Stages and causes of the evolution of language and consciousness: A theoretical reconstruction.
Bio Systems February 1, 2025 Nikolai S Rozov 2 citations
This article refines theoretical explanations for the main stages of linguistic and cognitive evolution in human origins. It introduces the concepts of "concern" and "providing structure" as extensions of biological adaptation within the extended evolutionary synthesis. Concerns about sustenance, safety, sexuality, parenthood, status, and emotional support drive behavioral tries, which consolidate into providing structures—practices, abilities, and attitudes—via interactive rituals and internalization. These structures reshape environmental and group niches, generating new challenges. During African multiregionalism, hominin groups faced demographic bottlenecks where only the most advanced survived. Abilities became innate through the Baldwin effect and multilevel selection, explaining the evolution of language from holophrases to complex syntax and consciousness from expanded attention to self-consciousness and the self.