HUNTER-GATHERER EGALITARIANISM ENABLED GRAMMAR TO EVOLVE

摘要

For grammar to evolve, it was not enough for social relations to become more cooperative. Before grammaticalization processes could get under way, primate-style dominance/submission dynamics had to be decisively countered by coalitionary resistance culminating in an egalitarian social order based on 'reverse dominance'. Only once unprecedentedly trusting ingroup relationships had been established on this basis could full intersubjectivity emerge, enabling the flexible joint attention structures necessary for grammaticalisation to begin.