THE ANIMAL, MAN (ANTHROPOLOGY) 547 



Animals whose brains outrun their hands would be equally handi- 

 capped, since they would have no adequate outlet for action. A fish 

 equipped with a human brain would go crazy, with only fins to do 

 with instead of hands. 



The use of tools and weapons is particularly important to man, 

 because he is otherwise comparatively helpless, not having horns, 

 fangs, hoofs, claws, or any such specialized anatomical instruments 

 built into his body. He is also particularly fortunate in being able 

 to shift, with his handy hand, from one tool to another, as animals, 

 whose tools are a part of their bodily structure, cannot do. The 

 origin of tool-using is of special interest to the anthropologist, be- 

 cause tool history can be traced back much farther than written 

 history, or even the fossil record left by human bones. It, there- 

 fore, constitutes the very earliest evidence of man's presence on 

 the earth. 



The material out of which the earliest tools were fashioned was 

 mostly flint, although other kinds of stone, as well as volcanic glass, 

 or obsidian, were used. No doubt wood w^as used extensively too 

 in various ways, but, due to its perishable nature, no witness of the 

 fact remains. The first traces of human flint tools, according to 

 Professor Bean, date back about 300,000 years. Their evolution 

 can be traced through various stages of improvement down to his- 

 toric times, when metals came to be employed largely in their stead. 

 The successive cultural stages of tool-making are known as the Stone 

 age, the Copper age, the Bronze age, and the Iron age. Today the 

 subsequent Steel age, w^ith its many instruments of precision, may 

 be regarded as the high peak in this long evolution. 



These successions did not occur simultaneously the world over, 

 since advancement was much more rapid in certain parts of the globe 

 than in others. For example, the rude primitive inhabitants of the 

 British Isles were still back in the phases of flint culture at the time 

 when the Greeks and Romans around the Mediterranean Sea had 

 learned the use of bronze and iron. Furthermore, one kind of tool 

 always overlapped and replaced another gradually, just as, in the 

 matter of transportation, ox-carts, horses and carriages, bicycles, 

 automobiles, and airjilanes have succeeded each other without 

 crowding out their predecessors all at once. 



The Stone age has been divided into three divisions, Eolithic, 

 Paleolithic, and Neolithic, according to the degree of perfection 

 attained in fashioning stone tools or weapons. 



