Posted on 01/29/2006 3:25:28 PM PST by mlc9852
Chapter One: The Human Paradox
An Evolutionary Anomaly
As our species designation--sapiens--suggests, the defining attribute of human beings is an unparalleled cognitive ability. We think differently from all other creatures on earth, and we can share those thoughts with one another in ways that no other species even approaches. In comparison, the rest of our biology is almost incidental. Hundreds of millions of years of evolution have produced hundreds of thousands of species with brains, and tens of thousands with complex behavioral, perceptual, and learning abilities. Only one of these has ever wondered about its place in the world, because only one evolved the ability to do so.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
PW: Thanks for the links. Information overload!
Both of you: Great conversation, but I have to go now.
Never noticed either (I don't have kids)
Greenberg, in "Eurasiatic", says that the r in Dvorak, with the diacritical over it, is one of the rarest sounds in the world, found only in Czech and, I forget, Gilyak or Chuckchee. He, of course, traces both of them back to the same diachronic process in Proto-EuroAsiatic.
I wonder if NC can even pronounce the *names* Of the languages JHG **analyzed**?!
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