greater cultural, no less than biological, hominization than the great apes. 

 This cultural hominization expressed itself in the frequency and consistency 

 of implemental patterns of behavior. In apes, tool-using and tool-making are 

 infrequent, sporadic. The apes' way of life and survival do not depend upon 

 such implemental means but rather on formidable natural defense mecha- 

 nisms, and on a sheltered forest habitat. 



Australopithecus, on the other hand, lived in a habitat providing little 

 natural protection, and he had no natural weapons of offense, defense, and 

 threat, like large canines. His implemental activities must have come to 

 loom very largely in his pattern of adjustment. Indeed, it would not be too 

 much to claim, on the basis of all the evidence that has been cited, that his 

 very survival depended on implemental activities. This, I suggest, is the great 

 step forward of Australopithecus over the apes. He learned to exploit a 

 mental and manipulative capacity, a cultural potentiality, which even apes 

 possess. And he exploited it so effectively that in time he and his offshoots 

 became dependent on it for survival. Cultural capacity was the greatest 

 evolutionary asset of Australopithecus; it was on this aspect of his form and 

 function that selection operated with the greatest vigor. Already, in the econ- 

 omy of Australopithecus, there is evident that gradual transfer of emphasis 

 from purely biological mechanisms to largely cultural modes of adaptation, 

 which is the most striking feature of the subsequent evolution of man. 



ELEVEN 



9 THE TREND OF CULTURAL 

 EVOLUTION 



The facts and interpretations put forward above point to a long, sus- 

 tained sequence of cultural development. We may recognize various stages 

 in this sequence. 



Pongids: sporadic, unsystematic implemental activity; limited horizon for 

 problem-solving applications of implemental behavior; probably con- 

 tributes only slightly, if at all, to survival. 



Australopithecus: more versatile array of implemental activities; main 

 media so far demonstrated bone, horn, and teeth— little desultory use of 

 stone; incipiently systematic; of delinite survival value; possibly a cul- 



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