From robert.g.eckert at us.army.mil Thu Apr 26 23:13:55 2007 From: robert.g.eckert at us.army.mil (robert.g.eckert at us.army.mil) Date: Thu, 26 Apr 2007 23:13:55 -0400 Subject: [percy-l] The Naked Ape's Triadic Threshold Message-ID: Newsweek recently had an article on human evolution in which was argued that human beings became hairless about 110,000 years ago. This was based on the DNA analysis of hair lice becoming body lice. The earliest known symbol use, last I checked into this stuff, was beads found in East Africa--the Blombos Cave, dating from some 90,000 years. To my thinking, the point at which human beings crossed the triadic threshold is looking to be about 100,000 years ago. Being that it was a qualitative, punctual, evolutionary event, it must have occured at a specific time and place. Searching for this Adam Event is now involving lice DNA. This makes me think of Percy's siggest to triangulate--use many perspectives to locate a point. If it did occur, more evidence is out there. - Spc Robert Eckert From johnharvey at earthlink.net Fri Apr 27 08:41:32 2007 From: johnharvey at earthlink.net (John Harvey) Date: Fri, 27 Apr 2007 07:41:32 -0500 Subject: [percy-l] The Naked Ape's Triadic Threshold In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Robert, List, Great post! I am fascinated by the possibility that we can identify this event. This fascination is based on my beliefs that: 1. Percy's Fateful Rift is a major stumbling block to understanding language; 2. Forward motion in the social sciences depends on understanding language; and 3. Progress in these subjects is hampered by our limited understanding of the triadic component of language. Therefore, anything which focuses attention on the triadic component of language is worthy of more study. At 11:13 PM 4/26/2007 -0400, Robert G. Eckert wrote: >Newsweek recently had an article on human evolution in which was >argued that human beings became hairless about 110,000 years ago. >This was based on the DNA analysis of hair lice becoming body lice. > >The earliest known symbol use, last I checked into this stuff, was >beads found in East Africa--the Blombos Cave, dating from some 90,000 years. > >To my thinking, the point at which human beings crossed the triadic >threshold is looking to be about 100,000 years ago. > >Being that it was a qualitative, punctual, evolutionary event, it >must have occured at a specific time and place. > >Searching for this Adam Event is now involving lice DNA. How does Percy explicitly suggest that symbol use is related to "the triadic threshold?" Or, are there secondary sources for this connection? In either case, I would appreciate knowing where I can get more information on these ideas. >This makes me think of Percy's siggest to triangulate--use many >perspectives to locate a point. > >If it did occur, more evidence is out there. Robert has suggested that the advent of symbol use evidenced by beads found in the Blombos Cave and the evolution of hair lice to body lice are markers on this trail. Have other members on this list any thoughts about what other tiail markers might be? Respecfully, John Harvey "The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them." -Albert Einstein From wriddick at usa.net Fri Apr 27 18:03:10 2007 From: wriddick at usa.net (Wade Riddick) Date: Fri, 27 Apr 2007 17:03:10 -0500 Subject: [percy-l] The Naked Ape's Triadic Threshold In-Reply-To: Message-ID: If you're interested in the evolution of language, I suggest you look at the research on mirror neurons. Empathy is wired into humans from a very early age. In conditions like autism where mirror neurons are impaired, language ability is also impaired. I've read a number of articles on mirror neurons in the last few years, but since I've not had direct, severe damage to my mirror neurons, I haven't by very rigorous in keeping track of them in my research database. I only have two entries on the subject, although I'm sure I've saved a number of other articles somewhere on my drive. I'm sure if you search for "mirror neuron" in you'll get a lot of interesting hits. Notes: the degree of tested empathy in a person is proportional to the amount of mirror neuron activity; it's lower in autistics; mirror neurons in people and macaque monkeys extend to auditory types which activate when you hear something; the sound of someone eating an apple, for instance, activates many of the areas of the brain which would activate if you were actually eating an apple yourself (which is why advertising works so well); hearing sounds of eating potato chips or crumpling paper activated brain areas associated with chewing or hand action; overlap occurred in the bilateral temporal gyrus and superior temporal sulcus mirror neurons in the insula register uniquely human social emotions like guilt, shame, pride, embarrassment, disgust and lust; mirror neurons in various brain areas are activated when someone watches someone else perform an action and when someone performs the action themselves; some mirror neurons activate when kicking a ball, seeing someone kick a ball or hearing the word 'kick'; observation improves muscle performance via mirror neurons; mirror neurons also activate in men watching other men having sex with women, thus accounting for the vicarious thrill of pornography; multiple mirror neurons in the human brain not only carry out actions but understanding the actions of others - both how and why they perform them - the social meaning of those behaviors and the emotions involved; mirror neurons underly the acquisition of culture by children by sharing, imitation and observation and form the basis of language, philosophy and art; in autistics, defects in mirror neurons prevent them from feeling the emotion they identify on another's face even though they can imitate the facial expression; autistics don't know what it's like to feel sad, angry, disguested or surprised from simply observing other people; in children watching violent TV, mirror neuron involved in aggression overactivate leading to the increased probability of violent behavior