Is Language Necessary for the Social Transmission of Lithic Technology?

Dor Shilton
Journal of Language Evolution, Volume 4, Issue 2, July 2019, Pages 124–
133, https://doi.org/10.1093/jole/lzz004
 Abstract
Recently, a growing number of studies have considered the role of language in the social
transmission of tool-making skill during human evolution. In this article, I address this
question in light of a new theory of language and its evolution, and review evidence from
anthropology and experimental archaeology related to it. I argue that the specific function of
language—the instruction of imagination—is not necessary for the social transmission of tool-
making skill. Evidence from hunter-gatherer ethnographies suggests that social learning relies
mainly on observation, participation, play, and experimentation. Ethnographies of traditional
stone cultures likewise describe group activities with simple, context-bound interactions
embedded in the here and now. Experiments comparing gestural and verbal teaching of tool-
making skills also demonstrate that language is not necessary for that process. I conclude that
there is no convincing evidence that language played an important role in the social
transmission of lithic technology, although the possibility that linguistic instruction was
involved as part of the social interactions accompanying tool-making cannot be excluded.