Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-hc48f Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-22T13:56:32.942Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Neanderthals did speak, but FOXP2 doesn't prove it

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 December 2014

Sverker Johansson*
Affiliation:
Dalarna University, Falun, SE-791 88, Sweden. [email protected]://users.du.se/~sja/

Abstract

Ackermann et al. treat both genetic and paleoanthropological data too superficially to support their conclusions. The case of FOXP2 and Neanderthals is a prime example, which I will comment on in some detail; the issues are much more complex than they appear in Ackermann et al.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2014 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Barceló-Coblijn, L. & Benítez-Burraco, A. (2013) Disentangling the Neanderthal net: A comment on Johansson (2013). Biolinguistics 7:199216.Google Scholar
Benítez-Burraco, A. & Longa, V. M. 2012. On the inference “Neanderthals had FOXP2=they had complex language.” In: Evolution of language. Proceedings of the 9th International Conference (Evolang9), ed. Scott-Phillips, T., Tamariz, M., Cartmill, E. & Hurford, J. R., pp 5057. World Scientific.Google Scholar
Bickerton, D. (2009) Adam's tongue: How humans made language, how language made humans. Hill & Wang.Google Scholar
Dediu, D. & Levinson, S. C. (2013) On the antiquity of language: The reinterpretation of Neandertal linguistic capacities and its consequences. Frontiers in Psychology 4(397):117. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00397.Google Scholar
Diller, K. C. & Cann, R. L. (2009) Evidence against a genetic-based revolution in language 50,000 years ago. In: The cradle of language, ed. Botha, R. & Knight, C., pp. 135–49. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Diller, K. C. & Cann, R. L. (2012) Genetic influences on language evolution: An evaluation of the evidence. In: The Oxford Handbook of Language Evolution, ed. Tallerman, M. & Gibson, K. R., pp. 168–75. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Enard, W., Przeworski, M., Fisher, S. E., Lai, C. S., Wiebe, V., Kitano, T., Monaco, A. P. & Pääbo, S. (2002) Molecular evolution of FOXP2, a gene involved in speech and language. Nature 418(6900):869–72.Google Scholar
Falk, D. (2004) Prelinguistic evolution in early hominins: Whence motherese? Behavioral and Brain Sciences 27(4):491503.Google Scholar
Green, R. E., Krause, J. Briggs, A. W., Maricic, T., Stenzel, U., Kircher, M., Patterson, N., Li, H., Zhai, W., Fritz, M. H.-Y., Hansen, N. F., Durand, E. Y., Malaspinas, A.-S., Jensen, J. D., Marques-Bonet, T., Alkan, C., Prüfer, K., Meyer, M., Burbano, H. A., Good, J. M., Schultz, R., Aximu-Petri, A., Butthof, A., Höber, B., Höffner, B., Siegemund, M., Weihmann, A., Nusbaum, C., Lander, E. S., Russ, C., Novod, N., Affourtit, J., Egholm, M., Verna, C., Rudan, P., Brajkovic, D., Kucan, E., Gusic, I., Doronichev, V. B., Golovanova, L. V., Lalueza-Fox, C. , de la Rasilla, M., Fortea, J., Rosas, A., Schmitz, R. W., Johnson, P. L. F., Eichler, E. E., Falush, D., Birney, E., Mullikin, J. C., Slatkin, M., Nielsen, R., Kelso, J., Lachmann, M., Reich, D. & Pääbo, S. (2010) A draft sequence of the Neandertal genome. Science 328(5979):710–22.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Haesler, S., Wada, K., Nshdejan, A., Morrisey, E. E., Lints, T., Jarvis, E. D. & Scharff, C. (2004) FoxP2 expression in avian vocal learners and non-learners. The Journal of Neuroscience 24(13):3164–75.Google Scholar
Johansson, S. (2005) Origins of language: Constraints on hypotheses. John Benjamins.Google Scholar
Johansson, S. (2011) Constraining the time when language evolved. Linguistic and Philosophical Investigations 10:4559.Google Scholar
Johansson, S. (2013) The talking Neanderthals: What do fossils, genetics, and archeology say? Biolinguistics 7:3574.Google Scholar
Johansson, S., Zlatev, J. & Gärdenfors, P. (2006) Why don't chimps talk and humans sing like canaries? Comment on Locke & Bogin's “Language and life history”. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 29(3):287–88.Google Scholar
Lai, C. S. L., Fisher, S. E., Hurst, J. A., Vargha-Khadem, F. & Monaco, A. P. (2001) A forkhead-domain gene is mutated in a severe speech and language disorder. Nature 413(6855):519–23.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Li, G., Wang, J., Rossiter, S. J., Jones, G. & Zhang, S. (2007) Accelerated FoxP2 evolution in echolocating bats. PLoS ONE 2(9):e900. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0000900.Google Scholar
Lieberman, P. (2009) FOXP2 and human cognition. Cell 137:800802.Google Scholar
Locke, J. L. & Bogin, B. (2006) Language and life history: A new perspective on the development and evolution of human language. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 29(3):301–11.Google Scholar
Macaulay, V. (2005) Single, rapid coastal settlement of Asia revealed by analysis of complete mitochondrial genomes. Science 308:1034–36.Google Scholar
Mithen, S. J. (2006) The singing Neanderthals: The origins of music, language, mind and body. Harvard University Press. (Original work published in 2005).Google Scholar
Yotova, V., Lefebvre, J.-F., Moreau, C., Gbeha, E., Hovhannesyan, K., Bourgeois, S., Bédarida, S., Azevedo, L., Amorim, A., Sarkisian, T., Avogbe, P., Chabi, N., Dicko, M. H., Kou'Santa Amouzou, E. S., Sanni, A., Roberts-Thomson, J., Boettcher, B., Scott, R. J. & Labuda, D. (2011) An X-linked haplotype of Neandertal origin is present among all non-African populations. Molecular Biology and Evolution 28:1957–62.Google Scholar