Sublime

A second and equally important possibility is that language is used for storytelling.

idealized Indo-European social world of the linguists. We might not be able to retrieve the names or the personal accomplishments of the Yamnaya chiefs who migrated into the Danube valley around 3000 BCE, but, with the help of reconstructed Proto-Indo-European language and mythology, we can say something about their values, religious beliefs, initi

Disciples, Osmer contends, might be better understood as “pilgrims.” Expanding this metaphor, he notes that pilgrims follow faithful pilgrimages over proven paths and journey toward desired destinations. Further, because most pilgrimages are beset with hazards and detours, pilgrim-disciples

Even if he was born within one week of his father’s migration, the accident of birth in the Americas consigned him to subordination – even though in terms of language, religion, ancestry, or manners he was largely indistinguishable from the Spain-born Spaniard. There was nothing to be done about it: he was irremediably a creole.

Languages change and evolve organically. But it is perhaps paradoxically necessarily that languages must remain mostly unchanging — mostly common between their speakers — such that change can be recognized and contextualized, rather than simply disorienting.

Quant à lui, Francisco Serrao, ci-devant capitaine de la flotte portugaise, il en a par-dessus la tête de la guerre, des aventures et du trafic des épices ! Il passe sans emphase du monde héroïque dans l’idyllique et décide de mener l’existence toute primitive, idéalement oisive de cette aimable peuplade. La haute dignité de grand-vizir que lui con

Without an ability to compose fiction, Neanderthals were unable to cooperate effectively in large numbers, nor could they adapt their social behaviour to rapidly changing challenges.

Or was it? There was a serpent in the hunter-gatherer