Quotes from “Gossip in evolutionary perspective”

By Robin Dunbar (2004)

• This technological or economic view of what language is used for has so deeply colored our perception of the function of language that it has led us to see any other uses of language as trivial and largely driven by the boredom of idleness.#
  Language
• Risk of death from predators (of whatever kind) is the principal factor favoring increases in group size. Language became part of this story because, at some point in hominid evolutionary history, the group size required exceeded that which could be bonded through social grooming alone.#
  LanguageHistory
• Language evolved as a mechanism for bonding large social groups, and… it does so precisely because it allows us to exchange information about the state of our social networks.#
  LanguageCooperation