Dal gesto alla parola e ritorno

On the basis of the most recent acquisitions of the contemporary cognitive sciences, from philosophy of mind to psychology, to neurosciences and cognitive anthropology, the paper outlines a historical-epistemological perspective that starts from the reflections of cognitive archaeology on the organism’s motor capacities in the environment, on the development of cognitive functions and specifically language, coming today at a sort of backward journey which – with the empirical and experimental support of contemporary science – at the root of the most sophisticated mental capacities and language identifies the same sites and mechanisms of the nervous system that are in charge of motor control. The theory set forth by Lieberman in his most recent work on the origin of language and its neurobiological basis is adopted as a case study.