Sublime

Contrary to linguist Noam Chomsky’s long-dominant theory that language evolved recently and discontinuously in a massive mutation, these findings about handedness (among other discoveries) now place it far deeper in the human cultural past.

Jesuits had learned the Americans’ languages primarily so as to be able to argue with them, to persuade them of the superiority of the Christian faith. Yet they regularly found themselves startled and impressed by the quality of the counterarguments they had to contend with.

Noam Chomsky has famously argued that a Martian scientist would conclude that all earthlings speak dialects of the same language.

What was the Sapiens’ secret of success? How did we manage to settle so rapidly in so many distant and ecologically different habitats? How did we push all other human species into oblivion? Why couldn’t even the strong, brainy, cold-proof Neanderthals survive our onslaught? The debate continues to rage. The most likely answer is the very thing tha