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Signs of symbolic behavior emerged at the dawn of our species in Africa
More than 320,000 years ago in the Rift Valley of Africa, some early innovators adopted a new technology: They eschewed the clunky, palm-size stone hand axes that their ancestors had used for more than a million years in favor of a sleek new toolkit. Like new generations of cellphones today, their Middle Stone Age (MSA) blades and points were smaller and more precise than the old so-called Acheulean hand axes and scrapers.
These toolmakers in the Olorgesailie Basin in Kenya chose as raw materials shiny black obsidian and white and green chert, rocks they had to get from distant sources or through trade networks. In another first, they chiseled red and black rocks, probably to use as crayons to color their bodies or spears—an early sign of symbolic behavior. "This is indicative of a gear change in behavior, toolmaking, and material culture," says evolutionary psychologist Robin Dunbar at the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom, who studies social networks.
A trio of papers released online in Science today documents this remarkable technological transition. Although other sites have yielded MSA tools, the new, securely dated chronology nudges the transition back by at least 20,000 years, matching when our species, Homo sapiens, is now thought to have emerged. By analyzing artifacts over time at one site, the papers also show that these behaviors developed as climate swings intensified, supporting the idea that environmental variability drove innovation.
Related:
Environmental dynamics during the onset of the Middle Stone Age in eastern Africa (DOI: 10.1126/science.aao2200) (DX)
Chronology of the Acheulean to Middle Stone Age transition in eastern Africa (DOI: 10.1126/science.aao2216) (DX)
Long-distance stone transport and pigment use in the earliest Middle Stone Age (DOI: 10.1126/science.aao2646) (DX)
(Score: 4, Informative) by JoeMerchant on Friday March 16 2018, @03:14PM (6 children)
In the 1950s, Homo Sapiens were the _only_ toolmakers, this was taught widely in schools. And Homo Sapiens tool making capability was max 50,000 years old.
Somewhere in the 1970s, a few liberal school children started to question: what about beavers and birds and even termites, don't nest structures count as buildings - making something to improve living conditions? Hippies like Goodall went and lived with monkeys and discovered that they, too, made tools. Then all sorts of people got in on the act and discovered birds and other lower animals doing some very tool-looking things in the wild.
Anthropologists continue to improve their dating techniques (some are even married now), and they find older and older sites with pre-humans that: surprise! made tools too.
Like the 2nd law of Thermodynamics, sharp line division absolute definitions dissolve into continuum states as understanding of the system increases.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by unauthorized on Friday March 16 2018, @06:55PM (5 children)
Incorrect. They were the only KNOWN toolmakers. Science does not work with certainties, it works with likelyhoods, if anyone ever says they are absolutely certain in any knowledge or fact, then you know they aren't a scientist, or at best they are a socially savvy scientists (yes those exist) who is speaking to non-scientists in order to work around that pesky lizard brain "feature" where we find those who act cocksure more reliable.
(Score: 4, Informative) by HiThere on Friday March 16 2018, @07:18PM
The statement that "humans were the only toolmaker" was correct as a statement about what was taught in schools. It's also what was preached in popular science texts and on TV. That professional scientists might have reserved a bit of judgment is possible, but from what I've read if some of them did so, they didn't talk or write about it. They left that to the science fiction writers (some of whom, of course, were scientists when wearing their other hat). Robert Ardrey was one of the folks who first put a chink into that stone wall, and he wasn't a scientist. He didn't directly attack it the way Jane Goodall did later, but he set the stage. And, of course, he was building on the work of various ethologists...so there was a silent movement happening behind the scenes, but it didn't show up in public view until Ardrey...probably "The Naked Ape" was the moment of inflection, but that might just be the way I saw it.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Friday March 16 2018, @07:45PM (3 children)
You givin' me lip, boy? Scientists don't teach in schools, teachers teach in schools, and most grade school teachers of the 1950s, 60s and 70s (even up through today, I'm sure) taught certainties and absolutes.
Only humans make tools.
Nerve cells never regenerate in adults.
Humans only use 10% of their brains.
Try any of that "thinking man" crap on the test and see what kind of grade you get.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by takyon on Saturday March 17 2018, @01:06AM (1 child)
We are seeing some flip-flopping on that one:
Adult Neurogenesis in Doubt [soylentnews.org]
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Saturday March 17 2018, @02:26AM
Yep, and not just on neurogenesis... Back when I was in school, they were teaching that when a nerve is cut, that's it, it's cut - never heals. I cut the sensory nerve that serves the outside of my right pinky finger in 1983, by 1993 near normal sensation was returning to it - and the neurosurgeon who was going to attempt a repair for me in 1983 knew that this was likely - but in 1984 my high school biology teachers were still teaching the "never recover" dogma. Now, that might not be neurogenesis, but actually just dendritic growth from the surviving neurons, but either way, it's basically back to 100% normal sensation now.
I notice the most flip-flops in commercial "science" like the health ramifications of cholesterol in eggs, or fat from whatever, or artificial sweeteners. Then there's material safety like mercury in fillings, or arsenic in treated wood, or asbestos in insulation, or lead in gasoline and paint - those seem to stay mostly in one direction, and I'm sure some are overreactions, but with 7B people and growing, some percentage of the population probably has a problem with all those things and more.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by VLM on Saturday March 17 2018, @03:22PM
The purpose of public schooling is political/religious indoctrination.
There do exist specialty classes sometimes teaching actual scientific method science, but that's definitely not for the general public.