flint knapping improved speach

[Deo]

I was watching a nova program this morning about humans and neanderthals and they mentioned flintknapping. What made it really cool was that they theroized that flintkanping leed to our ability to form complex speach. It turns out that booth speachh and knapping riquire the same thinking in terms of projecting thought into the futur,  solving problems and so on. They also did MRI's to see what part of the brain knapping stimulates and it turns at to be the same as the part we use to form complex sentences in speach. pretty coool

[JackCrafty]

Yeah, I think I saw that too.  It was a good show.

I don't know about the link between knapping and language, though.  I can knap and talk reasonably well at the same time, which means that, at least for me, the areas of the brain are slightly different.  But if I try to talk while writing, forget it.  I think writing and drawing are much closer to speech than knapping. JMO

[Weylin]

I read some theories that said that our capacity for abstract thought and imagination came from our ability to throw. To throw something accurately your brain has to make a large number of intricate calculations very rapidly. As we became more accurate with our throwing our capacity to make these calculations improved and almost as a by-product our now enhanced brain was able to use these calculating abilities to play with ideas and images in our head in new ways, projecting thoughts, thinking thinks through to different possible conclusions, etc. They support this by showing that when we are in the act of throwing our brains inner chatter tends to shut up. I'm a juggler and I can attest to this. It's possible for me to think about things and to talk and so forth while I'm juggling but I have to do it all consciously, if I'm not trying then my mind is noticeably quiet. It's an interesting theory anyway. 

[sleek]

You know, we arent the only species that throw... Monkeys and poo come to mind quickly... lol. On a serious note, we arent the only species involved in ballistics. Look into the archer fish if you wanna learn something really neat!

[Tower]

When I'm asked how I know where to remove a flake. I tell them Knapping is like the game chess. With every move made on the stone, I am planning several moves ahead. Also like chess you have an opponent. Stacks,hinges,& imperfections in the stone. Planning ahead keeps your opponent on the loosing side of the game. I don't know what part of the Brain we use for that. Its similar to speech but I think we were capable of speech before we invented the process of knapping.  Tower

[TRACY]

Was it the Human Spark with Alan Alda?  I agree with this theory on the personal evidence that when I break a point, my speech becomes full of flavorful adjectives that send the dogs for cover


Tracy

This is a good series and hits upon a lot of reasons for this website.

[Deo]

with science there are always multiple therioes for any thing. I do believe that homo sapien sapien has been speaking for a very long time but the homo order of animals has been knapping since homo erectus. I believe that this is the conection they are trying to make, that because of these it improved our ability for complex speach. I can definitly see how throwing things could have also leed to our ability to think more complex.