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Would have been better had they gotten machinists or rural people that otherwise work with their hands to do this. A bunch of scientists playing make believe c
by pbj1968 3y ago
Would have been better had they gotten machinists or rural people that otherwise work with their hands to do this. A bunch of scientists playing make believe chopping wood and scraping bone doesn’t convince me much. We would have been just as specialized back then as we are now. And don’t we have 30,000 year old jewelry with intricate carvings? Why the amazement at “wow, this pointy stone chops wood, man?”
- marcellus23 3y ago> We would have been just as specialized back then as we are now. Can you please cite some evidence for this? My understanding is that specialization into trades was an outcome of the agricultural revolution, which happened quite a bit later than 30,000 BC.
- taway_6PplYu5 3y agoI've read that many ant species have more "roles" than a typical British village prior to the industrial revolution. Note that this is in agreement with you, that the number of trades open for people to work in was pretty small until fairly recently.
- username135 3y agoDon't we have small populations around the globe that still do this? Wouldnt it have neen easier to observe them?
- defrost 3y agoThey're not frozen in time. Spear fishing hunter gatherers, for example, are out there but they've moved on to using steel rebar for barb points over stingraytail barbs, wire wrap for binding over chewing just the right branch fibres, and iPhones over smoke signals. It's similar but not the same: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gmCX7R-W4c https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gmCX7R-W4c
- eszed 3y agoWhere are the iPhone using hunter gatherers? Not snark: I want to know more about them.
- defrost 3y agoPapua New Guinea, Northern Australia communities, also cattle herders in Africa. That covers pure traditional hunter-gather | slash and burn agrarian | herding, etc as traditional lifestyles that are still mostly practiced in mostly traditional forms by some parts of communities but also supplemented with tourism, children going to school to learn law and other skills, FiFo mine work, etc. https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-30500591 https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-30500591 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GmKxmxk6Gas https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GmKxmxk6Gas
- eszed 3y agoThanks for the story and the video. They're both interesting, but had no tech-specific information. If anyone has anything like that, I'd be interested in seeing it. I had read a bit about Masaai keeping track of each other and their herds with mobile phones. Thank you for reminding me about that.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- Kerb_ 3y agoYour first couple sentences really confuse me. The scientists playing make believe are playing make believe with years of knowledge and experience studying stone age tools. They are seeking to accurately make believe how the tools are made and used by investigating tools in various states of assembly and wear. Machinists would be playing make believe with a bias toward modern manufacture, materials, and design, and rural people would be playing make believe without any tool making experience because they just buy axes from the hardware store instead of knapping stone and wrapping string. Their input would absolutely be useful, especially with regards to situational use, and I think more fields need cross-participation for this reason, but these scientists aren't less qualified than anyone else for studying prehistoric tools
- otabdeveloper4 3y agoKnowing how to make stone tools is a standard part of an archaeologists's job description. Not sure you can call doing their job "make believe".