Page 170 - Flipping book The Adam Paradox Hypothesis - Second Edition.pdf

The Ādam Paradox Hypothesis 147
The Qur
ʾān places language at the origin of humanity:
“And He taught Adam
the names — all of them” (Q 2:31). Al-Ṭabarī explains that these names
encompass all things in existence, visible and invisible. Ibn Kathīr says Adam
was given both the words and their meanings. Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī interprets
naming as categorization, the essence of reason. In APH, this verse marks the
activation of symbolic language as a stable system.
Archaeology offers indirect but powerful evidence. At Sibudu Cave (~60 ka),
traces of adhesives mixed with ochre show deliberate recipes (Wadley, 2007).
Recipes require instruction; instruction requires speech. At Blombos Cave (~75
ka), perforated shells appear in dozens (Henshilwood et al., 2004). Beads require
agreement on meaning, negotiated in language. At sites of long-distance trade,
objects moved hundreds of kilometers, implying negotiation and symbolic
contracts only possible through speech.
Genetics reveals readiness long before durability. FOXP2, a gene associated
with speech articulation, underwent critical mutations ~200 ka (Enard et al.,
2002). HAR1, a rapidly evolving RNA, shaped cortical development necessary
for syntax (Pollard et al., 2006). These were hardware. But the software of full
symbolic language, able to stabilize traditions, appears only after 70 ka.
Robin Dunbar framed language as “social grooming”
:
“Speech allowed us to
groom many at once, to share reputations, to keep track of trust. It is social glue
in words” (Dunbar, 2004, p. 76). Language scaled society. It also stabilized
culture, allowing each generation to inherit what the previous discovered.
Myth: Weaving the World in Story
Names are not enough. To name is to identify, but to narrate is to explain. Myth
weaves discrete words into stories that explain the cosmos, resolve paradox, and
provide moral guidance.
The archaeological record brims with mythic imagination. In southern
Germany, the Lion-Man figurine (~40 ka) combines human and lion (Conard,
2003). It represents a being that does not exist, a creature of story. In Chauvet
Cave (~37 ka), lions hunt, rhinos charge, horses gallop — narrative scenes
painted with sequence and realism (Clottes, 2003).