Can someon please help me with an anthropology question!?

Question

What cognitive and linguistics capabilities would have been present in the last common ancestor of chimps, bonobos and humans?

Answer 1

Linguistic capabilities in chimps and bonobos?  Not sure about that.  Certainly pan troglodytes and pan paniscus have communication systems.  They do not necessarily have words, although they have an elaborate communication system that includes call systems, facial expressions, body language, and so forth.  They are able to teach and learn from one another, but no where near as elaborate as Homo sapien.  They have been known to tease one another, teach their young to use tools, and even learn human originated symbolic language.  They have been seen to study dead animals and appear to be reflective.  While you can't be sure that our common ancestors shared these same cognitive abilities, it would seem that since we do share some of the same communication abilities (facial expressions, body language, etc...), our common ancestors may have had the same cognitive abilities.

Answer 2

I dislike the conventional discourse on animal cognition.  The focus on primates and the assumption that language and its related thought processes are exclusive to humans annoys me.  There has been a lot of research by psychologists and linguists into animal cognition but I, as a dog trainer, can't really appreciate their scientific skepticism.  Books like The Origins of Meaning by Hurford assume that there is no language among animals unless scientific experiments show it in a wide variety of animals.  But, having trained dogs using a language/communication model for years, I'm much more willing to assume that animals have language even if the human ear can't hear it or it's not a spoken language.  Many social animals seem to have complex language and all animals that can be trained by humans (training is generally not teaching behaviors but teaching the creature to associate a command or signal with a certain natural behavior) logically have the neurological abilities required for language.  The recent field research on elephants and the work of African poacher-catching elephants is really interesting in terms of what it is discovering about what elephants are capable of.

Answer 3

Not a lot is known about the common ancesor of pan and homo, but it probably had at least as much communicative function as an old world monkey (functioning through calls and gestures). If the species was highly terrestrial, warning calls would have been likely.

As for cognitive abilities it would have been less than any hominin, but certainly larger than old world monkeys. Although there is great debate over this, you could compare its cognitive abilities to a common chimpanzee, but otherwise than that little is known since not too many old african ape fossils have been found.l