Anthropology For Dummies
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Language is the system humans use to communicate. Linguistic anthropology studies human language, and these points highlight humanity's distinct way of transmitting information:

  • Human infants aren't born with language already in mind, but all healthy infants are born hard-wired to acquire any of the uniquely complex rules (grammar) of any human language.

  • Each language has a unique grammar, a complex set of rules that tell how to properly order the words in a sentence; children normally learn the outline of this grammar by about 3 years of age.

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Dr. Cameron M. Smith has searched for early human fossils in East Africa, studied traditional hunting methods in Arctic Alaska, and more. His research has been published in The American Journal of Physical Anthropology and The Journal of Field Archaeology, and he is the author of An Atlas of Human Prehistory.

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