EVOLUTION AND HUMAN DESTINY 



is it likely that they were so very much different from 

 the presently existing primates other than man. They 

 probably traveled in fairly large groups, assuring bet- 

 ter protection for themselves and making it easier to 

 find a mate and to raise offspring. This was almost cer- 

 tainly an unconscious process, yet much in accord with 

 the to-be-expected pattern of association. Some mutual 

 sound signals, such as are known to exist among other 

 species of the higher animals, were probably in use 

 among these ancestors of present-day man. Such signals 

 must have been used to warn the group about the ap- 

 proach of dangerous enemies; to signal to a potential 

 mate and to give expression to states of anger, pleasure, 

 pain, and so forth. Whether language originally grew 

 from these signals, or whether, as some philologists 

 hold, symbol formation growing out of rhythmic noises 

 and dances played the predominant part, we do not 

 know for certain. But whichever the case may be, it 

 does not alter the fact that the development of language 

 played an essential part in the development of man as 

 he exists today. 



Now it is known that the other primates cannot be 

 taught language to any appreciable extent. Therefore 

 language in man must be more than merely the result 

 of imitative learning of the individual. It must also 

 have an organic basis. Without the necessary organs 

 and nervous equipment no animal can master lan- 

 guage. So, if one speaks of the instinct for language in 



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