Page 157 - Communication and the Evolution of Society

134 Communication and Evolution of Society

of homo sapiens resulted in a broad, intraspecific dispersion and
mixture of the genetic inheritance. This internal differentiation
was the natural basis for a cultural diversification evidenced in a
multiplicity of social learning processes. It is therefore advisable
to demarcate the sociocultural stage of development—at which
alone social evolution takes place (1.€., society is caught up in
evolution) —from not only the primate stage—at which there is
a still exclusively natural evolution (i.e., the species are caught
up in evolution)—but also from the hominid stage—at which
the two evolutionary mechanisms are working together, the evolu-
tion of the brain being the most important single variable. '°
2. If we examine the concept of social labor in the light of
more recent anthropological findings, it becomes evident that it
cuts too deeply into the evolutionary scale; not only humans but
hominids too were distinguished from the anthropoid apes in
that they converted to reproduction through social labor and
developed an economy. The adult males formed hunting bands,
which (a) made use of weapons and tools (technology), (b)
cooperated through a division of labor (cooperative organiza-
tion), and (c) distributed the prey within the collective (rules
of distribution). The making of the means of production and
the social organization of labor, as well as of the distribution of
its products, fulfilled the conditions for an economic form of
reproducing life.
The society of hominids is more difficult to reconstruct than
their mode of production. It is not clear how far beyond inter-
actions mediated by gestures—already found among primates—
their system of communication progressed. The conjecture is that
they possessed a language of gestures and a system of s7gnal
calls In any event, cooperative big-game hunting requires
reaching understanding about experiences, so that we have to
assume a protolanguage, which at least paved the way for the
systematic connection of cognitive accomplishments, affective ex-
pressions, and interpersonal relations that was so important for
hominization. The division of labor in the hominid groups pre-
sumably led to a development of two subsystems: on the one
hand, the adult males, who were together in egalitarian hunting
bands and occupied, on the whole, a dominant position; on the