The Evolution of Social Communication in Primates: A Multidisciplinary Approach

Introduction.- PART I: Philosophical and Historical Roots of Social Communication Studies.- Lord Monboddo's Ourang Outang and the Origin and Progress of Language.- Ferality and Morality; The Politics of the "Forbidden Experiment" in the Twentieth Century.- PART II: The Elements of Social Communication in Primates and Humans.- Experimental Conversations: Sign Language Studies with Chimpanzees.- How Primate Mothers and Infants Communicate: Characterizing Interaction in Mother-Infant Studies.- On Prototypical Facial Expressions vs. Variation in Facial Behavior: What Have We Learned on the "Visibility" of Emotions from Measuring Facial Actions in Humans and Apes.- The Evolution of Joint Attention: A Review and Critique.- Describing Mental States: From Brain Science to a Science of Mind Reading.- PART III: Evolutionary Transitions from Social Communication Systems to Language.- Bodily Mimesis and the Transition to Speech.- From Grasping to Grooming to Gossip: Innovative Use of Chimpanzee Signals in Novel Environments Supports both Vocal and Gestural Theories of Language Origins.- Reevaluating Chimpanzee Vocal Signals from the Ground Up.- PART IV: Evolutionary Origins of Human Language.- Communication and Human Uniqueness.- How did Humans Become Behaviorally Modern? Revisiting the 'Art First' Hypothesis.- Experiments and Simulations Can Inform Evolutionary Theories of the Cultural Evolution of Language.- The Emergence of Modern Communication in Primates: a Computational Approach.- What Can an Extended Synthesis do for Bio linguistics: On the Need and Benefits of the Eco-evo-devo Program.