Abstract
Different factors seemingly account for the emergence of present-day languages in our species. Human self-domestication has been recently invoked as one important force favoring language complexity mostly via a cultural mechanism. Because our self-domestication ultimately resulted from selection for less aggressive behavior and increased prosocial behavior, any evolutionary or cultural change impacting on aggression levels is expected to have fostered this process. Here, we hypothesize about a parallel domestication of humans and dogs, and more specifically, about a positive effect of our interaction with dogs on human self-domestication, and ultimately, on aspects of language evolution, through the mechanisms involved in the control of aggression. We review evidence of diverse sort (ethological mostly, but also archeological, genetic, and physiological) supporting such an effect and propose some ways of testing our hypothesis.
Highlights
Over the last decades, language evolution has emerged as a favorite topic of inquiry for researchers from different fields, from linguists to anthropologists to ethologists to prehistorians
Whereas the former was hypothesized to result from biological changes mostly, presentday languages were hypothesized to derive from the first language(s) used by first anatomically modern humans (AMHs) via random modifications triggered by external factors, like social and geographical isolation or cultural exchanges
We have explored the consequences of human-dog interactions for the evolution of their respective cognitive and behavioral distinctive features, with a focus on communication
Summary
Language evolution has emerged as a favorite topic of inquiry for researchers from different fields, from linguists to anthropologists to ethologists to prehistorians. This is one of the hormones subject to sexual selection with respect to a reduction in physically aggressive behavior in the context of our self-domestication (Hare, 2017) Fourth, this close relationship between dogs and humans can impact on key cognitive abilities via brain changes promoted by the physiological mechanisms involved in in-group affiliation and stress management. Genes positively selected in humans compared to extinct hominins are enriched in candidates for mammal domestication, dog domestication (Theofanopoulou et al, 2017) This overlapping encompasses highly prevalent human cognitive diseases impacting on social and communicative abilities, which present with altered features of self-domestication. TS has been highlighted as a proxy or window to previous stages in human self-domestication entailing higher levels of reactive aggression (see Progovac and Benítez-Burraco, 2019 for details)
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