foresight among the Australopithecines

mortongr@flash.net
Tue, 06 Jul 1999 21:31:15 +0000

One of the hallmarks of humanity is the ability to plan ahead. As I will
show in an article which is in press, fossil members of our genus, Homo,
were able to plan days in advance. Planning ahead is a prerequisite for
moral accountability. Chimps can not seem to be able to accomplish this
task for more than about 20 minutes ahead. There is some interesting data
on the ability of Australopithecus garhi, the recently discovered pith that
dates to about 2.5 million years ago. The data comes from the lack of
stone tools associated with definitive evidence of butchery found only a
few feet away from the fossil of garhi. Here is what Locke suggests.

"The earliest-known tools, dated to 2.6 million years ago, were reported by
Sileshi Semaw at Gona, Ethiopia, 96 kilometers (60 miles) north of the
site. Since no source of tool-making stone was avalable near the Middle
Awash dig, the team concludes the hominids must have made the tools
elsewhere, brought and used them at the butchery site, then left with the
tools in hand. This implies an unexpected level of foresight." Robert
Locke, "The First Human," ," Discovering Archaeology July/August 1999, p. 39

This kind of foresight would make garhi capable understanding moral
commands and plan actions accordingly. Whether he did or not is another
question.

glenn

Foundation, Fall and Flood
Adam, Apes and Anthropology
http://www.flash.net/~mortongr/dmd.htm

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