Sociobiology and human culture

David Smillie

pp. 75-95

in: James H. Fetzer (ed), Sociobiology and epistemology, Berlin, Springer, 1985

Abstract

Adopting a view of macroevolution according to descriptive punctualism, this paper shows that it is possible to use developmental evidence to provide a tentative account of the evolution of human culture. Stages of language development in the human infant illustrate possible communicative strategies employed by ancestral species leading to the development of language in Homo erectus. It is only with this latter accomplishment that we can speak of the transmission of cultural information, a realm that requires its own ontological status.