tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7083730.post115222635023144009..comments2023-06-02T17:54:44.641+02:00Comments on Connaissances: The Stone AxeJonathan Wonhamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09862200571016427320noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7083730.post-1153063347073193242006-07-16T17:22:00.000+02:002006-07-16T17:22:00.000+02:00Thanks Clare. The people described in my review wo...Thanks Clare. The people described in my review would seem to be living a lifestyle akin to that of Neolithic people of Europe, beginning around 5000 BC. The Papua indians have a highly developed axe-making technique and have moved from a hunter-gathering lifestyle to a proto-agricultural style of living involving some domestication of plants and animals. The discovery of axe-making technique must have come of experimentation. It is interesting that the 'discovery' has occurred in many diverse parts of the world. Perhaps the experimentation is finally driven by competition to survive? As you say, the axes are also rather dangerous and as soon as the neighbouring tribe has them, it would put a pressure on your own tribe to find out how to make them as well. In my opinion, these people, hidden away in the jungles of Papua New Guinea, may simply be the last to adapt to the ripples of a technological revolution that began in the Mesolithic some ten thousand years earlier, but I don't know how long they have been producing axes, so that is speculative. The technology for shaping stones goes back much further than that of course, as do the techniques of humans to kill each other...Jonathan Wonhamhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09862200571016427320noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7083730.post-1152658725744239892006-07-12T00:58:00.000+02:002006-07-12T00:58:00.000+02:00Fascinating post, Jonathan. I'd love to see one o...Fascinating post, Jonathan. I'd love to see one of those stone axes. When I hear about feats such as this I always wonder how such technology, which seems quite sophisticated to me, was first developed. Who first threw the rock on the fire? Who first learnt to sharpen the rock - I guess it was by accident and generations building on what had gone before. <BR/><BR/>Ah, these homos sapiens, sometimes they seem such amazing creatures; but then they go and spoil it all by throwing those beautiful stone axes (or something like them) at each other!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com