Toolmaking, Hunting, and the Origin of Language

Abstract

To the inarticulateness of nature man has added a new dimension-speech. He is the only creature who talks, in the sense of using a shared set of abstract rules for creating and communicating ideas about the world. Hence, it has more than once been suggested that, instead of being called by that oafishly arrogant, prematurely self-bestowed name Homo sapiens, he would be more accurately described as Homo loquens.In this paper, which is in two parts, I shall be concerned first with a brief inquiry into some of the factors that may have contributed to the origin and development of speech, and second, with a discussion of the importance of the study of prehistoric tools as a means of learning something about the behavior of early man.Let me begin, then, by saying that there exists a widespread belief among those of us who should know better that the tools of the early Oldowans were of the simplest kind, typically represented by the unifacial and bifacial choppers that one sees almost exclusively illustrated in books-mine, I regret to say, among them-on prehistoric man. Indeed, for a long time this is the only type of tool I believed had been found at the oldest Olduvai levels. Illustrations should present assemblages of the tools found, nor figures of a single allegedly "typical" implement. Otherwise, it is easy to fall victim to the imprinting of the "typical pebble tool" solecism. I t is easy enough to point to the mistakes of others; what is more difficult is for us to digest the unpalatable truth that such mistakes are equaled only by those we ourselves commit. In that spirit may 1 then, as uncaptiously as possible, note that in the proceedings of a recently published conference on the origin and evolution of language and speech we find one of the contributors stating that "The first tools, which are associated with the australopithecines and Homo hahilis. are either unshaped stones or stones that have a flake or two taken off them."' Curiously, in his references the author lists Mary Leakey's superb description of the tools and other artifacts found in Beds I and I1 at Olduvai.? That work shows the early Oldowans used quite a variety of skillfully made tools, not only of stone but also some of bone. There was evidence also of several other interesting artifacts.The tools from Bed I (site DK I A ) are typical Oldowan and are made from two kinds of lava, also from chert and tuff, and consist of five types of choppers, polyhedrons, discoids. light duty scrapers, and burins, as well as other varieties of heavy duty tools. In addition, artificially flaked and abraded bone tools were also recovered. It was at this level also that the remains were found of a loosely piled circle of stones suggestive of an artificial structure. No primate fossil remains have been found at this level, but the tools suggest use in cutting, pounding, scraping, and the butchering of small animals.Whoever made these tools must not only have been able to select the appropriate materials-bone, various kinds of stone, and possibly wood-but also...

Sequence and hierarchy in vocal rhythms and phonology

“…Starting from the already relatively sophisticated tool use present in our last common ancestor with chimpanzees, 86 toolmaking and tool use had been steadily advancing in sophistication in early hominins, providing a hierarchical structuring control system that originated in tool use, but "ready-made" for exaptation into vocal usage. This hypothesis is clearly consistent with the archaeological record, in the sense that even very early hominins (the australopithecines) had already advanced considerably over chim-panzees in the toolmaking and presumably tool-use behavior; 14,15 its predictions can be tested by evaluating and comparing the neural underpinnings of speech and toolmaking. 16,17 The second possible precursor is more speculative: that the circuits put to use in the phonological hierarchy in fact evolved in the vocal domain, but for use in song rather than speech.…”

“…Skilled tool use and manufacture involves a network of brain regions including frontal (motor and planning), parietal (spatial), and temporal (memory of stored routines) with considerable overlap with those needed for spoken language. [14][15][16][17] I suggest that exuberant development of the pathways connecting these regions could have provided the initial basis for hierarchical motor control of the vocal pathway. Alternatively, the marriage of vocal sequencing with hierarchy that yielded speech rhythm may have occurred directly during the elaboration of protomusic from simple (birdlike) sequences to more complex song structures (as suggested for some songbirds).…”

Handedness and laterality in humans and other animals

“…A link between handedness in nonhuman primates and language in humans is suggested by the theories which imply that lateralized control of the hand used preferentially in complex tool making and in gestural language favored lateralization of human speech mechanisms in the same hemisphere (Hewes, 1976;Montagu, 1976;Steklis & Hamad, 1976).…”

Constraints on a Theory of Hominid Tool-Making Behavior

“…In fact, there is evidence, both practical (cf. Montagu 1976) and conceptual, that the operations described by Wynn were already present in the early Acheulean; the principle of spatio-temporal substitution as described above, for example, also appears to have operated in the formation of early Acheulean trihedrals (see fig. 2).…”