Hmm - I thought there was evidence for symbolic power in many predecessor to our species:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/cavemen/chronology/contentpage4.shtml
http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/cavemen/chronology/contentpage5.shtml
It seems to be the case that extensive tool use preceded speech - spears, axes, knives, bowls. And since the exact nature of the tools varied from location to location - it meant you had a culture of tool using. That is whatever role biology played in the general fact of tool use (probably extensive) , culture determined the exact nature of the tools. There was no instinctive ability to make a spear or an axe; it was learned behavior. (Not unprecedented; "culture" is far from an exclusively human characteristic; for example large portions of wolf behavior is taught by parents, and not biologically ingrained; having a large portion of species behavior be learned rather than hard-wired inproves ability to adapt to changing circumstances, and thus is one possible survival strategy for a social species.) I can't help but speculate that a pre-verbal culture capable of passing tool making techniques along from generation to generation might also have been capable of passing along cultural tools as well - that mating behavior might well have turned into sex in the human sense. -- Please note: Personal messages should be sent to [garlpublic] followed by the [at] sign with isp of [comcast], then [dot] and then an extension of net