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The language puzzle : how we talked our way out of the Stone Age / Steven Mithen
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The language puzzle : how we talked our way out of the Stone Age / Steven Mithen

by Steven J. Mithen

This study traces the evolution of human language from primitive origins to modern speech. It integrates research from archaeology, genetics, and linguistics to examine how language has shaped human cognition and the development of societies over millennia.

Accession 28791 ISBN 9781800811584 Publisher Profile Books
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TAGS
Curated Derived
Communication Culture Evolution History Human Evolution Humanity Language Life Sciences Linguistics Science Social Sciences Sounds
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LOCATION HISTORY
G:W1:8 5 Current vertical
5 days, 6 hours ago
G:W1:8 5 vertical
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The relationship between language, thought and culture is of concern to anyone with an interest in what it means to be human. The Language Puzzle explains how the invention of words at 1.6 million years ago began the evolution of human language from the ape-like calls of our earliest ancestors to our capabilities of today, with over 6000 languages in the world and each of us knowing over 50,000 words. Drawing on the latest discoveries in archaeology, linguistics, psychology, and genetics, Steven Mithen reconstructs the steps by which language evolved; he explains how it transformed the nature of thought and culture, and how we talked our way out of the Stone Age into the world of farming and swiftly into today's Digital Age. -- publisher

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Steven J. Mithen
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