The Non-Verbal Origins of Being

Language may be dominant to our modern life, but our predominant non-verbal origins continue to shape how we communicate today.

Another scientific finding recently flashed on my virtual timeline that suggests “symbolic behaviors” (such as verbal language) emerged within the Levantine Middle Paleolithic period.

Each time I find myself reflecting again on language, music, and their connection to what it means to be human, I find myself returning to one and the same insight:

Yes, verbal language is uniquely human. But more importantly, within the vast timeline of Homo sapiens, it is also only a relatively recent feature to us.

While we Homo sapiens emerged approximately 300,000 years ago, genetic and archeological evidence indicates that spoken language (encompassing verbal, linguistic, lexical, and semantic communication) likely only evolved between 50,000 and 100,000 years ago.

This means that we communicated nonverbally for approximately 67% to 83% of our evolutionary history.

In other words, for the large majority of our history we bonded, communicated and lived together non-verbally. This predominant non-verbal past of us relied heavily on what evolutionary thinkers often refer to as a pre-semantic proto-language: a blend of gestures, expressions, sounds, and music-like vocalisations, free from the structured linguistic abilities we have today.

Eventually, as humans evolved, this non-verbal proto-language morphed into a more enriched symbolic, semantic-centric form of communication.

One important consequence of this is that the large majority of our day-to-day communication continues to be either heavily influenced or entirely dependent on non-verbal communication processes inherited from our ancestors.

The foundations of most if not all of our behavioral rituals and tribal instincts—the very forces that drive us to form and sustain reliable, cohesive, and secure bonds—are not only profoundly ancient, but fundamentally non-verbal.

Ranging from facial expressions, body posture and gestures, to types of eye contact, acoustic properties in the voice, some researchers estimated that 60-90% of our modern communication remains non-verbal as such.

Albert Mehrabian famously introduced the “7-38-55 Rule” in communication: 7% of meaning is conveyed through words, 38% through tone of voice, and 55% through body language.