why is declaritive pointing relevent to anthropology?

Question

related to theory of mind, and perhaps transmission of culture and communication. Is it only humans that point declaritively if so why?
chimpanzeees? Tomaselo. Ochs.

Answer 1

Declarative pointing serves to regulate complex social behaviour by providing a means to control and coordinate self and other actions. Pointing was probably a shared action among apes and early humans. However, the pointing found in human infants is very different than pointing among apes. This suggests a separate evolution of these activities among the two groups. Some suggest that pointing by apes is rare in the wild and that, at best, pointing by apes is purely instrumental (as opposed to the pre-linguistic pointing evidenced in babies). If you follow that line of thinking, then it is clear that the pointing found in apes will never reach the declarative stage, as they are limited in their linguistic capacity. All human babies, across cultures, have the potential to exhibit such pointing as a precursor to language. It represents a shared, perhaps, embedded, action across humankind.

ETA - declaritive pointing - goal is an interaction with anotherr
imperative pointing - goal is to obtain an object