Freethought & Rationalism Archive

Clivedurdle · 09-08-2013, 02:57 AM

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Voices from the past: Ancient secrets in today's words

05 September 2013 by Douglas Heaven
Magazine issue 2933. Subscribe and save
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YOU can tell a lot from the way people speak. Russell Gray, for example, signals he is from New Zealand by saying "rite" instead of "rate". Sometimes that is enough to confuse. A few years ago, during a talk Gray gave while visiting the University of Oxford, Richard Dawkins interrupted to ask what he meant by "evolutionary rite". New Zealanders can only afford one vowel, Gray jokes.

As a trained biologist, Gray notes these differences with the same eagle-eyed curiosity that he has used to study the evolution of bird behaviour. "If you're looking at courtship displays in birds and how their differences are produced by descent with modification, it doesn't seem like a huge leap to think about languages in that way," he says. Living among the Pacific Islands – a hotspot for language diversity – Gray just has to listen to the sounds around him to hear ...

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Article continues that language is something that evolves - that is not a metaphor - and therefore statistical, clade and viral methodologies are very valuable.

Relationships between types of societies and their religions are being studied, how they might have co-evolved. An early conclusion is that the theory that complex social structures with hierarchies of political power could not have developed without a belief in a moralising god or gods to keep cheats in check is incorrect. Religions can be taken up by societies whatever their complexity.

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