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Who were the earliest tool makers? How did
they live? What kinds of tools did they make and use? Most
important, what role did this early technology play in human
evolution?
In Making Silent Stones Speak, Nicholas
Toth and Kathy Schick literally reconstruct the lives of
our primitive tool-making ancestors. Drawing on two decades
of field work around the world, they show how early prehistoric
sites have been discovered, excavated, studied, and interpreted.
They take the reader along with them to the savannahs of
East Africa, the plains of northern China, and the mountains
of New Guinea -- and into the past. Then, in a dramatic
recreation of primitive technology, they show how early
stone tools were made -- and how they can be made and used
today, by both modern human beings and chimpanzees.
Mixing archaeology and practical experimentation,
Making Silent Stones Speak then moves beyond field
work into startling new theories about human evolution.
Toth and Schick show:
- How technology is probably the
most important element in determining the course of human
evolution
- Why changes in human behavior
-- in diet, social organization, sexuality, and technology
-- have been as important as changes in biology in shaping
evolution
- How our primitive ancestors learned to
favor their right hand over their left in manufacturing
stone tools, thus encouraging the right-brain/left-brain
split that is responsible for human intelligence... and
human creativity
A major work by the leading researchers
in the field, Making Silent Stones Speak takes the
reader on a fascinating journey through the world of our
stone-age ancestors.
Kathy Schick is Co-Director of the Center
for Research into the Anthropological Foundations of Technology
at Indiana University, Bloomington, where she is also on
the anthropology faculty.
Nicholas Toth is CO-Director of the Center
for Research into the Anthropological Foundations of Technology
at Indiana University, Bloomington, where he is also on
the anthropology faculty and an adjunct professor of biology.
He has appeared on National Geographic's
"Mysteries of Mankind" and the BBC's "The
Making of Mankind."
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