Until the 1990s, linguists tended to be very sceptical about research on the origin of languages or origins of language. They simply could not see what evidence there might be that would be relevant, especially within linguistics (Malmkjær 2004: 387). Neuroscientists and archaeologists might be doing research on the problem, but the idea that language itself might be relevant was met with disbelief. What changed things was an article in Behavioral and Brain Sciences (Pinker and Bloom 1990). It suggested that linguistics might actually be no different from any other field. It was just that no linguist had put together what was known that might bear on the problem.

Today, it is still the same with social and cultural anthropology. Because of this, the field of the origin of human society (as well as that of the origins of language) is still underdeveloped in anthropology in general, when compared to its potential. The problem, for reasons hinted at earlier, is simply that very few social anthropologists have made the effort to piece together the many aspects of the discipline that relate to the topic.

Thoughts and theories of the origin and purpose of language

The origins of language were central to Enlightenment debates on the nature of humanity. On the Continent it engaged a plethora of writers, including Rousseau, Condillac, Maupertuis and Herder, among others, while in Scotland, Adam Smith wrote a classic essay on the subject. Most writers of the eighteenth century assumed a gradual development of language.