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Studies In The Evolution Of An
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Book Synopsis The Origin of Speech by : Peter F. MacNeilage
Download or read book The Origin of Speech written by Peter F. MacNeilage and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2010 with total page 402 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book explores the origin and evolution of speech. The human speech system is in a league of its own in the animal kingdom and its possession dwarfs most other evolutionary achievements. During every second of speech we unconsciously use about 225 distinct muscle actions. To investigate the evolutionary origins of this prodigious ability, Peter MacNeilage draws on work in linguistics, cognitive science, evolutionary biology, and animal behavior. He puts forward a neo-Darwinian account of speech as a process of descent in which ancestral vocal capabilities became modified in response to natural selection pressures for more efficient communication. His proposals include the crucial observation that present-day infants learning to produce speech reveal constraints that were acting on our ancestors as they invented new words long ago. This important and original investigation integrates the latest research on modern speech capabilities, their acquisition, and their neurobiology, including the issues surrounding the cerebral hemispheric specialization for speech. Written in a clear style with minimal recourse to jargon the book will interest a wide range of readers in cognitive, neuro-, and evolutionary science, as well as all those seeking to understand the nature and evolution of speech and human communication.
Book Synopsis The Cradle of Language by : Rudolf Botha
Download or read book The Cradle of Language written by Rudolf Botha and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2009-04-30 with total page 418 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is the first to focus on the African origins of human language. It explores the origins of language and culture 250,000-150,000 years ago when modern humans evolved in Africa. Scholars from around the world address the fossil, genetic, and archaeological evidence and critically examine the ways it has been interpreted. The book also considers parallel developments among Europe's Neanderthals and the contrasting outcomes for the two species. Following an extensive introduction contextualizing and linking the book's topics and approaches, fifteen chapters bring together many of the most significant recent findings and developments in modern human origins research. The fields represented by the authors include genetics, biology, behavioural ecology, linguistics, archaeology, cognitive science, and anthropology.
Book Synopsis The Evolution of Language Out of Pre-language by : Talmy Givón
Download or read book The Evolution of Language Out of Pre-language written by Talmy Givón and published by John Benjamins Publishing. This book was released on 2002-01-01 with total page 410 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The contributors to this volume are linguists, psychologists, neuroscientists, primatologists, and anthropologists who share the assumption that language, just as mind and brain, are products of biological evolution. The rise of human language is not viewed as a serendipitous mutation that gave birth to a unique linguistic organ, but as a gradual, adaptive extension of pre-existing mental capacities and brain structures. The contributors carefully study brain mechanisms, diachronic change, language acquisition, and the parallels between cognitive and linguistic structures to weave a web of hypotheses and suggestive empirical findings on the origins of language and the connections of language to other human capacities. The chapters discuss brain pathways that support linguistic processing; origins of specific linguistic features in temporal and hierarchical structures of the mind; the possible co-evolution of language and the reasoning about mental states; and the aspects of language learning that may serve as models of evolutionary change.
Book Synopsis The Evolution of Technology by : George Basalla
Download or read book The Evolution of Technology written by George Basalla and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1989-02-24 with total page 171 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book presents an evolutionary theory of technological change based upon recent scholarship in the history of technology and upon relevant material drawn from economic history and anthropology. It challenges the popular notion that technology advances by the efforts of a few heroic individuals who produce a series of revolutionary inventions owing little or nothing to the technological past. Therefore, the book's argument is shaped by analogies taken selectively from the theory of organic evolution, and not from the theory and practice of political revolution. Three themes appear, and reappear with variations, throughout the study. The first is diversity: an acknowledgment of the vast numbers of different kinds of made things (artifacts) that have long been available to humanity; the second is necessity: the belief that humans are driven to invent new artifacts in order to meet basic biological requirements such as food, shelter, and defense; and the third is technological evolution: an organic analogy that explains both the emergence of novel artifacts and their subsequent selection by society for incorporation into its material life without invoking either biological necessity or technological progress. Although the book is not intended to provide a strict chronological account of the development of technology, historical examples - including many of the major achievements of Western technology: the waterwheel, the printing press, the steam engine, automobiles and trucks, and the transistor - are used extensively to support its theoretical framework. The Evolution of Techology will be of interest to all readers seeking to learn how and why technology changes, including both students and specialists in the history of technology and science.
Download or read book Undeniable written by Bill Nye and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2014-11-04 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Revealing the mechanics of evolutionary theory, the scientist, engineer and inventor presents a compelling argument for the scientific unviability of creationism and insists that creationism's place in the science classroom is harmful not only to our children, but to the future of the greater world as well.
Book Synopsis Evolution Education Re-considered by : Ute Harms
Download or read book Evolution Education Re-considered written by Ute Harms and published by Springer. This book was released on 2019-07-16 with total page 347 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This collection presents research-based interventions using existing knowledge to produce new pedagogies to teach evolution to learners more successfully, whether in schools or elsewhere. ‘Success’ here is measured as cognitive gains, as acceptance of evolution or an increased desire to continue to learn about it. Aside from introductory and concluding chapters by the editors, each chapter consists of a research-based intervention intended to enable evolution to be taught successfully; all these interventions have been researched and evaluated by the chapters’ authors and the findings are presented along with discussions of the implications. The result is an important compendium of studies from around the word conducted both inside and outside of school. The volume is unique and provides an essential reference point and platform for future work for the foreseeable future.
Book Synopsis Language Evolution by : Morten H. Christiansen
Download or read book Language Evolution written by Morten H. Christiansen and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2003-07-24 with total page 418 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What is it that makes us human? This is one of the most challenging and important questions we face. Our species' defining characteristic is language - we appear to be unique in the natural world in having such an incredibly open-ended system for putting thoughts into words. If we are to truly understand ourselves as a species we must understand the origins of this strange and unique ability. To do so, we need to answer some of the most intriguing questions in contemporary scientific research: Where did language come from? How did it evolve? Why are we unique in possessing it? This book, for the first time, brings together the leading thinkers who are trying to unlock the puzzle of language evolution. Here we see the latest ideas and theories from fields as diverse as anthropology, archaeology, artificial life, biology, cognitive science, linguistics, neuroscience, and psychology. In a series of seventeen well-written and accessible chapters we get an unrivalled view of the state of the art in this exciting area. Current controversies are revealed and new perspectives uncovered, in a clear and readable guide to the latest theories. This collection marks a major step forward in our quest to understand the origins and evolution of human language. In doing so it sheds new light on the process of evolution, the workings of the brain, the structure of language, and - most importantly - what it means to be human. Language Evolution is essential reading for researchers and students working in the areas covered, and has been used as a textbook for courses in the field. It will also attract the general reader who wants to know more about this fascinating subject.
Book Synopsis Interfaces of the Word by : Walter J. Ong
Download or read book Interfaces of the Word written by Walter J. Ong and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 2013-02-14 with total page 353 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Drawing on a wide range of disciplines—linguistics, phenomenological analysis, cultural anthropology, media studies, and intellectual history—Walter J. Ong offers a reasoned and sophisticated view of human consciousness different in many respects from that of structuralism. The essays in Interfaces of the Word are grouped around the dialectically related themes of change or alienation and growth or integration. Among the subjects Ong covers are the origins of speech in mother tongues; the rise and final erosion of nonvernacular learned languages; and the fictionalizing of audiences that is enforced by writing. Other essays treat the idiom of African talking drums, the ways new media interface with the old, and the various connections between specific literary forms and shifts in media that register in the work of Shakespeare and Milton and in movements such as the New Criticism. Ong also discusses the paradoxically nonliterary character of the Bible and the concerted blurring of fiction and actuality that marked much drama and narrative toward the close of the twentieth century.
Book Synopsis Quantitative Genetic Studies of Behavioral Evolution by : Christine R. B. Boake
Download or read book Quantitative Genetic Studies of Behavioral Evolution written by Christine R. B. Boake and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 1994-08-15 with total page 400 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Taken together, these studies document both the benefits and pitfalls of quantitative genetics.
Book Synopsis Teaching About Evolution and the Nature of Science by : National Academy of Sciences
Download or read book Teaching About Evolution and the Nature of Science written by National Academy of Sciences and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 1998-05-06 with total page 150 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Today many school students are shielded from one of the most important concepts in modern science: evolution. In engaging and conversational style, Teaching About Evolution and the Nature of Science provides a well-structured framework for understanding and teaching evolution. Written for teachers, parents, and community officials as well as scientists and educators, this book describes how evolution reveals both the great diversity and similarity among the Earth's organisms; it explores how scientists approach the question of evolution; and it illustrates the nature of science as a way of knowing about the natural world. In addition, the book provides answers to frequently asked questions to help readers understand many of the issues and misconceptions about evolution. The book includes sample activities for teaching about evolution and the nature of science. For example, the book includes activities that investigate fossil footprints and population growth that teachers of science can use to introduce principles of evolution. Background information, materials, and step-by-step presentations are provided for each activity. In addition, this volume: Presents the evidence for evolution, including how evolution can be observed today. Explains the nature of science through a variety of examples. Describes how science differs from other human endeavors and why evolution is one of the best avenues for helping students understand this distinction. Answers frequently asked questions about evolution. Teaching About Evolution and the Nature of Science builds on the 1996 National Science Education Standards released by the National Research Councilâ€"and offers detailed guidance on how to evaluate and choose instructional materials that support the standards. Comprehensive and practical, this book brings one of today's educational challenges into focus in a balanced and reasoned discussion. It will be of special interest to teachers of science, school administrators, and interested members of the community.
Book Synopsis Evolution and Religion in American Education by : David E. Long
Download or read book Evolution and Religion in American Education written by David E. Long and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2011-08-03 with total page 190 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Evolution and Religion in American Education shines a light into one of America’s dark educational corners, exposing the regressive pedagogy that can invade science classrooms when school boards and state overseers take their eyes off the ball. It sets out to examine the development of college students’ attitudes towards biological evolution through their lives. The fascinating insights provided by interviewing students about their world views adds up to a compelling case for additional scrutiny of the way young people’s educational experiences unfold as they consider—and indeed in some cases reject—one of science’s strongest and most cogent theoretical constructs. Inevitably, open discussion and consideration of the theory of evolution can chip away at the mental framework constructed by Creationists, eroding the foundations of their faith. The conceptual battleground is so fraught with logical challenges to Creationist dogma that in a number of cases students’ exposure to such dangerous ideas is actively prevented. This book provides a detailed map of this astonishing struggle in today’s America—a struggle many had thought was done and dusted with the onset of the Enlightenment.
Book Synopsis Biological Evolution by : Mike Cassidy
Download or read book Biological Evolution written by Mike Cassidy and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2020-11-19 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Biological evolution, the theory of natural selection and of common descent, is a triumph both of human reasoning and scientific undertaking. The biological discipline of evolution contains both a chronicle of human endeavour and the story of life on Earth. This book is concerned with living forms and how they developed from 'simple and unpromising beginnings'. It considers evolution as both process and product. The author, an experienced teacher and educator, employs a historical narrative, used to convey the idea of 'change with modification' and to emphasise the relevance of evolution to contemporary bioscience. Biological evolution has now become part of the scientific orthodoxy and this accessible text will assist undergraduate students in the biological sciences within any ongoing debate.
Book Synopsis Icons of Evolution by : Jonathan Wells
Download or read book Icons of Evolution written by Jonathan Wells and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2002-01-01 with total page 338 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Everything you were taught about evolution is wrong.
Book Synopsis Why We Talk by : Jean-Louis Dessalles
Download or read book Why We Talk written by Jean-Louis Dessalles and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2007-01-04 with total page 398 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Constant exchange of information is integral to our societies. The author explores how this came into being. Presenting language evolution as a natural history of conversation, he sheds light on the emergence of communication in the hominine congregations, as well as on the human nature.
Book Synopsis The Evolution of International Security Studies by : Barry Buzan
Download or read book The Evolution of International Security Studies written by Barry Buzan and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2009-08-27 with total page 401 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: International Security Studies (ISS) has changed and diversified in many ways since 1945. This book provides the first intellectual history of the development of the subject in that period. It explains how ISS evolved from an initial concern with the strategic consequences of superpower rivalry and nuclear weapons, to its current diversity in which environmental, economic, human and other securities sit alongside military security, and in which approaches ranging from traditional Realist analysis to Feminism and Post-colonialism are in play. It sets out the driving forces that shaped debates in ISS, shows what makes ISS a single conversation across its diversity, and gives an authoritative account of debates on all the main topics within ISS. This is an unparalleled survey of the literature and institutions of ISS that will be an invaluable guide for all students and scholars of ISS, whether traditionalist, 'new agenda' or critical.
Book Synopsis Teaching Evolution in a Creation Nation by : Adam Laats
Download or read book Teaching Evolution in a Creation Nation written by Adam Laats and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2016-03-03 with total page 137 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: No fight over what gets taught in American classrooms is more heated than the battle over humanity’s origins. For more than a century we have argued about evolutionary theory and creationism (and its successor theory, intelligent design), yet we seem no closer to a resolution than we were in Darwin’s day. In this thoughtful examination of how we teach origins, historian Adam Laats and philosopher Harvey Siegel offer crucial new ways to think not just about the evolution debate but how science and religion can make peace in the classroom. Laats and Siegel agree with most scientists: creationism is flawed, as science. But, they argue, students who believe it nevertheless need to be accommodated in public school science classes. Scientific or not, creationism maintains an important role in American history and culture as a point of religious dissent, a sustained form of protest that has weathered a century of broad—and often dramatic—social changes. At the same time, evolutionary theory has become a critical building block of modern knowledge. The key to accommodating both viewpoints, they show, is to disentangle belief from knowledge. A student does not need to believe in evolution in order to understand its tenets and evidence, and in this way can be fully literate in modern scientific thought and still maintain contrary religious or cultural views. Altogether, Laats and Siegel offer the kind of level-headed analysis that is crucial to finding a way out of our culture-war deadlock.
Book Synopsis The Nature and Origin of Language by : Denis Bouchard
Download or read book The Nature and Origin of Language written by Denis Bouchard and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2013-10 with total page 402 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Denis Bouchard looks at how the human brain got the capacity for language and how language evolved. He argues that language is a system of signs and considers how these elements first came together in the brain. His account of language origins offers insights into language and to constructions that have defied decades of linguistic analysis.
