The Origin of Man and of His SuperstitionsRead, Carveth
Philosophy
The Origin of Man and of His Superstitions
Read, Carveth
Animism; Human beings -- Origin; Magic; Superstition; Totemism
Passing to later ages, we cannot expect to learn much about the
speech of prehistoric men, whom we know only by a few bones. As to the
Java skull, Dr. Keith observes that “the region of the brain which
subserves the essentially human gift of speech, was not ape-like in
Pithecanthropus. The parts for speech are there; they are small, but
clearly foreshadow the arrangement of convolutions seen in modern
man.” On the other hand, “the higher association areas ... had not
reached a human level.”[59] The jaw of this skull not having been
found, nothing can be said of its fitness for carrying out the process
of articulation. As to Eoanthropus, “if our present conception of
the orbital part of the third frontal convolution is well founded,
namely, that it takes part in the mechanism of speech, then we have
grounds for believing that the Piltdown man had reached that point
of brain-development when speech had become a possibility. When one
looks at the lower jaw, however, and the projecting canine teeth,
one hesitates to allow him more than a potential ability.”[60] The
jaw had not undergone the characteristic changes which in modern man
give freedom to the tongue in the articulation of words.[61] But Dr.
Keith “cannot detect any feature in the frontal, parietal or occipital
areas which clearly separate this brain-cast from modern ones.”[62]
Eoanthropus, therefore, must have had a good deal to say and, being a
social animal, must have felt the need of expression; and, though he
was not a direct ancestor of ours, it can hardly be doubted that at
some period the jaws of our own ancestors were no better adapted than
his to articulate speech. May we not infer that articulate speech,
meeting a need of the stock, arose very gradually, and was slowly
differentiated from some less definite and structural connection of
expressive and onomatopœic vocables, such as we have seen may naturally
have arisen amongst the earliest hunters? _Pari passu_ the jaw was
modified.
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