From hand to handle : the first industrial revolution / Lawrence Barham.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Barham, Lawrence, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Paleolithic period.

Tools, Prehistoric.

Handles.

Technology and civilization.

Cognition and culture.

Social evolution.

Human evolution.

Physical Description:

xi, 357 pages : illustrations, maps ; 23 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Oxford : Oxford University Press 2013.

Summary:

Mankind's utter dependency on technology extends back approximately three million years to the first stone tools, but it was only with the innovation of hafting, some 300,000 years ago, that technology took its first modern form and revolutionized our social and economic lives. The development of handles and shafts, which were added to some tools previously made of single materials and hand-held, made the tools not only more efficient but improved their makers' chances of survival by making the quest for food more productive. This volume brings together evidence for the cognitive, social, and technological foundations necessary for the development of hafting to form a speculative theory about this revolutionary innovation. The creation of tools with handles required considerable planning based on an expert understanding of the properties of the raw materials involved, a form of early engineering.

Contents:

Introduction : an enigmatic and anonymous revolution

What is combinatorial evolution?

Neural, cognitive, and anatomical foundations

Tools for learning

Something new from something old

The invention of hafting

After the revolution

A revolution without heroes.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 295-350) and index.

ISBN:

0199604711

9780199604715

OCLC:

860812527