The Human Revolution (Symposium on the Evolution of Language)
Alice V. and David H. Morris Symposium on the Evolution of Language Stony Brook University – New York – October 14-16 2005
What applies in academic life applies wherever language is used. Protocols always exist. Compared with academic discourse, informal gossip may be livelier, more relaxed, less abstract and more intimately bound up with non-linguistic modes of expression. But despite such obvious differences, the same principles apply. Civilised intercourse depends on respect for the law. This has nothing to do with any behavioural dominance of certain individuals over others. Legality is a contractual entity, genuine insofar as it is collectively agreed. Once contractual understandings are in place, then and then only can we ‘do things with words’ (Austin 1978 [1955]; Searle 1996, Bourdieu 1990, Deacon 1997).
This being the case, speech acts are never behavioural. Instead, we proceed as if playing an abstract game. As in chess, moves are made within a hallucinatory world, each intervention digitally specified and effective once its intention has been recognised. To emit a signal – even to transform the entire state of play – no physical investment need be made. In a game of this kind (Wittgenstein 1968), interventions cost nothing at all. In principle, a nod or wink might suffice. What constitutes a move is the fact that it is agreed to be one – nothing more. Digital information is then transmitted – with intuitive mind reading filling any remaining gaps (Sperber and Wilson 1986).
Language evolved among hunters and gatherers. Hunter-gatherer communities are at least as civilised as any others (Lee 1988). Artificial regulations concerning kinship and marriage are designed to ensure that sex, for example, falls under the rule of law. Ritual taboos surround matters such as incest or menstruation. Protocols and ritual injunctions facilitate sexual circulation – rather in the way that traffic signals in a modern city ensure the flow of traffic. Humans need rules in order to transcend primate-style conflict. The law exists to uphold behaviour of a civilised kind (Lévi-Strauss 1969).
Download The Human Revolution (Symposium on the Evolution of Language) in PDF format [348KB]