Road Trip Convo - Delicious kolaches and what was the first human conversation anyway?

Our road trips are never dull.  Our latest road trip took us to Grapevine, Texas where my son wore himself out at the LegoLand Discovery Center and then we ventured off to Weatherford, Texas where we visited with Erasmo’s family by the great countryside.  On our way up the I-35 corridor we stopped for some fluffy kolaches at the Czech Stop in West, Texas.  My son and I had never had these and although we had just finished our tacos, we ate them anyway.  They were well worth the food coma. 

Some miles up the road the DJ, on talk radio, posed a question that had us talking for the next few hours.  What was the first conversation that took place between man?  We threw out some guesses:  food and procreation.  Who wouldn’t answer food with all the tacos and kolaches we had just eaten?  The answer the DJ gave was tools.  We were surprised, but kept on guessing as that did not satisfy our craving on what two men could possibly have to say to each other.  We placed ourselves in another time period altogether.  Yes, this was tough as we accelerated in our car toward another city, but mentally we were in another time.  What could two men possibly have to say to each other?  Imagine that you are the only human man around for miles and suddenly you see another you with the same stuff growing out of his face, with the same stuff growing out of his body (ahem), with the same body structure as you.  What would you, in that moment, have to say to the other you?

Perhaps the first conversation had by man was also a question and is the same conversation we keep having with ourselves.  Where did you come from?  It is such a plaguing question that never seems to be neatly answered.  When we do answer this question for ourselves, be it because we believe in an ultimate creator or because we draw the line at “does it matter,” we never stop asking this question no matter how secure we are in our faith or in our absence of it. 

We continued our discussion by posing another question.  We like to think that the first human encounter was between two men; although, it is very possible that the first conversation was had between two women.  Was the first conversation between two women the same one that the men had with each other or was it a conversation about emulating behavior or teaching?  Was the first conversation about their children or was it an instruction:  Teach me. 

I’d love to hear from you.  What do you think the first conversation between men (or women) was? Note that the question is not, what was the first conversation between man and woman nor is the question, what was the first conversation between man and God.  We know that one.

A model of the face of an adult female Homo erectus, one of the first truly human ancestors of modern man, on display in the Hall of Human Origins in the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C.  Reconstruction by John Gurche; photographed by Tim Evanson. Wikimedia Commons

  

The Science Recorder article

Humanity's First Conversation May Have Been About Building Tools

NBC News

Humanity's First Talks May Have Been About Tools, Scientists Say

Nature Communications
Experimental Evidence for the Co-Evolution of Hominin Tool-Making Teaching and Language