What exactly caused the bridge between object-usage and combat which gave rise to ROBA in humans, which (per my hypothesis) produced human, recursive language?
Apes have the capacity to “reach” for combat using objects. As seen in the 1980s macaque studies, apes’ axions extend outward when given a tool, and then the axions retreat once the object is taken away. Apes use object-based intimidation, which for all intents and purposes is an attempt to “reach” for object-based combat, but without the ability to acquire it. One might say they are teleologically “inclined” toward ROBA during object-based intimidation. To actually have ROBA, the recursive loop has to be closed, the spandrel bridged between object usage and combat, which can produce the infinite phrases possible in human language. So it would make sense that the first time this was bridged was during object-based intimidation.
Perhaps what might have happened at Gans’ Originary Scene (where language hypothetically began) was that all members pointed toward combat by using object-based intimidation, presumably with a rock. Such mutual assured destruction is actually not possible in apes, but this group retained the intimidation stance for a long period. Given adequate numbers (which might have been a rare scenario since we hypothesize that these “protohumans” had left the forest for the woodlands) the prolonged mutual object-based intimidation allowed the neural axions to completely reach combat. So long as they didn’t destroy each other, this would have produced the recursive loop for the first time. This would have generated the first recursive, linguistic signal for the carcass: “offering”, “sacrifice”, etc.
However, once the intimidating rocks are put down and the intimidation ends, the loop would have vanished, since the axions were not fully connected yet. They depended upon the use of objects. But the memory of this sacred event would have remained, along with memory of using some strange magical term which prevented apocalyptic violence. Such an event could only be re-conjured by picking up the same objects for intimidation which would have rekindled the recursive loop. It would have been important to use the same objects: specially shaped rocks of some uniform design.
The next time the group “agreed” to mutually intimidate each other might have succeeded in reproducing this word. It might have produced new words. Perhaps they would have taken these stones home and conjured this recursive loop at home to produce new words there for “sacred hearth”, “temple”, “priest”, etc.
This might have lasted for millions of years, requiring all hominids to flake stones to produce the recursive loop wherever they went. Perhaps this is why stone tools are universally the same and remained unchanged for 2 million years. If this model is right, Oldowan (and perhaps Acheulean) tools were not for utility: they were lightning rods necessary to generate recursion wherever hominids traveled. New terms produced by the recursive loop could provide new meanings for these rocks, giving rise to utilitarian purposes. At their core, though, the lithics would have been truly religious materials.
If my domestication model is right, then the prolonged use these recursive signals would have domesticated hominids in order to aid in progressive language use. One natural effect would have been for the brain to fold enough so that children were born with this bridge pre-installed. This new generation would realize, gradually, that they didn’t need stones to Kickstart the recursive loop anymore. It could be kickstarted with just using the terminology, pointing, making a prayer, etc. This might have dramatically sped up brain growth, since recursive language could be used anywhere, without needing a stone lightning rod. Was this advent of the second wave of immigration out of Africa, the modern Homo sapiens?