What made us hunter-gatherers of words

This paper makes three interconnected claims: (i) the human condition cannot be captured by evolutionary narratives that reduce it to a recent 'cognitive modernity', nor by narratives that eliminates all cognitive differences between us and out closest extinct relatives, (ii) signals from paleogenomics, especially coming from deserts of introgression but also from signatures of positive selection, point to the importance of mutations that impact neurodevelopment, plausibly leading to temperamental differences, which may impact cultural evolutionary trajectories in specific ways, and (iii) these trajectories are expected to affect the language phenotypes, modifying what is being learned and how it is put to use. In particular, I hypothesize that these different trajectories influence the development of symbolic systems, the flexible ways in which symbols combine, and the size and configurations of the communities in which these systems are put to use.

Automated summary

This paper argues that evolutionary narratives and cognitive comparisons cannot fully capture the complexity of the human condition. It highlights the importance of genetic mutations in neurodevelopment that can lead to temperamental differences, ultimately impacting cultural evolution. The author suggests that these different evolutionary trajectories influence the development of symbolic systems, their flexibility, and the communities in which they are used.