Hominin Tools Essay
1250 Words
5 Pages
The use of tools have been an essential part of human history and culture, even before modern humans evolved. Being made up of many layers, tools are valuable sources of evidence that reflects the dexterity and cognitive abilities that the hominid species possesses whether extinct or still living. In this essay, I will be discussing the impact of tools use and the effectiveness it had on our evolutionary history and cultural practices. Developments towards human evolution that aided tool making throughout history such as opposable thumbs, larger brain size and bipedalism will be highlighted and thus will explain the different level of tool use between humans and chimpanzees. Secondly the essay will then discuss early hominin tools such as the
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Lastly the essay will analyze how culture and language have affected the way humans make tools, which really shows how humans have set our selves apart from other hominins which conclusively defines who we are as a species
The ability to use tools is an extremely difficult task for animals. Although it may appear simple , using stones to open nuts is a process that would need cognitive reasoning, hand eye co-ordination and hand control. Chimpanzees are the many species within this world who also uses tools to attain food examples of tool use include inserting twigs into termite mounds to fish for termites and using sticks as weapons (Tomasello & Call, 1997, p.73). For human beings, the first step towards accquiring this ability is the evolution and development of bipedalism. Australopithecus were the first to be fully bipedal because of their wide pelvic bones and upright spinal position (Hunt, 1992, p.191).Various scientists claim that this is due to the climate change in the African continent, which caused reduction in forests which meant the receding demand to climb trees. Bipedal locomotion allowed evolutionary advantages due to the fact that it requires less amount of energy (Sockol, Raichlin & Pontzer, 2007, p.12265), this also freed up the hands which allowed participation in other
Lastly the essay will analyze how culture and language have affected the way humans make tools, which really shows how humans have set our selves apart from other hominins which conclusively defines who we are as a species
The ability to use tools is an extremely difficult task for animals. Although it may appear simple , using stones to open nuts is a process that would need cognitive reasoning, hand eye co-ordination and hand control. Chimpanzees are the many species within this world who also uses tools to attain food examples of tool use include inserting twigs into termite mounds to fish for termites and using sticks as weapons (Tomasello & Call, 1997, p.73). For human beings, the first step towards accquiring this ability is the evolution and development of bipedalism. Australopithecus were the first to be fully bipedal because of their wide pelvic bones and upright spinal position (Hunt, 1992, p.191).Various scientists claim that this is due to the climate change in the African continent, which caused reduction in forests which meant the receding demand to climb trees. Bipedal locomotion allowed evolutionary advantages due to the fact that it requires less amount of energy (Sockol, Raichlin & Pontzer, 2007, p.12265), this also freed up the hands which allowed participation in other