Essay-ANTHROPOLOGY

What is a tool? Did Sahelanthropus, Orrorin, Ardipithecus, or Australopithecus use tools? What evidence shows that they used tools?

In essence, a tool, in the context of early human evolution, is a hand-held device or implement that is used to conduct a certain function. These devices or implements extend the ability of a human to modify particular features of his/her surrounding environment. Ancient tools were primarily carved out of stone. These tools included hammerstones as well as stone flakes (Johanson, 2001).

As studies, suggest that early humans used these stone tools to consume meat from large mammals. For example, in Ethiopia, there is evidence of fossilized bones with cut marks as well as percussions marks on it; an indication that perhaps the Australopithecus used stone tools to take out the flesh from the animal. Literature also suggests that these stone tools revolutionized the way early humans interacted with their surrounding environment. They for instance allowed them to explore new foods such as meat. Ethiopia remains to be the destination with the oldest evidence of butchering by early humans using stone tools (Johanson, 2001).

What do these groups represent for human evolution? Why are these hominids unique in human evolutionary history? 

Early Hominids and Australopithecus represent the significant changes that human beings have undergone from ape-like creatures to human beings today. The early humans underscore our unique identity as humans because they exhibited unique traits that were not present in other apes during the early ages. The early humans, therefore, emphasize the complex process that was an evolution from ape-like creatures to human beings today who have more upright postures and advanced brain capacity. The evolutionary process of human beings is enriched with several side branches as well as dead ends to yield present-day humans. This process also leaves us to imagine what the evolution of human beings would be like in the millions of years to come (Johanson, 2001).

 

 

 

References

Johanson, C, D. (2001). Lucy; The Beginnings of Humankind. Simon & Schuster.