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| Language | 46% | 203 votes | Total: 441 votes | |
| Culture | 54% | 238 votes |
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Add to FavoritesThe language or culture debate is interesting if you look at the evolutionary aspect of language and culture. The following is my definition of these two concepts:
Language is the ability to use speech to identify ideas and concepts. Culture is the religious, organizational, and cultural mores of a group of people.
According to primatologists (and some other scientists), human sapiens lived together in groups much like the baboons. The mated females and children were in the inner circle. The unmated females, older children, and males with prestige were in the next circle. The outriggers were the juvenile males. The beauty of this system was that the large predators (lions and such) would fight the more aggressive and testosterone-laden males. The whole purpose of this arrangement was to protect the future (pregnant females and babies).
When homo sapiens developed the ability to speak, their world changed because they could speak about ideas and concepts that were abstract. Prior to language, homo sapiens were primarily concerned with survival. It was not a world conducive to abstract ideas or even mathematics.
Communication through language allowed this group to think and survive. With language it was easier to go from a hunter society to a planting (more stable) society.
In comparison, the chimpanzees who did not develop language, have a society that protects the females and chases away strangers including strange chimpanzees. Even though evolutionary-wise they are cousins and did develop the opposable thumb because they did not develop the equipment for speaking, they live a very primitive life.
So the main idea is that language helped humans to vocalize their ideas. With the advent of language, it was easier to pass on survival techniques, hunting tips, and even housing tips.
The mechanics of language are also fascinating. How come homo sapiens have developed speech to such a sophisticated level, but other animals have not? Why did our survival depend on it? Or do other animals have language that we have not recognized yet?
Evolutionary speaking, we would not have been able to climb the top of the ladder without a few advantages. Without our brains, opposable thumbs, and speech, we have very little to help us with survivability. We have thin skins. We have to make coverings because we do not have fur. We have blunt teeth. We have to make weapons to defend ourselves. There are more animals that have better defensive skills than we have.
So when you think of yourself as on the top of the evolutionary chain, be grateful to that first ancestor that was able to speak instead of grunt.
Learn more about this author, Cyn Bagley - Memoirs Steward.
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Culture
Culture is clearly the predecessor to language as illustrated by the following definition. "The system of shared beliefs, values, customs, behaviors, and artifacts that the members of society use to cope with their world and with one another, and that are transmitted from generation to generation through learning."(www.umani toba.ca) In other words, since a group of people or nation does not have to have language in order to exhibit customs, belief and values a culture can exist without language. Since, pre-linguistic man displayed characteristics of culture without language it follows that culture came first.
To illustrate, there were several customs practiced regularly by illiterate stone age men and women. These customs included the following which all contribute to the definition of culture:
-Burials were utilized regularly
-Paternal and Maternal socialization
-Hierarchy and other social networks
-Artistic expression and visualization
-Ritual and pre-historic religion
-Tool manufacturing
The reason pre-linguistic people were able to do all these things was because of other forms of communication such as body language, intonation, and established behavior patterns. For example, through body language stone age people could communicate hunting tactics, through intonations and grunts various moods such as anger, sorrow, and frustration could be expressed. What's more, through socialization, stone-age young-lings learned behavior from parents by watching them. These learned behaviors became shared behavior and therefore customs.
What this illustrates is that language is not necessary for culture. Even some modern day primates have a rudimentary form of culture in which tools are used and social networks and hierarchy is established using non-linguistic communication. For example, Male chimpanzees establish their dominance through displays of strength and relationships among other chimpanzees are established through various other forms of communication.
Culture is a word of varying degrees, while to some it may include the highest form of civilization and socialization; to others it may simply mean standard customs and practices such as family, communication and shared belief. For prehistoric people, culture was included in the practice of living without language. Numerous cave paintings, burial sites, housing relics and anthropological findings have verified the point a culture existed around these beings without a language per se.
Source(s):
http://www.umanitoba .ca/faculties/arts/a nthropology/courses/ 122/module1/culture. html
http://www.suite101. com/article.cfm/virt ual_journeys/98105
http://www.meta-reli gion.com/World_Relig ions/Ancient_religio ns/prehistoric_relig ion.htm
Learn more about this author, A.W. Berry.
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