HOW DID OUR ANCESTORS COMMUNICATE? - HISTORY - 2025

The communication of our ancestors was carried out through the senses: sight, smell, taste, touch and hearing. More than 100,000 years ago, man was physically incapable of producing speech sounds.

Some scientists think that all human language grew out of a common language spoken by our ancestors in Africa. Human language probably began to develop around 100,000 years ago, although scientists disagree on how it came about.

Some think that our ancestors started talking when their brains got big and sophisticated enough.

Others think that language evolved slowly, from the gestures and sounds used by our early ape ancestors.

Although before language development, humans could produce vowel sounds, their larynx was not sufficiently developed to generate and control the intricate sounds of speech.

Despite the lack of records, scientists assume that their form of communication resembled that of animals.

In this sense, they used a limited number of sounds such as grunts and screams to exchange information regarding the environment, and they also communicated with each other through gestures, posture and facial expressions.

The forms of communication of our ancestors

Grunts and screams

Even before they learned to make tools, prehistoric men communicated as other well-developed animals do. Thus, the communication of our ancestors included grunts, guttural sounds and screams.

Because their larynx was underdeveloped, they were capable of making sounds, but could not make or pronounce words.

These sounds were mutually understood signals and signs developed by small groups living together.

In this way, researchers have concluded that cavemen and women made noises similar to the sounds they heard in nature, such as animal noises, such as the noises produced by swaying trees and the howls of the wind.. These were used to communicate feelings, moods and ideas.

Gestures and other body movements

Gestures are by nature ephemeral and could not be preserved until modern technologies allowed their visual recording.

However, it can be assumed that human beings in prehistory had rich repertoires of gestures in their social interactions and in their manipulation of the elements of the environment.

Thus, it is only possible to imagine the specific gestures and other body movements that they made to communicate feelings and attitudes with each other.

The same occurs with the forms of visual communication that prevailed during collective hunting, warfare, and the transmission of transformative techniques applied to plant, animal and mineral materials.

That said, this presumption is largely restricted by the range of movements that the human body can perform and by the nature of the objects with which our ancestors interacted.

Drawings in caves

It is estimated that the cave paintings of the aboriginals of Australia may be about 35,000 years old.

Those found in the caves of France and Spain could be about 30,000 years old. Similarly, some discoveries in Africa date back to that time.

After the first forms of spoken language, images were one of the first communication tools of our ancestors.

Through images, early humans developed the ability to communicate over time and over long distances. These images are found all over the planet chiseled, inscribed or painted on rocks.

Smoke and fire signals

Over time, language became more complex as the human brain and organs of speech evolved.

The first groups then developed other forms of communication. One of them involved the use of smoke and fire signals. This was particularly the case among groups that were at a distance.

References

1. Sheila Steinberg (2007). An Introduction to Communication Studies. Cape Town: Juta and Company Ltd.
2. Sarvaiya, M. (2013). Human Communication. Amazon International.
3. Bourke, J. (2004). Communication Technology. Washington: Ready-Ed Publications.
4. Bouissac, P. (2013). Prehistoric gestures: evidence from artifacts and rock art. In C. Müller et al (editors), Body - Language - Communication, pp 301-305. Berlin: From Gruyter Mouton.
5. Schmidt, WD and Rieck, DA (2000). Managing Media Services: Theory and Practice. Colorado: Libraries Unlimited.