人类学学报 ›› 2018, Vol. 37 ›› Issue (03): 331-340.

• 人类学学报 •    下一篇

制作工具在人类演化中的地位与作用

高星   

  • 出版日期:2018-09-15 发布日期:2018-09-15

The role of tool-making in human evolution

GAO Xing   

  • Online:2018-09-15 Published:2018-09-15

摘要: 制作工具曾经被视作人类独有的行为能力,"人类"曾经据此而定义。但目前学术界将直立行走作为人类区别于其他灵长类最重要的体质与行为特征。少量其他动物种类,尤其是非人高等灵长类,也能使用工具乃至简单制作工具。如何认识制作工具在人类演化中的作用?人类制作工具的能力与其他动物有何区别?考古学是否有能力分辨人类的工具和其他灵长类的产品?本文通过对现代巴西猴群敲砸石头的行为及其产品、4300年前黑猩猩的"石制品"和早期人类石制品的比较研究,指出人类的工具与其他动物制作和使用的工具存在根本的区别;工具制作和使用对确定人类的演化方向,增强人类的适应生存能力,塑造人类的大脑与心智及行为方式,提升语言和交流能力,形成现代人类的身心和社会,至关重要,不可或缺。考古工作者一方面需要谨慎分辨、研究人类工具制作初期的产品,不使其与自然的产物和其他动作的作品相混淆,另一方面应该认识到人类工具制作在计划性、目的性、预见性、规范性和精美度上具有唯一性,有内在的智能控制、思维逻辑和规律可循。学科发展的积累和现代科技的支撑使考古学者具有多方面的利器,能够把人类工具制作的历史挖掘、复原出来,能够破译特定的石器技术和功能,进而将人类演化的历史画卷描绘得更加精细,更加完整。

关键词: 工具制作;石制品;人类;灵长类;人类演化

Abstract: Tool-making was long considered a capability and behavior unique to humans, and “Man, the tool-making animal” was long used as the fundamental definition of humanity. Today, bipedal locomotion is taken as the most important characteristic of the hominids, while tool making seems to have been relegated to a less important role in human evolutionary history. We now realize that a handful of animals, especially the non-human primates, possess tool-using abilities and, in even fewer cases, the capability to make tools. What is the role of tool-making in the history of human biological and cognitive evolution? How can we differentiate anthropogenic tools from artifact-like objects (especially lithic) created by hominids and other animals? Do archaeologists have the capacity to unequivocally distinguish human artifacts from products made by other primates? Using the examples of fractured stones fabricated by wild bearded capuchin monkeys in Brazil, lithic artifacts left by chimpanzees 4300 years ago in Co?te d’Ivoire, and 3.3Ma BP stone artifacts made by human ancestors at Lomekwi 3, west of Lake Turkana in northern Kenya, this paper points out that human tools are significantly different from similar products created by other animals, and tool-making activities are vital and essential in defining the uniquely human evolutionary trajectory and influencing human cognitive development. Archaeologists should be cautious in identifying and analyzing stone artifacts made and used by early hominids which share some similarities with geofacts and the products of other animals, but should also realize that human tools are unique in many ways because of human planning, imagination, prediction, functional considerations and highly skilled technological control. The development of archaeological research and the advance of modern technology both facilitate the capability to draw a picture of human evolution more precisely and comprehensively.

Key words: Tool-making;Lithic artifacts;Hominids;Primates;Human evolution