ABSTRACT
While culture plays an impressive role in shaping human persuasive practices, culture is neither the sole province of human rhetoric, nor is it the only force involved in its practice. Biological processes, the actions of physical bodies, and the navigation of real-world environments filled with other living actors, hold incredible weight in the decisions of human rhetors. Moreover, nonhuman rhetors have been found to innovate and pass down cultural learning of their own. Thus the study of both culture and biology in rhetorical theory requires scholars to investigate two related questions: what processes evolved in the bodies (and especially brains) of early humans to allow for such a broad array of sign systems to exist, and what can we learn from the nonhuman animals that share many persuasive behaviors with human rhetors – including syntax, cultural transmission, and even language use, by some definitions? The author explains some neurocognitive developments in Homo sapiens, with special attention to those that allow for theories about minds and the beliefs they possess, sharing and directing attention, and monitoring the trustworthiness of other signalers. He then proceeds to demonstrate some shared traits with other extant species that help contextualize the study of human language and persuasion. These topics draw attention to the work that needs to be done in the future to combat human (and human cultural) exceptionalism, which damages individuals, cultures, and the entirety of the natural world.
