How similar are nut-cracking and stone-flaking? A functional approach to percussive technology.
Various authors have suggested similarities between tool use in early hominins and chimpanzees. This has been particularly evident in studies of nut-cracking which is considered to be the most complex skill exhibited by wild apes, and has also been interpreted as a precursor of more complex stone-flaking abilities. It has been argued that there is no major qualitative difference between what the chimpanzee does when he cracks a nut and what early hominins did when they detached a flake from a core. In this paper, similarities and differences between skills involved in stone-flaking and nut-cracking are explored through an experimental protocol with human subjects performing both tasks. We suggest that a 'functional' approach to percussive action, based on the distinction between functional parameters that characterize each task and parameters that characterize the agent's actions and movements, is a fruitful method for understanding those constraints which need to be mastered to perform each task successfully, and subsequently, the nature of skill involved in both tasks.
Groupe de Recherche Apprentissage et Contexte, Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris, France EDA-EA4071, Université Paris Descartes, Paris, France blandine.bril@ehess.fr.
Blandine
B
Bril
Sorbonne Universités, UPMC Univ Paris 06, UMR S 1127, 75013 Paris, France Inserm, U 1127, Institut du Cerveau et de la Moelle épinière, ICM, 75013 Paris, France.
Ross
R
Parry
Groupe de Recherche Apprentissage et Contexte, Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris, France EDA-EA4071, Université Paris Descartes, Paris, France.
Gilles
G
Dietrich
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000818:Animals; D005075:Biological Evolution; D001696:Biomechanical Phenomena; D005247:Feeding Behavior; D005260:Female; D018737:Hand Strength; D015186:Hominidae / Q000502:physiology* / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009048:Motor Skills; D009754:Nuts; D002679:Pan troglodytes; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis; D013672:Technology; D053001:Tool Use Behavior; D055815:Young Adult
expertise; functional parameters; humans; nut-cracking; percussive technology; stone-knapping