ABSTRACT
Communication is ubiquitous in nature. It takes diverse forms, from flowers serving as signals for bees and the colors of poison dart frogs indicating their toxic nature, to bees communicating about new sources of nectar, and to the alarm calls of various species of monkeys, prairie dogs, and chickens. Human communication includes incidental forms of communication such as the crying of newborn babies as well as intentional forms based on anticipating others’ responses, which begin to emerge before infants’ first birthdays. It is the latter form of communication that language is based on and is usually considered communication. But to understand the development of human forms of communication, it is important to conceptualize communication broadly. Doing so requires being aware of the way in which preconceptions influence how this topic is approached and how evidence is interpreted. I articulate how communication can be viewed from the perspectives of two contrasting worldviews that can be characterized as conceiving of the individual as the starting point and source of social development or, in contrast, as the outcome of social development, in which case the starting point is the process of social interaction leading to increasingly complex forms of interaction.
