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FREEDOMWAYS THIRD QUARTER 1966 one frequently encounters the argument that man will grasp the possibilities of any situation he finds himself in, and at the same time, so it is argued, he will strive to obtain a maximum of comfort and esthetic satisfaction for himself. The implicit assumption in this argument is that man is a rational animal who is always just naturally acting with reason and insight. the origin of science in early cultures Natural science is the outgrowth of human needs. The needs to determine edible plants and animals through observation, the recognition of the orderliness of natural processes and the law of similarity which is imbedded in all magic, mark the earliest beginnings of science. Professor Childe says, "In jungle lore lie in the roots of botany and zoology, of astronomy and climatology, while the control and manufacture of tools initiate the traditions that emerge as physics and chemistry." There is archeological evidence that man probably manufactured and used tools as far back as 600,000 years ago, or possibly 1,000,000 years ago. The earliest pioneers in science are generally called hominids (men like); they were, in all probability, ancestral to modern man. The hominids began evolving toolmaking or flake tool cultures in East Africa; it is believed by Professor Raymond Dart that in South Africa there existed an Australopithecine "Osteodonkeratic" industry, that is, an industry based upon the use of bone, teeth, and horn. He says that the teeth were used as saws, and the bone and horn silvers as knives. Whether or not this industry is a departure for culture is obviously debatable, but I think we can rest assured of the fact that it constitutes some of the remotest forms of technological advancement. Literally cartloads of tools by early hominids have been picked up on the high veldt where at one time the Vaal and Zambesi flowed. However, I think we should, since we are concerned with the antiquity of human culture, also make mention of the fact that the problem of dating African prehistoric finds is somewhat complicated by certain features which are characteristic of the geologic history of Africa. The glaciations of Europe provided archaeologists with a geological timetable, but in Africa scientists are forced to rely on periods of heavy rainfall and dry times (pluvial epochs), which may be due to the same climatic changes that produced the ice sheets 238
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Reopened for Editing 2024-02-09 12:09:06