Product details
- ISBN 9780300289206
- Dimensions: 152 x 235mm
- Publication Date: 27 Oct 2026
- Publisher: Yale University Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Hardback
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The story of the social and sexual revolution responsible for the emergence of our most prized skill—the ability to speak
Speech is unprecedented in the natural world. Yet human infants can learn the grammar of their native tongue so quickly, it is as if they knew the basics already. How did such a unique ability evolve, and what does it reveal about the nature of our species?
Drawing on evolutionary and social anthropology, behavioural ecology, archaeology, and linguistics, Chris Knight and Jerome Lewis unearth the political and social origins of our capacity to speak. What they discover points to the revolutionary role played by women at every stage. It seems that formidable coalitions of women used laughter, song, and dance to restrain the male potential for violence. In so doing, women established extraordinary levels of community-wide trust—precisely what was needed for linguistic creativity to flourish.
The Revolutionary Origins of Language is a bold and surprising assessment of the complex conditions which produced our most prized skill.
Chris Knight is professor emeritus of anthropology at UCL, a founder of the EVOLANG conference series, and editor of six volumes on evolutionary linguistics. Jerome Lewis is professor of anthropology at UCL and world renowned for over thirty years of research with hunter-gatherers in Central Africa.
