I have never had an anthropology course nor have I done much debunking of things I’ve watched on TV where all sorts of claims about what was going on before history, are made rather casually, as if somebody were there to observe and evaluate.
But let’s just for fun play like our reasoning is adequate to the task, much as Aristotle is alleged to have thought, and just decide for ourselves what’s most likely to have been the case.
Here are a few things we can decide for ourselves must be true:
What was the earliest hand signal or gesture and what did it mean?
What provoked the idea that squatting was a smart way to pose for the bathroom duties?
What caused early humans to want to get in out of the rain?
Do add more questions or concerns that may have plagued you or caused you to wonder why, when, where, by whom, and how often certain things came to be.
As I see it, this is the unrestricted-by-fact counterpart to the General Questions forum.
What was the earliest hand signal or gesture and what did it mean?
Using the right index finger to point at the left wrist, as if to signal “I’d love to help you not get eaten by the sabertooth tiger, but I’m late for my appointment to drop a big rock on Og.”
What provoked the idea that squatting was a smart way to pose for the bathroom duties?
A few people tried standing on their heads for this, but found it unpleasant. Thus, the squat was born.
What caused early humans to want to get in out of the rain?
Can I still play if I have an anthropology degree? It’s only a BA, but still.
My first inclination would be pointing, but not all cultures point with the index finger; some use other fingers or parts of the face, like noses or lips. I’d guess the hand upraised palm out in a non-threatening gesture of greeting, showing that the one making the gesture does not hold a weapon.
I’d say plain old biology. Even lower animals without culture squat so as not to get waste on themselves.
Same thing that makes us want to get in out of the rain - being wet and cold is uncomfortable!
Prehistory, in hunter-gatherer times, probably consisting of simple dots and lines from ash rubbed into cuts and punctures, or a blackened thread drawn through the skin with a needle. We actually have some examples of prehistoric tattoos from preserved remains, like those on Ötzi the Iceman from around 3300 BC.
I’d guess some word of greeting, equivalent to “hello.”
They were probably animal skins and woven fibers worn for protection from the elements, so I’d guess men and women simultaneously. Covering of the genitalia seems to come up fairly early in cultural development, even if it’s just a gourd or a breechcloth.
Well, pravnik, I’m impressed with your speculations. That BA must have been fun to acquire.
Now, having given my puerile questions some reasonable thought and serious-minded replies, would you favor us with some questions/issues that actually do come up in anthropology discussions of pre-history that the average person might find counter-intuitive? And then why anthropologists prefer to resolve those issues away from the “common sense” approach – when they do.
Call me negative, but IMO the first word was probably some version of “no”. I also think the first gesture was probably some kind of wave-- as in waving away (like shooing a fly) or telling someone else to back off.
What I want to know is who discovered clapping and/or finger snapping and did these cavepersons have any rhythm?
