Along with the ability to cook meat, the use of new weapons e.g. Stone tipped spears and cooperative hunting, equipped hominins to develop into our Cro Magnon ancestors whom we all know and love. Although hunting today is anachronistic, we should give a tip of the hat to it for several reasons:
“Regular use of this new technology could have reduced adult mortality, increased average lifespan, increased daily return rates of large, high-quality food packages, and decreased daily nutritional variance. These effects may have changed the amount and regularity of resources adults can contribute to dependents, with important implications for human life history. An increased juvenile period, higher female fertility, and pair-bonded cooperative breeding all may be explained in part by higher rates and reduced variability in successful resource capture among hunter-gatherers."
Here’s the article: http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/2014/08/27/archaeologists-assess-killing-power-of-stone-age-weapons/
After half a million years BTW these weapons are still very much effective. So hunters out there who really want a challenge, put down your guns and pick up an Atlatl.
Cap’t Jack
A general observation - hunting and the warfare has led to the much of the technology that we humans have used to develop our world.
I think the atlatl would be cheating. Cro Magnon probably did not have that 500,000 years ago.
But like the Cro Magnon man, I say (or grunt): “You can have my stone tipped spear when you pry it from my cold 1/2 million yr old dead hands.”
I think the atlatl would be cheating. Cro Magnon probably did not have that 500,000 years ago. But like the Cro Magnon man, I say (or grunt): “You can have my stone tipped spear when you pry it from my cold 1/2 million yr old dead hands."Damn! Charleton Heston was that old? I knew he was a curmudgeon but... . Yeah, the earliest date for the Atlatl is 35,000 ya (so far, you know these scientists, they leave everything open ended) but Homo Sapiens had a field day killing Mammoths with it. Just thought I'd throw the Atlatl in for good measure pardon the pun. Cap't Jack
This isn’t really surprising since studies have shown that thanks to things like tools and fire, humans are able to spend a lot less time eating and gathering food than most other animals do. Basically, because of those two things, we’re able to ‘pre-digest’ food before we stuff it into our pie holes, which means we get more energy out of the food and we don’t need to eat as much as other animals, so that gave us free time to think up things like twerking and the reverse mortgage.
This isn't really surprising since studies have shown that thanks to things like tools and fire, humans are able to spend a lot less time eating and gathering food than most other animals do. Basically, because of those two things, we're able to 'pre-digest' food before we stuff it into our pie holes, which means we get more energy out of the food and we don't need to eat as much as other animals, so that gave us free time to think up things like twerking and the reverse mortgage.And climate change denial. Lois
A general observation - hunting and the warfare has led to the much of the technology that we humans have used to develop our world.Yeah, that thought occurred to me in a Political Science class, back in 1973. It still seems so.
This isn’t really surprising since studies have shown that thanks to things like tools and fire, humans are able to spend a lot less time eating and gathering food than most other animals do. Basically, because of those two things, we’re able to ‘pre-digest’ food before we stuff it into our pie holes, which means we get more energy out of the food and we don’t need to eat as much as other animals, so that gave us free time to think up things like twerking and the reverse mortgage.Getting back to this concept, have you read Richard Wrangham's book Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human? It details how cooking meat changed our protein intake to make it more efficient and allowed for brain growth. More energy, more intellectual ability so that coupled with group cooperation made hominins the dominant primate. Now there's twerking (modern mating ritual?) and reverse mortgaging so that those of us in our dotage can afford to hang out in a club and learn to twerk? Thank you Miley. Cap't Jack
Haven't read it, but there's a whole slew of interesting theories that have come out in recent years about how we became so intelligent. One of them has to do with the fact that at about the time we became bipedal, we lost much of our body hair, and this, in turn, enabled our brains to get bigger (more resources available to the ol' gray matter, and we're better able to dump excess heat, so we don't 'cook' ourselves while chasing after game). I doubt we'll ever be able to point to a single thing which made us "human," but I do think we'll be able identify the combination of factors which led to it.This isn’t really surprising since studies have shown that thanks to things like tools and fire, humans are able to spend a lot less time eating and gathering food than most other animals do. Basically, because of those two things, we’re able to ‘pre-digest’ food before we stuff it into our pie holes, which means we get more energy out of the food and we don’t need to eat as much as other animals, so that gave us free time to think up things like twerking and the reverse mortgage.Getting back to this concept, have you read Richard Wrangham's book Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human? It details how cooking meat changed our protein intake to make it more efficient and allowed for brain growth. More energy, more intellectual ability so that coupled with group cooperation made hominins the dominant primate. Now there's twerking (modern mating ritual?) and reverse mortgaging so that those of us in our dotage can afford to hang out in a club and learn to twerk? Thank you Miley. Cap't Jack
We should also consider the importance of changes to our vocal apparatus, that allowed us to become more articulate social creatures (which in turn lead to more effective group activities such as hunting and warfare). And eventually lead to reading, writing, and arithmetic… and advanced musical abilities, which, most importantly, eventually, lead to twerking.
Of course, I will offer an official apology to the Cro-Magnon people, if evidence comes to light that they, actually, invented twerking.
Of course, I will offer an official apology to the Cro-Magnon people, if evidence comes to light that they, actually, invented twerking.Interesting thought Tim and I've seen some Aboriginal spirit dances that look a lot like twerking! Maybe she saw them too! Also, it's well known now among paleoanthropologists that speech development is a key factor in hunting and orally recording future hunting sites as well as cooperation among the hunters. That's partially what made us better hunters and survivors than our Neanderthal cousins. CT brought up some important points as well and all of these evolutionary alterations aided our immediate ancestors in the struggle for survival. BTW it looks like then"out of Africa" theorists are winning the argument as more info comes to light. Cap't Jack
We should also consider the importance of changes to our vocal apparatus, that allowed us to become more articulate social creatures (which in turn lead to more effective group activities such as hunting and warfare). And eventually lead to reading, writing, and arithmetic... and advanced musical abilities, which, most importantly, eventually, lead to twerking.I remember reading an article, ages ago, that since humans are the only primates who's palms are lighter than the rest of our bodies, this aided in communication, as it was easier to see hand gestures in poor light. This would have been important when our ancestors were gathered around fires and talking. We first controlled fire roughly 2 million years ago, so it might have been that gestures were the sole means of communication, or the primary form of communication, at this time. ETA: I heard an interview with an anthropologist who one day noticed that her young daughter was taking rocks and chipping them into the shape of arrowheads. The anthropologist thought that this was interesting because she'd never taught her daughter how to do such a thing, and her daughter had never been anywhere that she might have picked up the skill, but the arrowheads were exceedingly well-made. The anthropologist thought that there might be some kind of genetic component which "compelled" her daughter to try her hand at it, much the same way its been shown that New Caledonia corvids have a genetic component which "programs" them towards the use of tools in order to get food.