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Hi all,
can anyone suggest a source (preferably online) where I can read about the origins of naming (when and how people started to create names for each other)?
TIA!
O father, father, why did you let her do it to you, why were you her daily-nightly butt? Why were we all? Did you really still love her so much? Did we really love her at all in those days, or was it just her long dominance over us that we mistook for love?
(The Moor's Last Sigh)
can anyone suggest a source (preferably online) where I can read about the origins of naming (when and how people started to create names for each other)?
TIA!
O father, father, why did you let her do it to you, why were you her daily-nightly butt? Why were we all? Did you really still love her so much? Did we really love her at all in those days, or was it just her long dominance over us that we mistook for love?
(The Moor's Last Sigh)
1
Replies
Not specifically, no . . .
. . . because we *have* no specific information about when naming began. We do know that all surviving written and oral histories include personal names; but those don't go all that far back in human history, let alone in the history of the hominid line. It's simply not possible to study human/hominid naming practices without some form of direct evidence, and we don't have that.
There are a few sources that you might try reading:
This source (which I've only glanced at) deals with naming in general (all nouns, not just personal names) as a behavioural pattern:
http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=1350072
This online discussion asks the question, and cites some interesting research about "naming" behaviour in dolphins that might be worth following up:
http://ask.metafilter.com/mefi/18979
This paper appears to deal with the idea that naming could be an adaptation:
http://psycprints.ecs.soton.ac.uk/archive/00000685/
I suggest googling "Origin of Naming" and similar combinations of keywords.
I hope that helps!
♦ Chrisell ♦
All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us. - J.R.R. Tolkien.
. . . because we *have* no specific information about when naming began. We do know that all surviving written and oral histories include personal names; but those don't go all that far back in human history, let alone in the history of the hominid line. It's simply not possible to study human/hominid naming practices without some form of direct evidence, and we don't have that.
There are a few sources that you might try reading:
This source (which I've only glanced at) deals with naming in general (all nouns, not just personal names) as a behavioural pattern:
http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=1350072
This online discussion asks the question, and cites some interesting research about "naming" behaviour in dolphins that might be worth following up:
http://ask.metafilter.com/mefi/18979
This paper appears to deal with the idea that naming could be an adaptation:
http://psycprints.ecs.soton.ac.uk/archive/00000685/
I suggest googling "Origin of Naming" and similar combinations of keywords.
I hope that helps!
All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us. - J.R.R. Tolkien.
1