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Human self-domestication: linking biology and culture in language evolution studies
ANTONIO BENÍTEZ-BURRACO1
1. Department of Philology, University of Huelva, Spain [email protected]
AIMS Delving into the molecular causes of human self-domestication Advancing new candidates for language evolution Exploring the links between language evolution and language impairment (with a focus on domestication) Improving a model of language evolution based on biological and cultural changes in the human clade (eco-evo-devo)
FUNDINGThis research was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (grant numbers FFI2014-61888-EXP and FFI2016-78034-C2-2-P) and FEDER
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTSThe author thanks Elliot Murphy, Wanda Lattanzi, and Cedric Boeckx for fruitful collaboration
Features of domestication are
attenuated in autism
Features of domestication are exacerbated in
schizophrenia
Language-ready brain: our species-specific
ability to learn and use languages Languages: the collection of properties that
we acquire as a result of social interactions
CONCLUSIONS
The changes that brought about our language-readiness may havetriggered a domesticated phenotype in our species
Self-domestication affected the evolution of languages via cognitive andcultural processes
Human self-domestication provides a robust link between evolution,development, and the environment, in the spirit of eco-evo-devo theories
SELECTED READINGS Benítez-Burraco, A. et al. (2016a) Globularization and domestication. Topoi doi:10.1007/s11245-016-9399-7 Benítez-Burraco, A. et al. (2016b) Language impairments in ASD resulting from a failed domestication of the
human brain. Front. Neurosci. 10:373. Benítez-Burraco, A. et al. (2017) Schizophrenia and human self-domestication: an evolutionary linguistics
approach. Brain Behav. Evol. doi: 10.1159/000468506. Benítez-Burraco, A. (2017) Grammaticalization and language evolution: focusing the debate. Lang. Sci.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.langsci.2017.03.003
Specific mutations in genes involved in skull and brain developmentbrought about our language-readiness. Some of the candidates forlanguage-readiness are functionally connected to candidates fordomestication and/or are involved in the development and functionof the neural crest other factors seemingly contributed too(increment of population size, change in socialization patterns, etc.)
DEVO
Domestication might haveprovided our children with anextended socialization window,which enabled them to: get a greater amount oftriggering linguistic stimuli interact more frequently andmore intensively with otherconspecifics, and experiment with language fora longer time
Domestication triggers complexity in the communication
systems of many species
BACKGROUNDHuman self-domestication seemingly helped create the cultural niche thatfavored the emergence of complex languages through a cultural process
HOW WE WERE SELF-DOMESTICATED
© Philippe Plailly & AtelierDaynes/Science Source
The cultural niche resulting fromself-domestication favoured theemergence of complex languagestrough a cultural process…
HOW SELF-DOMESTICATION HELPED COMPLEX
LANGUAGES TO EVOLVEEVO
… BUT domestication gives rise aswell to subtle changes in the brainand in behavior…
larger
hippocampus and olfactory bulbs
enhanced spatial cognition and sensory integration
enhanced spatial
learning abilities
… and these recent changes might have impacted oncognitive abilities important for language change(particularly, to grammaticalization processes)
Mutations in genes important for languageevolution give rise to human-specificpathological conditions impacting on ourdistinctive cognitive capacities and entailingproblems with language, but also an abnormalpresentation of the “domestication syndrome”.
These evidence support the view thatcomplex languages evolved only recently
Other factors seemingly contributed!• physical environment• size of human groups• degree and nature of cultural contacts• […]
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