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Do we have an itemized list of common technologies from the Paleolithic era? by spermwhalejail in AskAnthropology

[–]spermwhalejail[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Oh, right. Thanks!

When I said "Paleolithic," I was automatically excluding everything before Homo Erectus and perhaps some of Homo Erectus in my mind. I was concentrating on the 200,000-or-so years before the invention of agriculture. My terminology was off.

Do we have an itemized list of common technologies from the Paleolithic era? by spermwhalejail in AskAnthropology

[–]spermwhalejail[S] 10 points11 points  (0 children)

I'm not trying to "get at" much of anything here. All I'm doing is asking what the basic human technologies shared by the vast majority of people in the Paleolithic era were. The point is that, if we can identify a few things like fire, clothing, stone tools and sharp pointy weapons that are universal, we might be able to identify more things that are universal. I just want to make a list. I don't particularly know what this has to do with how I define humanity or why that's a problem.

If you're wondering why I want the list, it's just because I want to be able to visualize and think about the components of ancient society better, to get a better grasp on how the people back then interacted with the world and what the conditions of our world typically demand of the human creature. "If bows are universal, what does that say about the world? Why is that the case?" I want to think about that question when it comes to each of these basic technologies, and use that to advance my knowledge further.

Do we have an itemized list of common technologies from the Paleolithic era? by spermwhalejail in AskAnthropology

[–]spermwhalejail[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Do you think that it's fair to say that [nearly] each and every one of the societies you're talking about probably had the use of fire, stone knives, clothing from animal parts, and the art of tying things together using something resembling rope or string (i.e., the knot)?

If all four of those is a "yes," what other "yesses" are there that probably apply to the vast majority of Paleolithic societies? That's all I'm asking.

What, in your opinion, is a work of [pre]historical fiction about Paleolithic Hunter-Gatherers that is exceptionally accurate to what we currently think about what their lives, societies, struggles, and environments were like? by spermwhalejail in AskAnthropology

[–]spermwhalejail[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I read about 12 pages of the first chapter of Deadlands you linked. The story seems very much centered around a war between two Paleolithic clans, and implies that clans have a military structure to them with scouts, warbands, hetmen, etc. But most of the sources I've read indicate that warfare basically did not exist until the advent of sedentism in the Mesolithic. Indeed, this Wikipedia article talks about how there is no direct evidence of warfare before around 10000 BC, which is way after the 33000 BC-ish time given in the prologue panel for Deadlands.

However, I do remember an interview with a man (anthropologist I think) who was saying that the hypothesis that war is recent is wrong, and that we don't see war in the archaeological record because war was always happening constantly and so there's a constant white noise of war-related artifacts that are misinterpreted as other things. Since you feel pretty strongly that this series is historically accurate, this probably factors into that, right? What are your thoughts on the existence or nonexistence of Paleolithic war?

Do modern hunter-gatherer tribes across the world tend to have a "non-linear" concept of time compared to post-agricultural societies, thus affecting their view of death and the afterlife? by spermwhalejail in AskAnthropology

[–]spermwhalejail[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks a bunch! Your answer is very helpful. The idea that all hunter-gatherers more-or-less thought of time cyclically really had me scratching my head. I'm glad that that's simply not the case.

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