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While throwing for hunting purposes would have been useful, throwing for defensive purposes likely would have been the initial impetus for throwing evolving to
by sunstone 7y ago
While throwing for hunting purposes would have been useful, throwing for defensive purposes likely would have been the initial impetus for throwing evolving to a fine art.
Imagine yourself alone on the plains of Africa and facing a lion or two. Your odds are not good. Even a group of people on the plains of Africa facing a few lions with no ability to throw stones looks like a losing proposition.
However a group of people in an outward facing circle facing lions and each with a pile of stones to throw with deadly accuracy, now this is something that even lions would think twice about.
The thing about defence is you don't have to move, the stones are prepared before hand. The predator has to come to you and is therefore easier to hit, preferably in the head. Sticks and stones will break their bones but names will never hurt them.
- dkarl 7y agoI agree with your point, but I would expand on it to say that defense could have even more important implications for scavenging than for surviving predation. Being able to scare predators off a kill [1] makes scavenging a lot easier. And then you can apply the same means to hunting, which is also more fruitful because you can hold your own kills. You wouldn't even need to be strong enough for lions to start with; every step up the pecking order would be an advantage. I don't envy paleontologists and archaeologists trying to make a case for "why" an adaptation emerged when it has so many plausible advantages, especially when cultural developments might have happened too fast or at too great a distance in the past for us to have an accurate idea of their timing. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBpu4DAvwI8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBpu4DAvwI8
- sunstone 7y agoSome very good points here :)
- wtdata 7y agoThat is an interesting explanation, but felines usually hunt in the night and our low light vision wouldn't allow our ancestors to defend themselves in a way that relied so much in accuracy during the dark.
- sunstone 7y agoI used lions here just as an example. It could be hyenas or wild dogs and others.