The social and cultural context of stone knapping skill acquisition

in which humans live shape our opportunities for action and learning at a fundamental level, providing a cumulative ‘ratchet effect’ that may underlie many of the distinctive cognitive skills of modern humans (Tomasello 1999). Understanding the origins and history of this uniquely human mode of cultural existence is a central question for human-evolutionary studies. One potential source of insight into this question lies in the physical traces of proto-human behaviour, and particularly in the durable stone artefacts that dominate the archaeological record. In order to be useful, however, these artefacts must be carefully interpreted using actualistic models based on observable phenomena in the modern world. Artefact replication and other experimental approaches have provided valuable insights into knapping techniques, tool functions and site formation processes (review in Toth 1991) and are even beginning to elucidate the neural foundations of knapping skill (Stout et al. 2000; Stout this volume). However, experimental approaches are ill suited to exploring the cultural dimensions of stone knapping. For this, an ethnographic perspective is needed. Dietrich Stout