Encyclopedia of Evolution.pdf - Online Reading Center

Lascaux caves
Some of the original linguistic diversity persisted into
historic times. Etruscan was apparently a language unrelated
to any other, although the Roman eradication of Etruscan
culture was so thorough that little evidence remains. A small
enclave of Basque culture and language near the border of
France and Spain is unrelated to any other known language
group.
Another parallel between biological species and languages
is extinction. Most of the original languages have
become extinct, just as have most species. The universal use
of English, and widespread use of other commercial languages
such as Indonesian, has caused many of the younger
generation to treat their ancestral languages more as curiosities
than as identities. Deliberate cultural efforts are underway
to keep many Native American languages alive; for example,
the Tsalagi (Cherokee) tribal newspaper is mostly in English
but often has a column or two in the Cherokee language and
script. Similar efforts keep Welsh and Irish alive. There are
very few (or perhaps no) people who speak only Cherokee,
Welsh, or Irish. Such languages are the cultural equivalent of
endangered species in nature preserves. Manx Gaelic became
extinct within the last century.
Further Reading
Anderson, Stephen R. “A telling difference.” Natural History,
November 2004, 38–43.
Cavalli-Sforza, Luigi Luca, et al. “Reconstruction of human evolution:
Bringing together genetic, archaeological, and linguistic
data.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 85
(1988): 6,002–6,006.
Christiansen, Marten H., and Simon Kirby, eds. Language Evolution.
New York: Oxford University Press, 2003.
Diamond, Jared M. “Bridges to human language.” Chap. 8 in The
Third Chimpanzee: The Evolution and Future of the Human Animal.
New York: HarperPerennial, 1992.
Dunbar, Robin. Grooming, Gossip, and the Evolution of Language.
Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1996.
Dunn, Michael, et al. “Structural phylogenetics and the reconstruction
of ancient language history.” Science 309 (2005): 2,072–
2,075.
Laird, Charlton. The Miracle of Language. New York: Fawcett,
1973.
McCrone, John. The Ape That Spoke: Language and the Evolution
of the Human Mind. New York: William Morrow, 1991.
Miller, Geoffrey F. The Mating Mind: How Sexual Choice Shaped the
Evolution of Human Nature. New York: Doubleday, 2000.
Olson, Steve. Mapping Human History: Discovering the Past through
Our Genes. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 2002.
Pei, Mario. The Story of Language. Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1949.
Wade, Nicholas. “Among chimps and bonobos, the hand often does
the talking.” New York Times, May 1, 2007, D3.
Lascaux caves See Cro-Magnon.
lateral gene transfer See horizontal gene transfer.
Leakey, Louis S. B. (1903–1972) Kenyan Anthropologist
Louis Seymour Bazett Leakey (see photo) had a tremendous
impact on the scientific and popular understanding of human
evolution. Born August 7, 1903, the son of English missionaries,
Leakey grew up in Kenya. During his childhood he
learned Kikuyu as fluently as English and was later initiated
into the Kikuyu tribe. When he was 13, he discovered
some stone tools and decided that he wanted to study the
ancient people who had produced them. He went to Cambridge
University, where he earned a degree in anthropology
and archaeology in 1926. He conducted several expeditions
in East Africa, which led to his Ph.D. in 1930. In 1936 he
married Mary Nicol, a scientific illustrator, who would later
make significant discoveries of her own (see Leakey, Mary).
When Louis Leakey was unable to verify the location
from which some of his fossils had been found, some anthropologists
dismissed his claims, and his chance for an academic
career in England were diminished. He and Mary returned
to Kenya, where he later became a curator at what is now
the Kenya National Museum. The position paid little but
Louis Leakey examines a fossil fragment discovered by his son Richard
at their base camp in Omo Valley, Ethiopia, in the late 0s. (Courtesy of
Kenneth Garrett, National Geographic Society)