From Poop Throwing To Rocks?
Posted on 20. Feb, 2009 by Shannon Graham in Europe, Miscellaneous, Old World, Projectile Techonolgoy
OK, while not necessarily recent news, this Discovery News article did raise an eyebrow last year.
The article suggests that today’s “technologically advanced warfare may be traced back to primates throwing feces.” Think about it. Primates sling poop, sticks and rocks at intruders for defense or possibly anger. Could this be the roots of Stinger missiles?
Primates have broad hips and they throw poorly. Humans on the other hand have a pelvis and rotating hips and shoulders that facilitate quick movement and running. These features allow for better throwing ability, ‘enabling us to do serious damage with just a tossed rock hurled while sprinting.’ The author references seeing an East African kid drop a gazelle with a single stone.
“Both bows and arrows and spears enable distance killing of species, thus greatly lessening the danger to the hunter of taking large game animals. Combined with the use of poisons on the points, these new inventions let hunters kill large animals that would previously have been rarely taken by our ancestors.”
Some scientists believe that the bow and arrow innovation did not necessarily spread throughout Africa, “either due to lack of shared technologies or because people lived under different climatic conditions in populations of various size that warranted different types of hunting.”
“Neanderthals, who lived in small groups, couldn’t have wasted time chasing small prey; while in Africa, individuals who had to feed more than 50 people probably developed weapons under population pressure.”
“Bow and arrow technology is not necessarily better than other forms of projectile technology. It is simply more efficient on animals in closed, forested environments, whereas weighted throwing (and thrusting) spears would be better suited to large mammals confronted in the open.”
What Neanderthals and archaic humans lacked in weaponry, they possessed in animal know-how, since early European cave paintings and sculptures reveal their keen and intense understanding of animal behaviors.
One thing that is clear, when the bow and arrow took off, it became the weapon of choice for most people over thousands of years. “It was an equal opportunity weapon that both men and women could have used to hunt down their dinners.”
Check out the full article here.
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