Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-77c89778f8-fv566 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-16T15:43:05.462Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

3 - First Tool-Users and -Makers

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 June 2012

Lawrence Barham
Affiliation:
University of Liverpool
Peter Mitchell
Affiliation:
University of Oxford
Get access

Summary

It is important to distinguish between the using and making of tools in human evolution as these are conceptually different behaviours, and arguably require different cognitive abilities. Tool-users apply unmodified natural objects to do work. Tool-makers deliberately modify materials, and may make tools for use in making other tools. We know more about stone tool technology simply because stone survives better in the archaeological record, but this dichotomy applies equally to organic materials, with both having the potential to provide information on the extent of learned as opposed to innate behaviours. Examples of the learned ability to use tools occur in just a few non-primate species such as the Californian sea otter, bottlenose dolphin, and Egyptian vulture. Tool-making is even rarer among non-primates, with only the New Caledonian crow observed to shape leaves into a variety of tools for extracting insects from crevices (Hunt et al. 2004). The ability of young crows to make leaf tools in captive isolation without input from peers or parents indicates an innate behaviour transmitted genetically rather than socially, though some details of shaping tools may be learned by observation (Kenward et al. 2005). The ability of primates, in particular chimpanzees, to use and make tools is now well documented (Whiten et al. 1999), and involves a degree of social learning surpassed only by humans.

Type
Chapter
Information
The First Africans
African Archaeology from the Earliest Toolmakers to Most Recent Foragers
, pp. 59 - 107
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2008

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×