Cultural evolution

• • culture - anything that is learnt
• Tool use by australopithecines:

  • home base - camp site to bring food back
  • found back 2.5 million years
  • no use of fire
  • precision grip employed
  • Oldowan tools - pebble tools (choppers, scrapers, flakes, chisels)
  • no evidence suggesting change of tools
  • enabled them to exploit a broader range of habitats
• Tool use by Homo habilis:

  • continued to use Oldowan tools; some sharpened/shapred via striking
  • diet primarily of plant material with supplementary meat
  • meat provided complex fats for brain growth
  • bulge in speech-producing area of the brain → communication occurred
  • use for skinning animals, chopping meat, breaking open bones, crushing plants and digging up plant roots
  • hunter-gatherers worked in groups → social organisation
  • bone show cut marks by both a tooth and a stone tool
• Tool use by Homo erectus:

  • effect of environment as selective agent diminishing → H. erectus modified environment to suit their purposes
  • used fire, built shelters and a range of tools (stone and bone)
  • Acheulian tools - tools were flaked around the edges until bi-faced lump is formed (teardrop) used as hand axes
  • H. erectus capable of logical thought, communication, and teamwork
• Tool use by Homo neanderthalensis:

  • Mousterian industry - stone flakes trimmed to form various cutting, scraping, piercing and gouging tools
  • Levallois technique - stone trimmed to disc-shaped core → struck by another stone to produce flakes flat; one side with sharp edges
  • hafting - flake tools joined onto handle, spear or arrow
• Tool use by Homo sapiens:

  • Aurignacian - manufacture of blade tools by removing long, flat rectangles from the core stone
  • Solutrean - pressure flaking to retouch blades (leaf-shaped)
  • Magdalenian - bone and antler tools
• Trends in tools:

  • increased manipulation of materials
  • increased complexity of tools
  • greater variety of materials used
  • improved workmanship and development of equipments to manufacture tools
  • increased specialisation of tools