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SUMMARY:Primate stone tool use for paleoanthropologists - Michael Haslam (
 School of Archaeology\, University of Oxford)
DTSTART:20170301T163000Z
DTEND:20170301T173000Z
UID:TALK69652@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Ann Van Baelen
DESCRIPTION:This talk examines recent findings on wild non-human primate (
 NHP) stone tool use\, looking for commonalities that may also apply to ear
 ly hominin lithic technology. It raises the following discussion points: (
 i) not all populations or subspecies within a 'stone-tool-using' species u
 se stone tools\; (ii) lithic tools typically play the role of force amplif
 iers in the primate tool kit\, while other materials (sticks\, leaves\, et
 c.) play complimentary roles\; (iii) pounding stone size usually relates d
 irectly to the hardness of processed foods\; (iv) cultural differences in 
 stone tool use are best seen in differing relative frequencies of tool use
 \, or functional differences\, rather than in differences of tool form bet
 ween groups\; (v) lithic tool use is a group activity\, practiced by femal
 es\, males and children alike\; (vi) reliable conchoidal flake production 
 requires direct stone-on-stone percussion\, not incidental anvil or hammer
  breakage during other tasks\; (vii) brain size\, hand morphology and loco
 motion patterns have no clear relationship with whether a primate species 
 uses stone tools\; and (viii) all stone tool use leaves an archaeological 
 signature\, although many are hard to identify. None of the extant NHP tax
 a with habitual lithic technology (bearded capuchins – Sapajus libidinos
 us\, Burmese long-tailed macaques – Macaca fascicularis aurea\, and West
  African chimpanzees - Pan troglodytes verus) have an unbroken line of sto
 ne tool use back to their ancestor with hominins\, and all have close rela
 tives at the species or sub-species level that never use stones. Each has 
 its own idiosyncratic technological trajectory\, and choosing any one of t
 hem to model hominin tool use behavior\, without considering the wider pri
 mate pattern\, would therefore be unwise.
LOCATION:BioAnth Lecture Theatre (Room 41)\, Division of Biological Anthro
 pology\, Pembroke Street\, Cambridge\, CB2 3QG
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