892 MAN 



parietal area. It represents a cortical region engaged in the sense of hearing, 

 more particuhirly lor complex sounds, such as those of language. In this 

 capacity it acts as a most important componiMit of the speech mechanism. 

 Not only does it make possible the learning of language, hut through motor 

 reprochiction ot what is previously heard it provides a constant auditory 

 superxision over language as it is vocalized m audible speech. The individual 

 possessed of articulate expression "listens in," so to speak, while he is talking. 

 If it is true that thought depends upon unspoken language, the auditory 

 area of the brain exerts a profound mlluence over the process of thinking. 

 The Dawn man, on the strength of these facts, must have been capable of 

 some kind of spoken language just as he was possessed of some capacity 

 for thought. 



Little of the occipital lobe is available for study. It is difficult to deter- 

 mine whether the Piltdown man had better \isual powers than his lower 

 antecedents. Impro\ement, if there were such, involved his \isuo-psychic 

 functions, i.e., the visual powers of association and discrimination. 



POSITION OF THE DAWN MAN IN THE HUMAN FAMILY 



Thus visualized through the developnunt of his brain, the Daw n man 

 may appear a somewhat uncertain mem!)er ol the human famil\. Doubtless 

 he lived m communities ol considerable size, for otherwise his powers of vocal 

 communication would ha\e had little opportuiiit\' to develop. He seems to 

 have been capable of man\ skilled acts, but such im[)lt'inents as he did make 

 were j>robabl\ dictated by the bare essentials of hie, by the nvvd for food and 

 lor protection. It is [probable that none of his mstrunu'iits ser\ed for cultivat- 

 ing the soil or for the production ol garments or the construction of ]:)erma- 

 ncnt duellings. I le was dependent lor his li\ tlihood ii|)on game animals w huh 

 he followed m their migrations and thus himself became a wandenr. What 

 powers of thought he had or w hat gifts (jf imagination are matters for conjee- 



