From Continuity to Contiguity: On the genesis of consciousness, culture and oral language (Part I of IV) (original) (raw)

Based on my previous model and supported by a biophysical interpretation of nervous cell, nervous system, memory, mind and phylogenesis, I further propose a tensorial-relational model, aimed at providing a paleoanthropological and physicalist's explanations of the genesis of consciousness, culture and oral language among human communities. Part I of this four-part article series includes: Preamble; 1. General Premises; 1.1 Towards bridging the Darwinist model of evolution; 1.2 The Tensorial-Relational Model; and 1.3 Quantum descriptions of signal transduction in biological systems. Preamble By comparing the finds dating from the Lower Paleolithic period (c. 2.7-2.4 MY to c. 300-120 TYA) with finds dating from the Middle Paleolithic (c. 300-120 to c. 45-30 TYA), it is assumed that the inner life (insight) of our distant ancestors underwent a slow process of psycho-relational and psycho-biological individuation (incubation and settling of a distinct and relatively autonomous neuro-psychological identity), a process started c. 2.7-2.4 MYA (Homo Habilis?), that only recently, in a time ranging from about 300 TYA (Homo Sapiens?) onwards, led to the formation of the relatively autonomous and independent psychic complex which we call epigenetic function of the real, or (self)consciousness. The establishment of the epigenetic function of the real marks the transition from an adaptive and supra-adaptive behaviour focused on the sensing-intuition mental bipolar dimension (C.G. Jung) and based on the primacy of the (quasi)unconditioned identification (relation of continuity) of individuals with their natural habitat (a phylogenetically inherited behavior that has in itself the neuro-psycho-relational conditions to enable the neurological-minded system homo to overcome the stereotypical behavior common to all non-human animals), to a behavior integrated by the thinking-feeling mental bipolar dimension and based on the primacy of a conditioned identification (relation of contiguity) of individuals with their natural habitat, a behavior that breaks the relationship with the existing in a subject that interprets the relationship and an object that is interpreted, thereby initiating to all intents and purposes the cultural production. Disengaging itself from the adaptive strategies inherited via phylogeny (strategies that establish the constraints that must be followed to adapt to natural habitats) humans communities undertook a slow and difficult elaboration of epigenetic adaptive strategies, increasingly directed to adapt the natural environments (domestication processes) and the individuals themselves (social processes) to the needs and purposes elaborated and assumed by the communities. The slow process that went from encoding (musically) to codification (syntactically) of oral language became a consequence of the transfer of a portion of the psycho-physical energy or libido (C.G. Jung), gained through the optimization of socio-cultural and technological strategies employed to satisfy the requirements associated to survival and reproduction, from the plane of oro-pharynx, as anatomical organ for the feeding and breathing, to the plane of oro-larynx, as anatomical instrument for intentional emission of sounds (vocalization and phonation). In more recent times (from about 40-15 TYA, Upper Paleolithic, onwards, Homo Sapiens et faber) the cultural and neuropsychological evolution of adaptive strategies based on domestication/ socialization, did recognized to the apotropaic use of the magic-word (which allows to set different physical levels of reality in relation to each other) an added value (the function of naming things as an act of legitimation of reality and the function of giving to individual an own name - semantic baptism -, as an act of initiation that assigns to individual a new value of reality) that puts the generatrix power of oro-larynx (where the pneuma is transmuted into speech by which the World is re-created) in open competition with the generatrix power of women's uterus (where the pneuma is transmuted into offspring by which the progeny is re-created).