Language & Culture – The Connection

It is difficult to imagine a world without language.  Communication with others occurs in many ways other than through language but the spoken word occurs on all continents, in all countries, cities, towns and villages throughout the world in some form.  Although there are many different languages, almost all cultures use language as a primary means of communication.  Due to the fact that most cultures use language to communicate it is therefore important that each generation of children acquire language for this purpose to support this most common way of interacting with others.  Even in situations where spoken word is not used, for example in people who are hearing impaired, Tomasello discusses the efficacy of this type of language by saying

            And it seems to be the case empirically that various substitutes and variations on linguistic symbols, such as manual sign languages, are all equally effective as language in directing attention and cognition if they are, like natural languages, based on intersubjectively shared and perspectivally based conventional symbols (1999, p. 160).

Tomasello spends significant time in chapters four and five of his novel, The Cultural Origins of Human Cognition, explaining and outlining at length the details of the various stages of the acquisition of the English language in young children.  By his account this is a very intricate process involving several stages of language construction as the child's ability to more fully utilize language develops.  Throughout his discussion of language acquisition there is a common thread of the child's understanding of the meaning and intent of the words they are hearing and beginning to use.  According to Tomasello, in the early stages of language acquisition between the ages of one to four years, children are often imitative in their interactions with adults because they are unsure of what to do so they choose to do what they have seen others do in similar situations.  It is only as their mastery of the artifacts and conventions of their culture increases do they begin to act creatively and formulate spontaneous advances in their use of communication through language. 

Thus, the early stages of a child's language acquisition are vitally influential on their future ability to be able to interact in their world in a contributory way.   Tomasello (p. 160) notes that many adults when faced with an uncertain situation will resort back to imitation when trying to problem-solve.   If a child's early language development is inhibited for some reason, such as limited exposure to the external environment by highly overprotective parents, they will only learn the interactions of their cultural environment in that very narrow arena and will struggle when faced at older ages with the barrage of linguistic symbols and constructions in a more open environment of multiple adults and other children. 

The impact of language on cultural development stems from ability to hold conversations with others where ideas and opinions are traded in a back and forth discourse creating an ongoing shift of perspectives.  As children grow and develop they move from an understanding of themselves and others as intentional agents to themselves and others as mental agents with thoughts and beliefs which may differ from each other.  Through this understanding the intentions, viewpoints, and perspectives of others can be processed and considered to improve overall understanding in societal situations.  Tomasello (1999) discusses several stages in the progression of children in becoming mental agents including disagreements and misunderstandings, requests for clarification, communicative breakdown and repair, and moral understanding.  These more advanced thought processes enable children to better understand the world they live in and give them the ability to contribute to their culture through the use of language to share their thoughts, ideas, and opinions.  Discourse explored through the use of language gives great insight into the thoughts of others and opens an avenue to explore the cultural foundations in societies.  Words can be thought of as just words without shared meaning and understanding.  Each culture has its own rich tapestry of beliefs and constructions.  The sharing of common language amongst the people who participate in the culture allows for ongoing and deep investigation and elaborations that would not exist in its absence.

References:

Tomassello, M. (1999). The cultural origins of human cognition, Cambridge, Ma.: Harvard University       Press.

The Ratchet Effect: What is it and what does it mean in the context of the evolution of primates and humans?

In the first two weeks of our class discussions we have begun to review and contemplate what it is that separates us cognitively from primates and other mammals and how this difference may have occurred in our evolution. Tomassello's account in The Cultural Origins of Human Cognition approaches this topic by offering a hypothesis of cultural or social transmission which is species-unique in humans (Tomasello, 1999, p. 4) to account for the swift time scale of human evolution. According to Tomassello, there are very distinct abilities we have as humans that are not evident in the world of primates or other mammals. Specifically, one of the major abilities we hold as humans is our capacity for cultural learning. Through historical examples, Tomasello contends that we have continued to improve cognitively as a species because of our ongoing ability to build on our knowledge and performances through transmission of what we know between ourselves and additionally improvements of what we know through collaborations with other humans. An example of this historical evolution discussed by Tomasello is that of the hammer in its beginnings as a simple stone tool through to mechanical hammers of today. In effect, Tomasselo suggests that it is these two abilities, transmission and collaboration, that enable humans to move forward and progress. Tomasello, Kruger, and Ratner (1993) discuss human ability to make improvements or modifications to a process or object individually or in groups again and again over time as cumulative cultural evolution or the ratchet effect. Conversely, Tomasselo argues that primates do not possess this cognitive capacity for cultural transmission so that learned skills and abilities are not transmitted culturally between primates and are lost over time thus limiting evolutionary progression within the species; non-human primates do not have the ability to produce the ratchet effect.

If this hypothesis of the ability for cumulative cultural evolution as species-unique to humans is true then I wonder what is it that prevents non-human primates from this same ability if it is not, at least in part, biology. Tomasello briefly outlines another hypothesis discussed by Boyd and Richerson (1996) where they posit that non-human primates do practice cumulative cultural evolution but the difference may be quantitative. They argue that the ratchet effect does occur in non-human primates but not consistently enough or in the same breadth of contexts to advance the species cognitively through cultural learning. This does offer another alternative but it still leads me to ask the question about biology. I suggest that perhaps there is a combination of these two reasons, biology and culture, which in concert could explain why non-human primates cannot produce the ratchet effect consistently and in the same breadth of contexts as humans.

I have never considered any explanation of the differences between primates and humans other than that of sheer biology. I have seen the videos and news stories touting the amazing abilities of enculturated apes and agreed that they were quite remarkable. My understanding of what happened to allow these primates to improve beyond what I would perceive as normal primate intelligence was that they held some additional capacity to learn which was advanced by careful staging of scientific experimentation. While that still may be true, it is a new opportunity to contemplate the role of culture versus biology in human evolution and in explanation of the differences between humans and non-human primates. Understanding that historically humans at some point learned how to learn differently, namely through cultural transmission, is a key piece in the further exploration of the evolutionary puzzle.

References:

Tomassello, M. (1999). The cultural origins of human cognition, Cambridge, Ma.: Harvard University Press.

Tomasselo, M., Kruger, A.C. & Ratner, H.H. (1993). Cultural Learning, Behavioural and Brain Sciences. 16, 495-552.

Boyd, R. and Richerson, P. (1996). Why culture is common but cultural evolution is rare. Proceedings

of the British Academy. 88, 77-93.