Doodling, Gesture, and Language Origins, the Movie
Here is a very entertaining video (nice music) that tells the tale of gesture and the origins of language in a nutshell. Much has been written about how the language capability may have evolved in humans with gesture as a stepping stone or how Man’s first language may have been a signed language. Recent brain research findings (gesture+speech, mirror neurons, lateralization, sign language aphasia) have added more indirect ‘evidence’ for these theories. It is still hard to really prove anything about pre-historic events though…
One thing that struck me is how the author talks about how people might be aided in their thinking when the gesture, or doodle and fidget. A reference to fidgeting! Hooray! Should I point out that I think gesture and fidgeting are quite different? No, I will just let it be.
