizations but a major factor. From cuneiform tablet evidence I have shown that a robust reed industry existed in ancient Mesopotamia.

I have spent almost two years writing about this in detail, attempting to construct a timeline from about 2 million years ago to about 6,000 years ago when a fully developed technology was available. My first fully detailed blog about this is now my second most popular blog article, from month to month. 

NOTE: It is one of the ironies of life, that I had begun to formulate my ideas about basket weaving technology when the COVID 19 virus became rampant and my wife and I stayed home most of the time. So during the next year or so I concentrated on this idea about basketry, as I had the time to do so. I wonder if I would have done such a complete study if the virus shut-down had not occurred.

This is a fanciful, but perhaps not inaccurate, painting of a large ship made of reeds at the port of Eridu, considered to be the oldest city of the first civilization in Mesopotamia, about 5000-6000 years ago. The ship as pictured is not unrealistic and was constructed using bundled reeds, a large version of coiled basket weaving techniques.

PDF FILE
Evidence for a Basket Weaving and Woven-Fiber Technology in the Paleolithic Era

See a listing of more than a dozen blog-articles about basket weaving technology:

Download a complete set of articles in PDF format:
The Illustrated Theory of Paleo Basket-Weaving Technology by Rick Doble

Two PDF articles that focus on basketry in the earliest civilization:
Mesopotamian Ancient Basket Weaving Technology and the Sumerian Reed Industry

A traditional South American suspension bridge made entirely of rope. It has now been established that rope was being made 40 ka by early hominins and that the rope technology was probably much older.



CURRENT ACADEMIC THINKING ABOUT THESE TOPICS

The subject of time has been recognized as important but there are very few academic papers that examine the human development of time concepts in any detail.
"It must have required enormous effort for man to overcome his natural tendency to live like the animals in a continual present."
Whitrow G.L., Time in History: Views of Time from Prehistory to the Present Day,  Oxford University Press, 1988.
"Time reference is a universal property of language..."
Jacqueline Lecarme, Ph.D., Linguistics
The subject of time has not really been dealt with. While it is clear that humans must have grasped a sense of time over thousands of years, starting with the immediate animal sense of time to the linear time we live with today, there has been very little academic discussion. My work tries to bring this topic to the fore. Clearly our concepts and understanding of time play a major role in our technology, language, culture, and our lives.

For almost 100 years it was assumed that basketry could not have started before the Neolithic era. This assumption was not based on facts or science. Recent discoveries have shown that sophisticated basketry was being made 27 ka. And very recently rope was discovered that is 40 ka. 

My work suggests that even today current academic assumptions about basket technology are incorrect. It could have begun millions of years ago, for example, and I may be the first or one of the first to make this assertion. If true then this technology not only aided the survival of hominins but played a role in the evolution of humans. My work also suggests that basketry was a key technology, if not the key technology, that allowed the first civilizations to emerge in Mesopotamia and Egypt. This is a new idea about the development of civilization.

If any of these ideas become accepted or influence the inquiry and research into these topics, it would be a major shift in current thinking. 



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