According to anthropologists, which of our ancestors was likely to have been the first to develop the whites of the eyes for communication?

McGruff

In fact, one of the features that set humans apart from other primates is that we have developed distinct "whites" to our eyes, a characteristic that even our closest relatives, the apes, do not possess. Making the direction of our glance all the more conspicuous, these "whites" have enabled us to develop an entire "glance language," with which we both send and receive messages, some of them amazingly subtle. http://www.thenovelist.com/eye_language_excerpt.htm Morris (1977) places so much importance on the eyes that he suggests that the whites of our eyes (which chimpanzees and other primates do not have) developed specifically to make our eyes' gaze more noticeable. http://hamp.hampshire.edu/~enhF94/kinesics.html I'm at a loss as to what is meant by "our ancestors." Sep 12 03, 3:33 AM

McGruff

Okay, I think I've found it. 2. Which of our human ancestors do you find the most fascinating and why? I am fascinated by Homo Ergaster; the first one of our ancestors to communicate with the whites of the eyes, that’s the first time that was seen. http://us.dk.com/static/cs/us/11/features/cavemen/interview.html Sep 12 03, 3:50 AM

shady shaker

Very well done, "Sherlock" McGruff!! It is indeed Homo Ergaster. H.E. thrived about 1.9 million yrs ago. A fossil of a skull was found in 1975 in Northern Kenya by Bernard Ngeneo. The name means "workman". H.E. had a brain about two-thirds the size of ours and is likely to have been the first to have developed the whites of the eyes for communication. That information comes from an article in the Brisbane Courier Mail headlined "Our Ancestors." Sep 12 03, 5:00 AM