ABSTRACT
Darwin played a crucial role in the understanding of animal evolution and biological science more generally. While animal rights may nonetheless have an important role to play in redressing human-animal relations, this chapter focuses on the implications of the questioning of human exceptionalism, showing why humans have worked so hard at distinguishing themselves from other animals and what are the consequences. What becomes clear is that almost all, if not all, of the features that were taken to be distinctly human – tool making, empathy, cooperative behaviour, language and culture – have some form of precursor or correlate in animal behaviour. The chapter discusses the implications for rethinking language and communication from a perspective that includes the more bodily aspects of animal communication. This has implications both for humans' relationship to animals and for their understanding of what language is.
