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NEW! Evolutionary Tidbit of the Moment
In seemingly unrelated languages from every corner of the globe, the word corresponding to "mother" contains a sound like /ma/, as in "amma," "mama," or "ima." Father words tend to have the /pa/ or /ba/ sound, like "appa," "abba," "baba," or "papa." A discarded hypothesis held that the words for "mother" and "father" had remained largely unchanged from a proto-language from which all modern languages evolved.
The currently favored explanation is that these are the first sounds infants are able to make, with /m/ being slightly easier (and thus developing sooner) than /p/ or /b/, explaining why the primary caretaker (usually the mother) tends to be referred to by words which sound like "mama" in languages all the world over.
Author Archives: Christopher Lynn
The Wrong Holy Ghost
Out this week in Ethos is a paper I wrote called “‘The Wrong Holy Ghost’” Discerning the Apostolic Gift of Discernment using a Signaling and Systems Theoretical Approach.” It’s about an incident I call “the wrong Holy Ghost” because that … Continue reading
GUEST POST: 1st Annual Darwin Day Colloquium at University of Alabama
On February 12, 2013, the UA EvoS Club hosted its 1st annual Darwin Day Colloquium. Aside from helping out with ALLELE speakers for the past few years, this was the first major activity of the UA EvoS Club, & I … Continue reading
Milking Gorillas
I will do a more thorough summary from the Human Biology Association & American Association of Physical Anthropology annual joint conferences in the near future based on my rabid tweeting from sessions, but a few posters & talks are just … Continue reading
Posted in Anthropology, Biological Anthropology, Mating and Sexuality
Tagged Gordon Gallup, gorillas, Katherine Hinde, Michael Power, milk, primates, Rebecca Burch, semen
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Evolved for Higher Consciousness? Evidence Please
A publication came out in Consciousness & Cognition last year by a neuroscience group in Slovenia that starts off speculating that pursuing higher consciousness is “natural to the experience and potential growth of every human being.” They tested this by … Continue reading
Fireside Trance drives Selection for Enhanced Attention & Working Memory via Baldwin Effect
Fireside hypnotizability Following up on a previous post tracking down the original sources for the December Smithsonian piece about hearth fires & cognitive evolution, evolutionary psychologist Matt Rossano’s “Did Meditating Make Us Human?” spins out a model similar to & … Continue reading
Posted in Adaptation, Biological Anthropology, Cultural Evolution, Hypotheses
Tagged Baldwin effect, fireside relaxation, Matt Rossano
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Manning a perpetual fire was linked to language & social network development
The December 2012 issues of Smithsonian Magazine had a fire theme, & archaeologist Thomas Wynn contributed a short piece on the influence of fire in the evolution of the human mind. He briefs the work of three researchers doing work … Continue reading
Posted in Anthropology, Archaeology
Tagged fire, fireside relaxation, Frederick Coolidge, John Gowlett, Matt Rossano, Smithsonian
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“Anthropologists finally crack the interspecies linguistic barrier…
Related PostsSimian HIV Research at UAB HBES 2012 Roundup 2: Brian Hare’s Chimp/Bonobo Cognition Plenary, Mommy Brain Fogs, & Baba Brinkman Evolution Raps
Signaling Religious Commitment in Brazilian Candomble
I was critiqued in a recent NSF grant proposal review that, while I elegantly integrated signaling & cultural consensus theories in my research design, my statements that (1) signaling theory derives from evolutionary biology & (2) that no one has … Continue reading
Posted in Anthropology, Theory
Tagged Bria Dunham, Candomble, Joseph Bulbulia, Lee Cronk, Montserrat Soler, Religious ecology study, Richard Sosis, Signaling theory
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Consciousness is Painful
For several years now I’ve been putzing around with a dissertation chapter &, subsequently, draft of a paper about the functional delimitations of consciousness. I’m starting to think about it again after a conversation with a philosophy student who had … Continue reading
Posted in Clinical Psychology
Tagged Arthur Aron, awareness, consciousness, David Sloan Wilson, Elaine Aron, highly sensitive people
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I Turned into a Werewolf: Flickering Firelight & the Strange-Face-in-the-Mirror Illusion
When I did the strange-face-in-the-mirror illusion, I turned into a frickin’ werewolf! How cool is that? I should back up, right? I teach a course called “Primate Religion & Human Consciousness” & require students to come up with activities to … Continue reading
