The Revolutionary Origins of Language
Chris Knight author Jerome Lewis author
Format:Hardback
Publisher:Yale University Press
Publishing:27th Oct '26
£25.00
This title is due to be published on 27th October, and will be despatched as soon as possible.
The story of the social and sexual revolution responsible for the emergence of our most prized skill—the ability to speak
Speech is unprecedented in the natural world. Yet human infants can learn the grammar of their native tongue so quickly, it is as if they knew the basics already. How did such a unique ability evolve, and what does it reveal about the nature of our species?
Drawing on evolutionary and social anthropology, behavioural ecology, archaeology, and linguistics, Chris Knight and Jerome Lewis unearth the political and social origins of our capacity to speak. What they discover points to the revolutionary role played by women at every stage. It seems that formidable coalitions of women used laughter, song, and dance to restrain the male potential for violence. In so doing, women established extraordinary levels of community-wide trust—precisely what was needed for linguistic creativity to flourish.
The Revolutionary Origins of Language is a bold and surprising assessment of the complex conditions which produced our most prized skill.
“In this bold, rigorous, and highly engaging book, Knight and Lewis argue that cooperation, not cleverness, is key to humans' ability to create and learn language, while providing a very compelling account of how human cooperation itself evolved. An absolute pleasure to read.”—Adele E. Goldberg, author of Explain Me This
“Superb. Knight and Lewis are two hunter-gatherers of insights, placing female coalitions (and female scholarship) at the heart of a compelling narrative leading to human language as we know it.”—Cedric Boeckx, author of Reflections on Language Evolution
“By centring hunter-gatherer societies and women, Chris Knight and Jerome Lewis deliver a double serving of scholarly rigor and justice in their delightful account of the origins of human language.”—Helen Nde, author of The Watkins Book of African Folklore
“Knight and Lewis light-foot it through some dazzlingly rich ethnographic territory using a fusion of linguistic, evolutionary, archaeological and philosophical theory to arrive at the conclusion we somehow always knew was inevitable: that human culture rests on a foundation of female cooperation and shared care. For those seeking convincing alternatives to war-based models, this is scholarship at its finest.”—Morna Finnegan, author of The Political is Personal
“Based on fascinating anthropological data and solid arguments, two well-respected anthropologists convincingly explain how social cooperation and trust are essential keys for the origins of language. A fantastic book, highly recommended.”—Luc Steels, Professor Emeritus, Free University of Brussels
ISBN: 9780300289206
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: unknown
384 pages