The Evolution of Language: A Comparative Review

For many years the evolution of language has been seen as a disreputable topic, mired in fanciful “just so stories” about language origins. However, in the last decade a new synthesis of modern linguistics, cognitive neuroscience and neo-Darwinian evolutionary theory has begun to make important contributions to our understanding of the biology and evolution of language. I review some of this recent progress, focusing on the value of the comparative method, which uses data from animal species to draw inferences about language evolution. Discussing speech first, I show how data concerning a wide variety of species, from monkeys to birds, can increase our understanding of the anatomical and neural mechanisms underlying human spoken language, and how bird and whale song provide insights into the ultimate evolutionary function of language. I discuss the “descended larynx” of humans, a peculiar adaptation for speech that has received much attention in the past, which despite earlier claims is not uniquely human. Then I will turn to the neural mechanisms underlying spoken language, pointing out the difficulties animals apparently experience in perceiving hierarchical structure in sounds, and stressing the importance of vocal imitation in the evolution of a spoken language. Turning to ultimate function, I suggest that communication among kin (especially between parents and offspring) played a crucial but neglected role in driving language evolution. Finally, I briefly discuss phylogeny, discussing hypotheses that offer plausible routes to human language from a non-linguistic chimp-like ancestor. I conclude that comparative data from living animals will be key to developing a richer, more interdisciplinary understanding of our most distinctively human trait: language.     

早期现代人在中国的出现与演化

兴起于上世纪80年代的现代人起源研究与争论在近10年来呈现出一些新的趋势或特点, 主要体现在对现代人起源与演化细节过程的关注。这些新的关注点涉及早期现代人的出现与扩散、中更新世晚期-晚更新世早期人类化石特征变异及演化, 以及早期现代人出现与演化过程中的健康与生存适应活动三个方面。围绕这些问题, 中国古人类学界开展了相关研究并获得了一些新的发现和认识。本文对近10年来早期现代人在中国出现与演化领域的研究进行了回顾, 并对相关问题进行了讨论。     

周期性气候变化与人类适应

从古至今,气候变化特别是周期性气候变化,一直深刻影响着人类社会的变革和发展,从旧石器时代人类起源迁移、新石器时代文化文明演变、历史时期王朝兴衰更替,到工业化以来社会经济发展动荡等,无不留下周期性气候变化影响的烙印。本文依据近年来古气候、古人类、环境考古等研究的新证据、新进展,从周期性气候变化的角度审视人类社会各个发展阶段、关键节点的气候特征;通过典型案例,介绍和分析旧石器、新石器、历史时期不同时空尺度周期性气候变化和人类活动之间复杂的相互作用关系,讨论自然科学和人文社会科学对气候变化与人类活动关系认识的异同,阐述在学科交叉背景下研究气候与人类活动关系的新范式。     

Managing the Human–Ecological Interface: Marine Resources as Example and Laboratory

The field of resource management integrates human and ecological systems. It is currently undergoing a difficult transition as it broadens to accommodate new values and interests. Some of the problems associated with this transition are evident in marine ecosystems, where the management of the ecological–human interface has been hindered by a lack of basic understanding. Using marine fisheries as examples, this paper describes the proximate and underlying causes of the human–ecological problem. It identifies areas in which basic research is needed on the behavioral dynamics of marine resource use, including incentives, feedbacks, management scale, monitoring and evaluation, alternative management approaches, the role of history, and human capital. It discusses the cost of failing to invest in social science research and identifies barriers to interdisciplinary research. Priorities for interdisciplinary research are listed. Received 30 November 2000; accepted 20 April 2001.     

Emerging and Reemerging Infectious Diseases: Biocomplexity as an Interdisciplinary Paradigm

Understanding factors responsible for reemergence of diseases believed to have been controlled and outbreaks of previously unknown infectious diseases is one of the most difficult scientific problems facing society today. Significant knowledge gaps exist for even the most studied emerging infectious diseases. Coupled with failures in the response to the resurgence of infectious diseases, this lack of information is embedded in a simplistic view of pathogens and disconnected from a social and ecological context, and assumes a linear response of pathogens to environmental change. In fact, the natural reservoirs and transmission rates of most emerging infectious diseases primarily are affected by environmental factors, such as seasonality or meteorological events, typically producing nonlinear responses that are inherently unpredictable. A more realistic view of emerging infectious diseases requires a holistic perspective that incorporates social as well as physical, chemical, and biological dimensions of our planet’s systems. The notion of biocomplexity captures this depth and richness, and most importantly, the interactions of human and natural systems. This article provides a brief review and a synthesis of interdisciplinary approaches and insights employing the biocomplexity paradigm and offers a social–ecological approach for addressing and garnering an improved understanding of emerging infectious diseases. Drawing on findings from studies of cholera and other examples of emerging waterborne, zoonotic, and vectorborne diseases, a “blueprint” for the proposed interdisciplinary research framework is offered which integrates biological processes from the molecular level to that of communities and regional systems, incorporating public health infrastructure and climate aspects.     

Science and the Concept of Evolution: From the Big Bang to the Origin and Evolution of Life

The common thread of evolution runs through all science disciplines, and the concept of evolution enables students to better understand the nature of the universe and our origins. “Science and the Concept of Evolution” is one of two interdisciplinary science Core courses taken by Dowling College undergraduates as part of their General Education requirements. The course examines basic principles and methods of science by following the concept of evolution from the big bang to the origin and evolution of life. Case studies of leading scientists illustrate how their ideas developed and contributed to the evolution of our understanding of the world. Evidences for physical, chemical, and biological evolution are explored, and students learn to view the evolution of matter and of ideas as a natural process of change over space and time.     

Monogamy,strongly bonded groups,and the evolution of human social structure

Human social evolution has most often been treated in a piecemeal fashion, with studies focusing on the evolution of specific components of human society such as pair‐bonding, cooperative hunting, male provisioning, grandmothering, cooperative breeding, food sharing, male competition, male violence, sexual coercion, territoriality, and between‐group conflicts. Evolutionary models about any one of those components are usually concerned with two categories of questions, one relating to the origins of the component and the other to its impact on the evolution of human cognition and social life. Remarkably few studies have been concerned with the evolution of the entity that integrates all components, the human social system itself. That social system has as its core feature human social structure, which I define here as the common denominator of all human societies in terms of group composition, mating system, residence patterns, and kinship structures. The paucity of information on the evolution of human social structure poses substantial problems because that information is useful, if not essential, to assess both the origins and impact of any particular aspect of human society.     

Apes and Tricksters: The Evolution and Diversification of Humans’ Closest Relatives

The evolutionary history of humans comprises an important but small branch on the larger tree of ape evolution. Today’s hominoids—gibbons, orangutans, gorillas, chimpanzees, and humans—are a meager representation of the ape diversity that characterized the Old World from 23–5 million years ago. In this paper, I briefly review this evolutionary history focusing on features important for understanding modern ape and human origins. As the full complexity of ape evolution is beyond this review, I characterize major geographic, temporal, and phylogenetic groups using a few flagship taxa. Improving our knowledge of hominoid evolution both complicates and clarifies studies of human origins. On one hand, features thought to be unique to the human lineage find parallels in some fossil ape species, reducing their usefulness for identifying fossil humans. On the other hand, the Miocene record of fossil apes provides an important source for generating hypotheses about the ancestral human condition; this is particularly true given the dearth of fossils representing our closest living relatives: chimpanzees and gorillas.     

Fundamentals of an applied ecosystem research project in the Wadden Sea of Schleswig-Holstein

The aims, content, and organisatory structure of a proposed interdisciplinary ecosystem research project in the Wadden Sea of Schleswig-Holstein (W. Germany) are briefly presented. The project will include research on both fundamental as well as applied aspects of the Wadden Sea ecosystems and their interaction with local human activities. In contrast to most of the other completed or currently running ecosystem research projects on tidal coasts, a considerable part of the scientific work will also deal with aspects of ecosystem management and protection of the various marine and semiterrestrial habitats of the Wadden Sea. Considerable attention is paid to theoretical and methodological aspects of research on ecosystems and landscape units. In particular, the adoption of a hierarchical view of complex biological and environmental systems is recommended. Presented at the VI International Wadden Sea Symposium (Biologische Anstalt Helgoland, Wattenmeerstation Sylt, D-2282 List, FRG, 1–4 November 1988)     

朝向人类起源与演化研究的共业:古人类学、考古学与遗传学的交叉与整合

对于方兴未艾的现代人类起源与演化问题的研究,目前主要在遗传学、古人类学和旧石器时代考古学三个领域内进行。学者们提出了"多地区进化说"、"连续进化附带杂交说"、"出自非洲说"、"融合说"等观点与假说,有的学说针锋相对,南辕北辙。究其原因,除了相关研究还处于盲人摸象的阶段,只是在局部问题与材料上做分析和解释,尚无法得出全面、能被普遍接受的结论外,由于不同学科存在研究对象、方法和思路的不同,学科间缺少了解、沟通与协作,出现一些学术语言和研究结论不被彼此理解和接受的情况,存在一定的误解与无谓的争论,影响了相互之间的借鉴、互动和成果的共享,进而妨碍了跨学科的整合研究并达成学术共识。其实,每个学科都有自己的特点和不可替代的优势,每个学科也有难以克服的弱点,在解决人类起源与演化这样重大的学术问题上,任何一个学科都不可能包打天下,独享其成。因而,开展相关领域的交流合作,尤其是传统的古人类学、考古学与新兴的分子生物学之间的交叉与协作,明确彼此的关注点、需求和专长,凝练共同的学术问题和目标,整合现有的研究问题、资源与成果并向着共同的学术方向一道前行,是推动相关研究走向深入并破译现代人起源这一重大命题的必要举措。     

Results of human evolution research in Czechoslovakia

The results of anthropological research into human evolution have been discussed. Only two research places in CSSR have been engaged with the human evolution: the Department Anthropos in the Moravian Museum in Brno and the Laboratory of Evolutionary Biology of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences in Praha. The first of them has been mainly concerned with the paleontological and archeological research reported elsewhere. In the second, the following main questions of human evolution have been discussed: the evolution of bipedal locomotion, the morphological aspects, both qualitative and quantitative ones, the locomotion in other primates and various aspects of their behaviour have been studied. In this connection also various questions of the evolution the of human mind and social consciousness were studied. Special attention has been paid to role of neoteny in the evolution of man and to the import of synergism of the main evolutionary factors. As one of the main results is the principle of sociogenesis viewed and its various aspects. Its top product is human consciousness integrating the most important results of human thinking. Much attention has been paid to its evolution on the basis of the principle of reflection. Also the philosophical and ideological consequences of the sociogenesis as the main trend in the evolution of organisms have been elaborated in detail.     

Five Misunderstandings About Cultural Evolution

Recent debates about memetics have revealed some widespread misunderstandings about Darwinian approaches to cultural evolution. Drawing from these debates, this paper disputes five common claims: (1) mental representations are rarely discrete, and therefore models that assume discrete, gene-like particles (i.e., replicators) are useless; (2) replicators are necessary for cumulative, adaptive evolution; (3) content-dependent psychological biases are the only important processes that affect the spread of cultural representations; (4) the “cultural fitness” of a mental representation can be inferred from its successful transmission; and (5) selective forces only matter if the sources of variation are random. We close by sketching the outlines of a unified evolutionary science of culture.

东亚现代人来源的考古学思考:证据与解释

现代人的起源与扩散是当今古人类学界极具争议的问题。目前,"多地区进化"假说和非洲起源为主的"同化"假说是该争议的两大阵营。在"多地区进化"假说的基础上,立足中国的化石材料,吴新智提出了中国乃至东亚古人类"连续演化、附带杂交"的假说,认为中国的现代人主要由本地古老类型人类演化而来。本文从现代人扩散关键时段的考古材料出发,讨论氧同位素5～3阶段(大约13～3万年)考古材料在研究中国现代人形成中的作用和存在的挑战。首先,概括介绍现代人起源的主要假说和现代人扩散的假定路线——南线和北线的多重证据;其次,在此背景下,通过对中国境内考古材料的概括,分析不同石器技术可能反映的现代人来源;最后,简要探讨立足考古材料研究现代人起源与扩散的挑战。总体而言,氧同位素5～3阶段的旧石器考古材料支持中国北方南部和中国南方古人类的连续演化,同时也指示了非洲扩散而出的现代人人群自西北地区和南方地区进入中国的可能性。该模式支持中国古人类"连续演化、附带杂交"假说,然而我们也认识到中国现代人起源研究的考古基础仍十分薄弱,使用考古学材料研究现代人扩散的理论基础也需探讨。目前,细化、完善基础考古数据仍是中国旧石器时代考古学和古人类学学者努力的主要方向之一。如此,我们才能够更加有效地将人类化石与考古学证据融合,进而结合分子生物学的研究,更为全面地理解现代人的起源与演化。     

Microbial adaptive evolution

Bacterial species can adapt to significant changes in their environment by mutation followed by selection, a phenomenon known as “adaptive evolution.” With the development of bioinformatics and genetic engineering, research on adaptive evolution has progressed rapidly, as have applications of the process. In this review, we summarize various mechanisms of bacterial adaptive evolution, the technologies used for studying it, and successful applications of the method in research and industry. We particularly highlight the contributions of Dr. L. O. Ingram. Microbial adaptive evolution has significant impact on our society not only from its industrial applications, but also in the evolution, emergence, and control of various pathogens.     

Cancer,Viruses, and Mass Migration: Paul Berg’s Venture into Eukaryotic Biology and the Advent of Recombinant DNA Research and Technology, 1967–1980

The existing literature on the development of recombinant DNA technology and genetic engineering tends to focus on Stanley Cohen and Herbert Boyer’s recombinant DNA cloning technology and its commercialization starting in the mid-1970s. Historians of science, however, have pointedly noted that experimental procedures for making recombinant DNA molecules were initially developed by Stanford biochemist Paul Berg and his colleagues, Peter Lobban and A. Dale Kaiser in the early 1970s. This paper, recognizing the uneasy disjuncture between scientific authorship and legal invention in the history of recombinant DNA technology, investigates the development of recombinant DNA technology in its full scientific context. I do so by focusing on Stanford biochemist Berg’s research on the genetic regulation of higher organisms. As I hope to demonstrate, Berg’s new venture reflected a mass migration of biomedical researchers as they shifted from studying prokaryotic organisms like bacteria to studying eukaryotic organisms like mammalian and human cells. It was out of this boundary crossing from prokaryotic to eukaryotic systems through virus model systems that recombinant DNA technology and other significant new research techniques and agendas emerged. Indeed, in their attempt to reconstitute ‹life’ as a research technology, Stanford biochemists’ recombinant DNA research recast genes as a sequence that could be rewritten thorough biochemical operations. The last part of this paper shifts focus from recombinant DNA technology’s academic origins to its transformation into a genetic engineering technology by examining the wide range of experimental hybridizations which occurred as techniques and knowledge circulated between Stanford biochemists and the Bay Area’s experimentalists. Situating their interchange in a dense research network based at Stanford’s biochemistry department, this paper helps to revise the canonized history of genetic engineering’s origins that emerged during the patenting of Cohen–Boyer’s recombinant DNA cloning procedures.     

Animal origins of SARS coronavirus: possible links with the international trade in small carnivores

The search for animal host origins of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) coronavirus has so far remained focused on wildlife markets, restaurants and farms within China. A significant proportion of this wildlife enters China through an expanding regional network of illegal, international wildlife trade. We present the case for extending the search for ancestral coronaviruses and their hosts across international borders into countries such as Vietnam and Lao People's Democratic Republic, where the same guilds of species are found on sale in similar wildlife markets or food outlets. The three species that have so far been implicated, a viverrid, a mustelid and a canid, are part of a large suite of small carnivores distributed across this region currently overexploited by this international wildlife trade. A major lesson from SARS is that the underlying roots of newly emergent zoonotic diseases may lie in the parallel biodiversity crisis of massive species loss as a result of overexploitation of wild animal populations and the destruction of their natural habitats by increasing human populations. To address these dual threats to the long-term future of biodiversity, including man, requires a less anthropocentric and more interdisciplinary approach to problems that require the combined research expertise of ecologists, conservation biologists, veterinarians, epidemiologists, virologists, as well as human health professionals.     

中国现代人起源与演化的考古学思考

越来越多古人类学和旧石器时代考古学的发现与研究成果极大地改变了我们对现代人类起源、演化和适应理论问题的看法。中国作为东亚一个幅员辽阔的地理区域,已经成为这项研究的热点地带。来自该地区新的人类化石和石器组合对基于非洲和欧亚大陆西部记录构建的“现代人出自非洲说”（Recent Out-of-Africa）提出了挑战。新的古人类学研究结果表明,早期现代人出现于约100 kaBP的中国南方,可能（至少部分）是由那里的土著居民演化而来。一些古老型智人表现出了与早期古人类镶嵌或过渡性的体质特征,并可能与尼安德特人和丹尼索瓦人杂交混合。同时一些遗址出土的打制石器表现出了早期现代人类技术和行为的复杂性。中国北方的小石片石器主工业和南方的砾石石器主工业贯穿于整个更新世,然而从约40 kaBP开始,石叶技术开始出现在中国北部,紧随其后的是这些地区骨制工具和个人装饰品的出现,这表明,更新世晚期西伯利亚和中亚地区与我国北部可能存在着紧密的文化关系,东北亚地区可能存在着由西北向东南的迁移路线。人类化石和考古学证据表明,中国现代人类起源和适应的过程与机制可能与欧亚大陆西部有所不同。本文对有关中国现代人类起源与演化的考古学研究所取得的新发现和进展进行了总体回顾,从考古学角度阐述了对相关重要学术问题的看法,并为未来的研究提出了方向性建议。     

遗传伦理问题起源的研究与对策

遗传伦理问题是生命科学领域最具争议并最难以妥善解决的问题之一。近年来, 此类问题的研究主要是围绕遗传伦理问题的种类及解决方法进行的。但关于遗传伦理问题起源的系统研究尚不多见, 这也使相应对策的提出显得缺乏理论支撑。文章从人类生物进化与文化进化的双重角度深入探讨了遗传伦理问题发生的进化根源和演化规律。人类是生物进化与文化进化的双重产物, 是地球上唯一既具有生物属性又具有文化属性的物种。通过对人类生物进化与文化进化及其生物属性与文化属性特点的比较研究, 文章提出了任何伦理问题都可以从人类的生物进化与文化进化之间相互作用所产生的冲突中找到其发生根源的观点, 其目的是为研究遗传伦理问题及其对策的提出寻求理论和实践上的依据。同时, 提出了一系列关于遗传伦理问题的对应策略。文章的最终目的并非仅仅为某种观点能被接受, 而是希望通过对遗传伦理问题及其起源的了解和认识, 使遗传学领域的决策者和研究者更具使命感与责任感, 使一般公众对遗传学研究及其应用少一些误解, 多一些理性, 从而使遗传学事业能健康、持续发展, 造福人类。     

Ten Heuristics for Interdisciplinary Modeling Projects

Complex environmental and ecological problems require collaborative, interdisciplinary efforts. A common approach to integrating disciplinary perspectives on these problems is to develop simulation models in which the linkages between system components are explicitly represented. There is, however, little guidance in the literature on how such models should be developed through collaborative teamwork. In this paper, we offer a set of heuristics (rules of thumb) that address a range of challenges associated with this enterprise, including the selection of team members, negotiating a consensus view of the research problem, prototyping and refining models, the role of sensitivity analysis, and the importance of team communication. These heuristics arose from a comparison of our experiences with several interdisciplinary modeling projects. We use one such experience—a project in which natural scientists, social scientists, and local residents came together to investigate the sustainability of small indigenous communities in the Arctic—to illustrate the heuristics. Received 27 April 2001; accepted 12 November 2001.