HUMANOSOPHY

In a way. But initially only on the mental level.
An important and leading research  of the Max Planck Institute of Leipzig analyzed the bonobo-genome in 2012.
It showed 1. that we are more related to the bonobos than to the chimpanzees (for us no news)
2. that there has been gene exchange with our close relatives up to 4.5 mya but that this has since stopped.

Of course, this last fact may have been the result of geographically separation: the bonobos remained rainforest inhabitants and the australopiths became savannah inhabitants.

But the temptation to speculate that more was going on is great.
That time is close to the behavioral changes that have followed (use of fire, making stone knives and scrapers). Behavior that only can be attributed to a species that has names for things.

Not sophistication of group animal cries! For our ANBOs, normal ape communication (cries, gestures, facial expressions and other body language) was only extended with names for things. But those names were produced with hand gestures, not with cries.

Animals – apes are animals – have no neurological control over their voice.
Animal cries are controlled by the limbic system. So the extending of their normal ape communication with names for things – being a conscious action – included facial expressions and all other body language but excluded cries – being produced only by the limbic system.

However, our ANBOs weren’t deaf, like present-day sign language users. The thousands and thousands of the ANBOs’ signed words were formed with silent gestures but accompanied by consonants. Consonants such as t-k-f-s-ch-p are muscle-formed, are controlled by the neocortex!
To form more and more names for the things, the voiceless consonants (!clicks and puffs and mmums and ch’s ) were crucial.
Although the emotional cries continued to be part of their communication. After all, they remained bonobos and those are very noisy.

Perhaps the ANBOs initially silenced their few sign words, meaningfully looking at the other and waiting to see if the gesture was understood. After all, it started with nothing. And it has long remained a women’s affair, especially during the day when gathering food. And then for a moment to distribute the collected food after arrival in the overnight forest.

It is also the women who always have their hands full with picking and other activities that are also necessary when communicating. So the urge to also use the mouth muscles meaningfully in women is great.
Our conclusion:  from the beginning, consonants have been part of the sign language of our ancestors ens especially of the women.

The Singing Neanderthals of paleo Stephen Mithen (2005) were still !click-language sign language communicators in our opinion, and the oldest GH-tribes that are examples for our original GH-phase, the Hadza, the San and the Pygmies, still haven !click-languages

In the long nightly hours around the campfire, the growing gestural communication with names for things the proto-form of sign language underwent an accelerated development towards real singing. The accompanying cries became a proto-form of singing.
Later more about the campfire and the dancing/singing.