Animal Language? New Encounters; War.

Australian Scientists Say Humpback Whales Have Their Own Language

So it seems chimpanzees aren't the only ones... But upon further investigation it looks like the chimps win in the language competition. "The scientists identified at least 34 distinctive sounds made by these remarkable ocean creatures" the article states. 34 distinctive sounds is far fewer than the 200+ communicative actions that Washoe could make. While it may be exciting to think of whales and their gargantuan brains as these incredible philosophers of the deep, the evidence is still too thin to make that conclusion.

Sometimes, you need universal language made for a fairly comical read. It talks of oil companies who are penetrating South American rain forests, reaching villages that have been mostly undisturbed. While it may be a rude awakening to the Westernized world for these villages, the oil companies use megaphones and a phrase book to make certain things clear such as "We haven't come here to look for women. We have women in our own village."

This also makes me wonder about these tribes or villages and what they are thinking of heavy machines crashing through the forest. These Peruvian tribes, which are described as "people living in isolated Amazonian forests" are presumably fairly primitive with regards to industrialization, and they may have not even seen motorized vehicles before. When exposing new people to new things, these oil companies are the introducers and they thus have the power to shape the language of the tribes they encounter. If this tribe has never seen something like a car or truck before, they might make up some word that is a combination of existing words in their language ("rolling box" or something), or the bringers of these novel objects will introduce new vocabulary for their new objects. I bet these oil-seekers never expected to have the power to shape a tribe's language for all time.

So how good of a window IS language into human nature? Language as Human Insight: Our Many Words for Fighting When a language has such a plethora of synonyms for one aspect, one word, one idea, it seems to show that that language, those speakers, value or care about that idea very much. This article emphasizes the wide range of words we have for fighting. Is fighting inherent in human nature; is it really that central and important? Over the course of our evolutionary history, it seems that there would be an advantage to those who would (if they could) kill off all their neighbors and take their resources rather than work together for a common cause. As time has proceeded, the groups banding together for common protection of each other and common attack on others have grown larger. No longer is it a Feudal unit of peasants and lord, but it's an entire country that's invading other countries for their resources. We've learned it's not always necessary to kill everybody, but we really haven't come that far.