I have no data upon which a conclusion may be based. I therefore suggest that someone apply for a grant to study this question in greater depth. It could revolutionize the way we use our hands.
“I put forth that bipedalism allowed the hands to be used to develop gestural language which was eventually supplemented with vocal utterences and later virtually replaced by oral language”
I don’t know much about this issue but why do you need gestural language as a path towarda vocal language? Couldn’t our primate ancestors evolved from crude vocal utterances (like primates today) to more sophisticated vocal utterances?
Also given that modern homo sapiens doesn’t really use his hands to communicate much, what happened to that ability?
IMHO I would expect rock throwing to be the most use in early hominids, though a stick is of use against a preditor, I susspect in large numbers throwing rocks would be succesfull for defence and hunting. Combined with good 3D vision, and a brain good enough to work out trajectories I would susspect rock throwing as being the way hominids out performed other species in the earliest of days.
Cheers, Bippy
While weapons is a likely candidate, it’s not the only possible one for First Tool. I can visualize a lot of digging and reaching tools useful for obtaining roots and fruits and nuts out of easy initial reach which would become a lot more practical if one had both hands free to use them and to carry them.
Oh, and also: one other advantage of upright posture for hunting, quite apart from freeing up the hands, is that our form of bipedal locomotion is very very efficient – we ain’t fast but we can move at an inexorable pace all day long on our two legs. We can run most other land species to the ground. Quadruped locomotion is much less efficient, generally speaking – they tend to lose momentum and expend quite a bit of extra energy from the moment when the front paws or hooves or whatever hit the ground and the back ones lift and start to swing forward until the moment the back ones touch down again and start to kick backwards. They tend to be built for it, with powerful butt and leg and back muscles, but most of them can’t run along for prolonged distances. (Bears and horses being notable exceptions). As quadrupeds, we could not have hunted in this fashion–there’s no reason to think we were efficient runners on all fours.
I’d say grabbing things and putting them in their mouths. Humans don’t have opposable thumbs on their feet or a long, flexible neck, so it’s the easiest way to eat. Hands make mastication easier (yes, I find that word hilarious).
With regard to gestural communication and the lack of proof that exists, yeah. I can see where that’d be the case.
However, I wonder at the fact that in raising my twins, and in many many (if not all hearing) children, gestural communication exists before and often alongside spoken communication. Pointing comes with and in the case of my children, before grunting. Hand signals such as putting your hand out as though you were holding a soft ball and then rotating your hand back and forth as though you were turning a knob to the left and right? That hand signal was “bottle’s empty” and then “all gone” as they learned the words and would say them, along with the hand signals.
Now, I’m not scientist, so file this under observation.
Indeed gestural communication is learned earlier and more easily than oral language (see “Baby Signs”) Lack of early gestural language (so-called “prototypical pointing” for example) is much more worrisome for a developmentally attuned pediatrician than lack of words by the officially expected ages.
Now ontogeny doesn’t really recapitulate phylogeny, but it is suggestive of it. Language developed as a very special tool. Arguably the most significant tool ever created.
DS:
I’d agree that language is, by far, the most significant “tool” we humasn have invented. It’s a pretty pursuasive argument that earlier hominid species (incl Neanderthals and so-called “archaic” sapiens" did not have fully articulate language, since tool development seems to proceed at a glacial pace until suddenly, around 50k years ago, it just exploded (along with very complex art). As much as I intuitively think Neanderthals could talk to each other, one has to wonder what else could explain the huge gap in tool kits between Neanderthals and H. spaiens if not a big language gap.
Actually, I think the OP is all wrong, not any answer. The thing is, the Hand is beautifully designed to do many thing well, rather than one thing great. Part of the reason for the hand’s design is that it isn’t specialized, like a hoof or paw.
Bandit:
I like your reasoning, but not sure I agree. Can you elaborate on the “many” things? I see the hand as specialized for 2 things-- power grip and precision grip. Paws are similarly dually specialized-- running and clawing.
Now, if you say throwing, you’re talking about the whole arm/shoulder system, not just the hand.
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Gripping
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Individual finger use
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Accuracy and Coordination
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Climbing
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Tactile Sensation
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Balance (Since the loss of the tail.)
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Holding and Carrying
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Throwing (see below)
Doesn’t matter, they evolved together to be used together. Much of the uses of the hand are powered by muscles in the lower arm, for instance. But this one really comes down to a combination of coordination and grip.
Not buying it. 1, 4 ,7 are the same thing. 6&8 still don’t count for hands in my book. Anyway, no big deal. We just have a different opinion.