This chapter needs to build a foundation for human knowledge. Anthropology can date the emergence of tools more so than language. Physical evolution of the larynx, etc is one thing, the social patterns of any species is in not in the fossil record to any great extent. These are the first steps on the journey as we most certainly needed language to begin to build the complex tools of the Neolithic period.
Situate human being in the natural world, with language and its uses having key roles in survival and flourishing as a biological species. It functioned this way from the early Neolithic where we see the emergence of cave painting, burial rights, iconic objects and other echos of an emerging intellectual life. One that clearly connected humans and the natural world.
When humans start taming the forces of nature and settling down into larger diverse communities, this facility for language is put to new practical uses and the emergence of an historical record. In this chapter we need to advance the arcs of discussion through the Bronze Age to the time of the ancient Greek philosophers and the foundations of western philosophy.