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Culture/Flintknapping
Jesse S. Cook III (jcook@AWOD.COM)
Wed, 28 Aug 1996 09:01:15 -0400
This is in addition to my response to the posting by John R. Cole of 19
August 1996. In that posting, he says:
"CHIMPS DO HUNT & MAKE AND USE TOOLS."
To which I replied: "Nobody ever said they didn't."
To his: "McGrew's *Chimpanzee Material Culture* is a recent definitive work
on tool-making and tool use among chimps."
I replied: "A recent personal communication from a well known anthropologist
says: 'A comment I have made previously about McGrew's *Chimpanzee Material
Culture*...is that, despite all the most ingenious and committed research,
it takes enormous effort to find something about other animals that looks
remotely like the behavior of humans.'"
Sitting in the doctor's office recently, I picked up the July 1996 issue of
*Discover*; and, in an article by Jared Diamond (professor of physiology at
UCLA School of Medicine and research associate at the American Museum of
Natural History), I ran across the following:
"Chimpanzee use of tools...is of great interest to human[s]...but of only
limited dietary significance to chimpanzees." (Page 135.)
I think this point is frequently overlooked. Human use of tools is of great
significance to humans, and not just as concerns diet.
Jesse S. Cook III E-Mail: jcook@awod.com
Post Office Box 40984 or
Charleston, SC 29485 USA 201-9573@mcimail.com
"Our attitude toward others is not determined by who *they* are;
it is determined by who *we* are."
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