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315Gestural Theory of Language OriginsThe only serious alternative that has been suggested for the development ofhuman language is the so-called “gestural” theory of language origin (see Hewes, 1973,1977; Armstrong et al, 1995). According to the proponents of this theory, the evolution ofhuman language went through a gestural phase. Suggested first by Condillac in 1746, thistheory was particularly influential in the 1970s and the 1980s with the remarkablesuccess achieved in teaching apes sign language.Gestural theory had many attractive sides:(1) First of all, it was believed that apes (our closest relatives) do not havevoluntary control over their own vocalizations, therefore it wasassumed that when our hominid ancestors wanted to communicatemore complex ideas, they would not be able to use their vocal tract andhad to turn to other means of communication.(2) Another important point for the support of gestural theory was thelateralization of musical abilities and human language in differenthemispheres. The idea that language (lateralized in the left hemisphere)could not be related to our vocal abilities (lateralized in our righthemisphere) was perceived as hard neurological evidence against thevocal theory.(3) Most importantly, the boost for the gestural theory came from thegroundbreaking experiments in teaching our closest living relatives theAmerican Sign Language. Apes, constrained from talking due to theirphysical inability to produce a wide range of articulated sounds,suddenly started communicating with the experimenters (Gardner &Gardner, 1969; Premack, 1970), answering their questions, followingtheir directions, and even constructing rudimentary sentences with signlanguage and other non-articulatory means of communication. Thisfact was a living proof of the ability of our very distant ancestors tostart more advanced communication via gestural and other non-vocalchannels.The subtle decline in the influence of the gestural theory in recent years wasmostly connected to advances in our understanding of the character of animalvocalizations and the lateralization of language and musical faculties in our brains.Belief in the involuntary nature of ape vocal communications is not so strong anymore among scholars, as information about voluntary control over vocalizations amongapes is growing. The suggestion that our living relatives could have had at least partialcontrol over their vocalizations started with Steklis’ 1985 publication, and manyfollowed. Barbara King wrote in 1994: “…the ability of some monkeys to produce