Our Mothers’ Tongues: Babies, Bonding, Lullabies, and Language; Liz Zelman

This talk will be about a recent obsession of the speaker about how lots of bits of our universe, particularly living things, move together to become groups, and often fall apart again, then repeat the cycle. Specifically, she will speak of human bonding beginning with mother-infant bonding as part of our mammalian roots — as instrumental in the evolution of language in our own species.

Liz Zelman is a retired anthropologist and speech/language pathologist. Since retirement, she has participated in Washington University’s Lifelong Learning Institute as student and facilitator, this past winter facilitating a course called Evolutionary Ethics. Currently she is writing a book which she plans to complete and publish within the next year.