0054 Chapter three discusses apes that walk upright.  The authors present a snapshot from three millions years ago.

In the previous blog, three examples provided case studies of the way that the situation-level actuality_2b (characterizing the “adaptation”) coordinates with the content-level potential_1a (characterizing the “phenotype”).  Mother-infant interactions [stimulate] hormones_2b coordinates with the potential of innate functions_1a.  Primate grooming_2b is mixed_1a.  Habits for foraging, signaling and so on_2b favors plasticity_1a.

0055 Newson and Richerson do not express the logic of their argument as explicitly as portrayed in this examination. Perhaps, they may demand a few adjustments to my exercise.  That is fair.

At the same time, one can take my assessments much further.

The authors’ approach opens up to a dichotomy that is expressed very early in the philosophy in the West, and much earlier in the unfolding of our current Lebenswelt.

Two situation-level actualities may be explicitly abstracted using the labels, “body” and “mind”.

0056 This dichotomy is built over generations into our genus through implicit abstraction,

The body responds to signals.

The mind responds to signs.

0057 How does this complementarity come to be?

Three million years ago, so-called “southern apes” walk between widely separated areas of rich resources in an environment of mixed forest and savannah.  Australopithecines walk upright.  The foot becomes enslaved for walking.  The hand is freed for other tasks.  

The authors offer a drawing of a pot-bellied ape with relatively long arms and short legs. As the tropical forests retreated due to the cooler climate of the Pleistocene, these little troopers start to walk from place to place.

0058 They face a host of challenges.

0059 They must avoid or confront predators.  Ah, put a stick in the little fellow’s hand!  Or maybe a rock.  The other hand will carry an infant or some food.  Well, maybe the males carry the clubs and the females carry the infants.

An ancient social habit, where one large male rules over a harem of females, begins to break down, because no single male can carry a stick and a baby at the same time.  More males are needed to carry the sticks.  And the rocks.  And whatever else the females do not want to carry.

Is this starting to sound vaguely familiar?

0060 Newson and Richerson focuses on one team, mothers helping others in organizing infant care.  The authors pay lip service for some other teams, such as males foraging and occasionally fighting off enemies (hyenas and baboons) on the periphery of the camp.

0061 It is here, in the recognition of the importance of the team, where Razie Mah’s masterwork, The Human Niche, begins to shine.  Teams constitute cultures outside of the mother-infant dyad.  It is as if the mother-infant dyad is generalized, so that belonging to a team, cooperating, taking risks, sharing situational awareness, suffering losses and gaining benefits becomes… well… familiar.  Culture [informs] brains_2b builds off the foundations of social interactions [stimulate] hormonal responses_2b.  Minds_2b and bodies_2b co-evolve.

0062 Plus, the build-out extends signaling into sign-processing.  Signaling is the stuff of dyadic stimulus-response.  Sign-processing is the stuff of triadic relations, where a sign-vehicle stands for a sign-object in regards to a sign-interpretant.

In the first chapter, the authors state that culture is information and information is shared.  To me, they do not go on to develop that statement where signaling (which is the information of cause and effect) extends into sign-processing (where information may be regarded as sign-vehicles that can key into sign-objects due to innate (genes) or learned (cultural) sign-interpretants).

0063 Why do the authors not develop the extension of signals into sign-processing?

Here is an example that follows the presentation in A Primer on the Category-Based Nested Form and A Primer on Sensible and Social Construction, available as smashwords and other e-book venues.

The dyadic nature of the social interaction of the mother-infant dyad can be depicted as content and situation levels of a two-level interscope.  Two-level interscopes are characteristic of sensible construction.  Note that the actualities₂ imply, but do not demand, awareness of the respective normal contexts₃ and potentials₁.

0064 The triadic nature of social interaction within a team can be depicted using the same sensible construction.  But now, the interactions consist of individuals gesturing to one another and responding to the moment with the intent of attaining a goal.  Two-level interscopes are characteristic of sensible construction.  Note that the actualities₂ imply, and to some extent, demand, awareness of the respective normal contexts₃ and potentials₁.

But, what does the word, “awareness”, really mean?

0065 Team activities entail sign-processing.  Acheulean stone tools serve as archaeological evidence of a team activity that lasts for generations.  These tools remain the same for hundreds of thousands of years, but the associated sign-processing abilities continually improve.  Why?  Improved sign-processing increases reproductive success.

0066 Even though the authors emphasize the importance of culture, Newson and Richerson miss the concept that the human niche includes the potential of signs.  Sign-relations are actualities independent of the adapting species.

The following two-level interscope appears in general form in point 0035.

The following two-level interscope applies to evolution that begins around three million years ago.

0067 In order to explain the evolution of talk, the authors mention how the voice could be employed for signaling.  They argue as if the only way to talk is by using the voice.  They ignore recent linguistic studies on sign languages.  They do not notice that the hand is already under voluntary neural control and voluntary neural control is required to talk.

0068 The authors also note that, by three million years ago, the crania of the southern apes are already enlarging.  Larger brains assist sign processing.

0069 Other changes to include in this period include the loss of hair.  Perhaps, the loss is related to climatic conditions.

Finally, the authors go into detail about what biologists observe when animals are domesticated.  For example, the fox and the boar have been domesticated.  In the process, these creatures change appearance and temperament in a holistic manner.

What does domestication mean?

What does it mean to join team human?