ABSTRACT
The evolution of language is a matter of not only cognition and computation but also the requisite social conditions that provide a “platform of trust” and encourage routine willingness to mesh mental states. The most convincing evolutionary account for the emergence of intersubjectivity in genus Homo is Hrdy’s “cooperative breeding” model, which relies at least initially on females reproducing with female kin, as per the “grandmother hypothesis.” Other aspects of our anatomy, life history, and non-submissive psychology offer evidence that our ancestry was characterized by reduced dominance hierarchy and increased tendency to egalitarianism. Reverse dominant gender ritual, comprising a “coalition of everyone” – females, their kin, and males willing to invest in offspring – against would-be alpha males, is the evolutionary context for emergent symbolic communication. This Female Cosmetic Coalitions model is tested against evidence from the archaeological and ethnographic records.
