PIE vs. Proto-World (Proto-Language)

[X99Lynx at aol.com]

In a message dated 8/21/99 8:08:23 PM, nicholas.widdows at traceplc.co.uk wrote:

<<There was evidence of great age, but it was later contradicted by more
accurate tests.>>

The full article is by Alan Thorne et al in Journal of Human Evolution June
99.
The age of various finds are discussed there.

However, just as important to this subject matter is the taxonomy of early
and modern Australian aboriginal remains which show for example unique
characteristics identified in Indonesia much before the O of A dates.

One can forget in this discussion that there is quite a bit of evidence of a
good deal of human habitation all over the rest of the eastern Hemisphere
well before 100,000 BC.  Out of Africa seems to postulate that these other
humans were eliminated from the descent of the current world population.
These pre-O of A's display culture and ,e.g., in the case of the Australians,
physical continuity with the present.  Multiregionalism simply postulates
that different human strains have been mixing for a very long time and Out of
Africa would at best represent a phase in that process.  The genetic evidence
is spectacular, but hardly settled.

In any case, choosing to connect the events associated with Out of Africa
with the development of language capability is arbitrary, does not jive and
possibly conflicts with evidence of language capability in humans at other
times - possibly at much earlier dates.  Associating Out of Africa with
modern languages (post 10,000 BCE, let's say) seems - to me at least - a bit
farfetched.

Regards,
Steve Long