(ORDO NEWS) — Many believe that our ancient ancestors used sounds and shouts for the first semblance of communication, but a new study suggests that they most likely did not use sounds at all, but preferred gestures.
Gesture is a more universal signal than language. Some gestures can be understood by almost every inhabitant of the planet
Scientists believe that sound is not the most versatile way to communicate. “People of all cultures gesticulate when they speak, even the blind gesticulate, and healthy adults and children can successfully use gesture as their only means of communication,” write the authors of the new work.
How was the experiment carried out?
To test this theory, scientists from the University of Western Australia conducted two experiments at once. To do this, they recruited two groups of people: 30 from Australia and 30 from Vanuatu.
People did not communicate in the same language, but they were invited to play charades. The researchers conducted two rounds. Volunteers were asked to try to describe the words using only “moos” or gestures.
So the authors of the work found that gestures are much more effective in conveying meaning and are often similar in different cultures than unintelligible sounds.
“The universality of gesture means that it is ideal for the development of human communication and therefore supports the hypothesis that gesture is an element for the creation of language,” the researchers said.
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