Sex, symmetry and silliness in the bifacial world.

Sex, symmetry and silliness in the bifacial world. After 10 years of pursuing sexy handaxes it is probably time to putthese coquettish co��quette?n.A woman who makes teasing sexual or romantic overtures; a flirt.[French, feminine of coquet, flirtatious man; see coquet. creatures to bed. Readers wishing to continue thedebate are courteously directed to our Project Gallery As lithic lith��ic?1?adj.Consisting of or relating to stone or rock.Adj. 1. lithic - of or containing lithium2. lithic - relating to or composed of stone; "lithic sandstone" technologists, we were at first amused by Kohn andMithen's (1999) arguments to the effect that handaxes developed inorder to enhance sexual selection among early hominins. However,contributors to Antiquity continue to take their suggestions seriouslyand even to extend them to new heights (Machin 2008; Mithen 2008;Hodgson 2009). We would like to bring the issues back down to theground, and discuss the practical and technological aspects of bifacemanufacture which these authors do not seem to have appreciated. This isperhaps not surprising since none of the authors appear to have muchexperience in manufacturing stone tools. We do agree with them that asocially-oriented analysis of stone tools is desirable, but this must befounded on a solid understanding of lithic technology In archeology, Lithic Technology refers to a broad array of techniques and styles to produce usable tools from various types of stone. The earliest stone tools were recovered from modern Ethiopia and were dated to between two-million and three-million years old. . Kohn and Mithen's (1999: 520) original argument, as withsubsequent versions published in Antiquity, is based on the fundamentalassertion that 'in the majority of artefacts a specific symmetricalform was imposed ... an imposed symmetry beyond functionalrequirements.' This assertion was supported by a study of theeffectiveness of symmetrical versus asymmetrical handaxe performance inbutchering (Machin et al. 2006). Mithen (2008: 766-9) continues to claimthat his sexual selection explanation is the only theory that canaccount for the features typical of handaxes. One hesitates to acceptthese claims at face value when also confronted with highly questionableassertions to the effect that bones were used as billets and handaxeswere used for chopping up vegetables. The same fundamental premise hasbeen uncritically adopted by subsequent commentators who proposevariously that consistency of form in handaxes was the product ofnatural selection (for unstated reasons--Machin 2008: 763); or thatsymmetry evolved among animals in general as a means of identifyingthings in the world and that handaxe symmetry evolved to createreassurance that an unspecified critical aspect of the human perceptualsystem was working appropriately (Hodgson 2009). Machin subsequentlypresented cogent COGENT - COmpiler and GENeralized Translator arguments from a Darwinian viewpoint as to why handaxeswould make poor candidates for use in sexual selection. What Kohn and Mithen fail to acknowledge is that there is apractical technological logic behind the symmetry and othercharacteristics of bifaces. This does not appear to be very evident fromcognitive evolutionary perspectives. What we suggest is that analysinghandaxe symmetry from a design theory viewpoint can be much moreinsightful. Design theory involves: 1) the identification of a specificproblem to be solved; 2) the identification of relevant constraints(typically factors such as material costs and availability, performancecharacteristics, required skill, processing volumes, time availability,existing technology, mobility and transport limitations, and availablelabour); and 3) identifying the trade-offs in advantages anddisadvantages of certain constraints (such as material procurementcosts) against the advantages and disadvantages in other constraints(such as effectiveness). These factors are then used to develop a suiteof design solutions (Pye 1964, 1968; Horsfall 1987; Hayden 1998; Haydenet al. 2000). [FIGURE 1 OMITTED] In order to demonstrate the potential utility of design theory, theissue of handaxe symmetry can be considered in the broader context ofgeneral trends throughout the Stone Age toward greater economy in theuse of lithic material employed in high-consumption activities. Greatermaterial economy is manifested by changes in core reduction techniquesand resharpening techniques; and these, in turn, arguably ar��gu��a��ble?adj.1. Open to argument: an arguable question, still unresolved.2. That can be argued plausibly; defensible in argument: three arguable points of law. reflectchanges in major design constraints. Oldowan choppers/cores, forexample, produce a minimal number of flakes or resharpenings perkilogram kilogram,abbr. kg, fundamental unit of mass in the metric system, defined as the mass of the International Prototype Kilogram, a platinum-iridium cylinder kept at Sèvres, France, near Paris. of tool stone due to the hard hammer techniques employed. Thelarge striking platform remnants that result rapidly reduce the volumeof core material and increase edge angles (Figure 1a & b). Handaxes,on the other hand, are made with billets which enable knappers toresharpen tools many more times and to remove many more flakes from agiven mass of raw material due to the much smaller striking platformremnants in relation to flake sizes (Figure 1c). Reduction of coresusing blade techniques extends the amount of cutting edge per kilogramof material even further (Sheets & Muto 1972) as does the productionand use of microliths. Pressure flaking, edge grinding, and the use ofresharpenable metals all extend the lives of cutting tools into therealms of curated tools that can last for years or even generations.Each of the technological developments mentioned exhibits symmetry,requires skill, training, and often special raw materials or auxiliarytools that go far beyond the simple cutting requirements of dailyroutines. Are these developments all to be viewed as sexual or costlysignalling rather than basic technological adaptations to underlyingmaterial and performance constraints? [FIGURE 2 OMITTED] We suggest that the handaxe can be viewed as a specialised tooldesign ultimately responding to increased processing and timeconstraints. Torrence (1989) and Bleed (1986) have argued that timeconstraints (the need to complete certain activities within a limitedamount of time) may explain why specialised tools were developed. Underconditions of time stress, such as the need to butcher and dry thousandsof salmon during short spawning runs, or the need to butcher and removemeat from large game before packs of predators arrive, one cannot affordto interrupt harvesting or cutting activities because of tool exhaustionand wander off in search of materials (often several kilometres distant)to replace what has been used up. From a design theory perspective, itcan also be argued that as processing volumes increase, the developmentof specialised tools becomes more cost-effective even though theyusually involve increased procurement/manufacturing costs, skills,and special manufacturing equipment (Hayden & Gargett 1988; Hayden1989). This is a relationship that has been well-established byengineers for industrial machinery (Figure 2; see also Bell 1972; Zeyher1977; Gold 1979) but has also been documented in technologies as simpleas fish butchering knives (Figure 3; see also Hayden & Gargett1988). And it was most likely processing volume constraints that werechanging most significantly throughout the Palaeolithic and Neolithic(Hayden 1989). At this basic level, the same fundamental technologicalrelationships may be as applicable to the Palaeolithic as they are torecent centuries. During the Palaeolithic and Neolithic, the greater the processingvolumes the more inefficient it would have been to discontinue a suiteof processing activities in order to obtain replacement raw materialsfor exhausted tools. In addition, like the industrial lathes and fishbutchering knives in Figures 2 and 3, the greater the processing volumeswere, the more cost effective it would have been to increase theefficiency of the tool by creating a specialised tool that would performtasks with maximal efficiency and maximal longevity even though it mightbe more costly to make or maintain. These relationships especiallyobtain when the transport of lithic material is constrained by humanmobility, i.e. the need for individuals to carry all of their tools andreplacement materials with themselves during moves. [FIGURE 3 OMITTED] To return to the Palaeolithic, the scenario of increasing cuttingrequirements over time seems especially plausible if we assume that,during Oldowan times, the use of spears may have been relativelyinfrequent and limited (Hayden 2008). Chopping tools and the flakesderived from them appear to have been entirely adequate to cope withrare butchering or spear making/sharpening events between suitablelithic sources. With the advent of Acheulean technology, however, it isgenerally thought that hunting became increasingly perfected and thathunted meat played a much larger role in the human diet (Shipman ship��man?n.1. A sailor.2. A shipmaster. &Walker 1989; Aiello & Wheeler 1995; Bramble bramble,name for plants of the genus Rubus [Lat.,=red, for the color of the juice]. This complex genus of the family Rosaceae (rose family), with representatives in many parts of the world, includes the blackberries, raspberries, loganberries, boysenberries, & Lieberman 2004).If so, this implies that spears and butchering tools were being made andused far more frequently than in the Oldowan, and involved much greaterprocessing volumes of both wood (for spears) and meat. Given these newprocessing requirements, together with the constraints of transportingall tools by hand, it would have been important to develop morespecialised tools and to make those tools last significantly longer thanOldowan choppers. It is in this context that the development of handaxesmakes good technological sense, despite the increased costs of training,making and transporting specialised billets, and procuring betterquality raw materials. As illustrated in Figure 1c, billet-produced bifaces can beresharpened many more times than any core or core tool reduced byhard-hammer techniques. Moreover, the resulting billet flakes typicallyhave very acute edge angles making them ideal for cutting through hidesof animals. Such tools dull quickly when cutting through dirty or muddyhair and they may need to be replaced frequently, thereby makingproduction of these flakes in quantity an important consideration insome contexts. In this respect, one of the most important functions ofhandaxes in some situations may have been as sources of thin billetflakes as well as bifacial butchering tools. It seems evident thathandaxes would have made very useful tools for removing skins and forother aspects of butchering, as demonstrated in a number of experimentsand through use-wear analyses (Jones 1980; Keeley 1980: 169, 170, 175;Schick & Toth 1993; Machin et al. 2006). If this much can be established with some certainty, it is criticalto realise that the much-touted symmetry of handaxes is also a productof the soft-hammer reduction technique. In effect, it makes notechnological sense to use billets to reduce lithic materials unless oneis trying to maximise the number of resharpenings or to produce thinbillet flakes. In both cases, this can only be systematically andreliably accomplished by creating a symmetrical, lenticular lenticular/len��tic��u��lar/ (len-tik��u-ler)1. pertaining to or shaped like a lens.2. pertaining to the lens of the eye.3. pertaining to the lenticular nucleus. cross-sectioned core tool. In fact, the more lenticular and symmetricalthe form, the easier it is to remove typical thin, flat, curved,tear-drop shaped billet flakes that travel beyond the centre of the tooland hence maintain the cross-sectional and edge angle morphology withinconstant ratios or optimal ranges over the many flake removals typicalof soft-hammer reduction (Hayden & Hutchings 1989). As anyaccomplished flint knapper knows, this is what underlies the symmetry ofhandaxes whether people were trying to maximise the use-life (number ofresharpenings) of handaxes as tools, or trying to maximise the number ofsharp flakes removed from a core tool, or both. We argue that thesymmetrical and lenticular shape of general handaxes had no more to dowith their use in sexual selection than the symmetrical rounded shape ofa pencil point over the many resharpenings of its lifetime. As the adagestates: form follows function. We suggest that this is also the reasonwhy billet reduction everywhere in the world, whether Europe, Africa, orthe Americas, exhibits symmetrical, lenticular bifacial forms--or doKohn and Mithen and others want to argue that all bifaces everywhere inthe world were used as sexual selection or other symbolical strategies? Far from being the only theory that explains handaxe symmetry orother characteristics, Kohn and Mithen's scenario appears as a weaksupposition lacking grounding in technological realities. Handaxes donot even make reliable indicators of reproductive merit since they couldbe easily loaned out and may have circulated more as communal propertythan individual property, as is typical of almost all materialpossessions in simple hunter-gatherer societies. Kohn and Mithen'ssuggestion strains credulity cre��du��li��ty?n.A disposition to believe too readily.[Middle English credulite, from Old French, from Latin cr that handaxes were discarded shortly afterbeing made (sometimes in abundance) in order to show off skills by flintknappers who were being watched by potential mates (Kohn & Mithen1999: 522). This idea is not much better than the informal suggestionthat some archaeologists have expressed that handaxe makers lackedmemory to the extent that when they rested, they put down their bifacesand then forgot that they had already made a handaxe and so startedover, and over, to make yet another. It is far more plausible to suggest either that some localitieswere being used as depots to stockpile stock��pile?n.A supply stored for future use, usually carefully accrued and maintained.tr.v. stock��piled, stock��pil��ing, stock��pilesTo accumulate and maintain a supply of for future use. tools like handaxes and rawmaterials for easy access during transits that did not intersect In a relational database, to match two files and produce a third file with records that are common in both. For example, intersecting an American file and a programmer file would yield American programmers. goodquarry locations (much as suggested by Potts (1988: 305) for Oldowanlithic accumulations), or that the main objective of handaxe productionat some sites was not the handaxes themselves but the production ofquantities of billet flakes for skinning or making bags or cloaks ofskin. This could account for the relatively visually'pristine' appearance of many handaxes at some well-documentedbutchering sites like Boxgrove, and the large numbers of plain,unretouched flakes at some sites (the thin edges of most billet flakesare not very suitable for direct percussion direct percussionn.See immediate percussion. retouching, and even whenresharpened will never have as sharp an edge as an the unretouchedversion). Nor can much credence be given to the claim that 'Changes insexual selection criteria ... caused the Acheulean ta break dawn'(Kohn & Mithen 1999: 523). It is far more likely that changes inhunting, woodworking, hafting Hafting is a process by which an artifact, often bone, metal, or stone, is attached to a handle or strap. This makes the artifact more useful by allowing it to be fired (as in the case of an arrowhead), thrown (as a spear), or leveraged more effectively (as an axe or adze). , or other economic constraints, were theunderlying factors leading to the abandonment of handaxe technology.Curated, hafted Levallois flakes, in particular, may have replacedexpedient billet flakes as the skinning tool of choice in many areas. All this is not to deny that objects requiring some skill to makecould have sometimes been used to impress others, especially when wellmade--a point also made by Machin (2008: 765-6). But this is true ofvirtually all crafts, including some lithic types. It seems almostcertain that same bifaces in later periods were used as prestige items.Good examples include the very rare and exceptionally large and thin,non-functional Solutrean laurel leafs, and the ceremonial bifaces (up to750mm long) used by California Indians in rituals (Kroeber 1905: 690,1953: 26-7; Rust 1905). However, in these cases, the prestige or ritualexamples were all exceptional variants of basic utilitarian bifaces.While there are good ethnographic eth��nog��ra��phy?n.The branch of anthropology that deals with the scientific description of specific human cultures.eth��nog accounts of elaborate bifaces beingused to impress ritual specialists or high ranking See Google bomb. individuals, thereare no ethnographic indications that bifaces were ever used as asignificant strategy to attract mates, or for that matter to project any'important perceptual imperative' related to symmetry or otherabstractions or to trigger any sense of reassurance that the perceptualsystem was working appropriately (Hodgson 2009: 196-7). That a few handaxes, especially the very large examples, may havebeen used to impress others, or even used as non-functional prestigeobjects, is a possibility worth exploring and might provide insightsinto Acheulean social dynamics Social dynamics is the study of the ability of a society to react to inner and outer changes and deal with its regulation mechanisms. Social dynamics is a mathematically inspired approach to analyse societies, building upon systems theory and sociology. . However, deriving the existence ofentire technological classes of objects on the basis of the extremecharacteristics of a few rare and exceptional cases is not soundmethodology. It is no more appropriate to derive the reason for handaxedevelopment from a few large examples than it is to try to argue thatautomobiles in general developed primarily as a sexual selection orprestige display tactic on the basis of the elongated and lavishattributes of stretch limousines. The basic symmetrical biface form makes far more sense as firmlyrooted in the practicalities of lithic inventorying, mobility,processing volumes, and other fundamental design constraints. In orderto explain the appearance and demise of specific archaeological aspects,it may be trendy to attempt to clothe old artefacts in the mantles ofnew theories like sexual selection, signalling theory, or evolutionarypsychology evolutionary psychologyn.The study of the psychological adaptations of humans to the changing physical and social environment, especially of changes in brain structure, cognitive mechanisms, and behavioral differences among individuals. of symmetry. However, without a firmly grounded understandingof the basic technology involved and its constituent constraints, itsoon becomes apparent that the new clothes of such theoretical emperorsare embarrassingly em��bar��rass?tr.v. em��bar��rassed, em��bar��rass��ing, em��bar��rass��es1. To cause to feel self-conscious or ill at ease; disconcert: Meeting adults embarrassed the shy child.2. lacking in substance. Postscript This comment complements the recent article by Nowell and Chang(2009). Acknowledgements We would like to express our deep gratitude for the lithic insightsand flint knapping training that Francois Bordes provided, thesuggestions from Maxine Kleindienst to pursue design theory applicationsin lithic studies, and the cogent comments provided by Rick Schulting onan earlier draft. References AIELLO, L. & P. WHEELER. 1995. The expensive-tissue hypothesis.Current Anthropology Current Anthropology, published by the University of Chicago Press and sponsored by the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research, is a peer-reviewed journal founded in 1959 by the anthropologist Sol Tax (1907-1995). 36: 199-221. BELL, R. 1972. 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Burnaby, BritishColumbia British Columbia,province (2001 pop. 3,907,738), 366,255 sq mi (948,600 sq km), including 6,976 sq mi (18,068 sq km) of water surface, W Canada.Geography , Canada V5A 1S6 (Email: bhayden@sfu.ca)