Language in Prehistory
eBook - PDF

Language in Prehistory

  1. English
  2. PDF
  3. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - PDF

Language in Prehistory

About this book

For ninety per cent of our history, humans have lived as 'hunters and gatherers', and for most of this time, as talking individuals. No direct evidence for the origin and evolution of language exists; we do not even know if early humans had language, either spoken or signed. Taking an anthropological perspective, Alan Barnard acknowledges this difficulty and argues that we can nevertheless infer a great deal about our linguistic past from what is around us in the present. Hunter-gatherers still inhabit much of the world, and in sufficient number to enable us to study the ways in which they speak, the many languages they use, and what they use them for. Barnard investigates the lives of hunter-gatherers by understanding them in their own terms, to create a book which will be welcomed by all those interested in the evolution of language.

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Yes, you can access Language in Prehistory by Alan Barnard in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Social Sciences & Cultural & Social Anthropology. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.

Table of contents

  1. Cover
  2. Half-title
  3. Series information
  4. Title page
  5. Copyright information
  6. Dedication
  7. Table of contents
  8. List of figures
  9. List of tables
  10. Preface
  11. 1 Introduction
  12. 2 Population diversity and language diversity
  13. 3 What did prehistoric people do?
  14. 4 How did prehistoric people think?
  15. 5 Narratives of the every-day
  16. 6 Mythological narratives
  17. 7 Sexual selection and language evolution
  18. 8 Conclusions and thoughts for the future
  19. Glossary
  20. References
  21. Index