Costs of Early Stone Toolmaking cannot Establish the Presence of Know-how Copying

Bibliographic Data

ID5363453
AuthorsClaudio Tennie (0000-0002-5302-4925, University of Tübingen, corresponding author), William D Snyder (0000-0001-5878-984X, Senckenberg Centre for Human Evolution and Palaeoenvironment), Ronald J Planer (0000-0003-2947-6574, University of Wollongong)
Year2025
Volume36
Issue2
Pages180-218
Publication date2025-06-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueHuman Nature (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1045-6767 • E-ISSN: 1936-4776
PublisherSpringer Science and Business Media LLC (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1007/s12110-025-09494-w
PMID40603811
OpenAlexW4411945700
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited182

Compared to other apes, humans show a distinctive capacity for the cultural learning and transmission of know-how: we extract know-how from other individuals and artifacts in ways that regularly give rise to forms of know-how that no single individual could realistically invent on their own. Such a capacity is plausibly foundational to humans' striking cultural prowess and hence all that goes with it (e.g., symbolic language, religion). In this article, we critically examine attempts to date the transformation of know-how copying in the hominin lineage through an estimation of the costs of stone toolmaking. More specifically, we take as our target the idea that the costs inherent in making early stone tools, that is, Oldowan and Early Acheulean tools, already likely reflect a meaingful upgrade in hominin know-how copying abilities. Our survey of potentially relevant costs of stone toolmaking is generous, covering: (i) the risks and dangers of toolmaking; (ii) the time, energy, and opportunity costs of toolmaking; and finally (iii) the material costs of toolmaking. Ultimately, we find that, based on current evidence pertaining to these costs, the case for inferring know-how copying abilities in Oldowan or even Early Acheulean stone toolmakers is weak. This skeptical conclusion, combined with independent evidence that the design of stone tools during this period likely remained within the range of what the relevant hominins could invent without know-how copying, points to a later date for the establishment of this crucial human skill

Acheulean · Archaeology · Computer security · Copying · Epistemology · Need to know · Political science · Skepticism · Sociocultural evolution · Computer Science · Evolutionary Game Theory and Cooperation · History · Law · Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology · Primate Behavior and Ecology · Psychology

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