Historical Misconception?

Greetings, For a while now i've been walking around with a small theorie, and i was wondering what you all think of it?

You all probably know the theory that mankind's first Tool, was most likely a weapon, like a club or a rock or something. Something to bash your neighbors head in with.
Now here is my theory;

What if Mans fist tool as such was a musical instrument?
Like a drum stick of something

maybe just wishful thinking, as i'm a peace loving musician myself.

What do you think?
Wouldn't that be a bit more positive?
Wouldn't that put mankind in a different light?
To instead of bashing your neighbors head in,
to invite him for a Jam session...

Just rambling...

 

The chinese invented gunpowder and used it in festivals long before anyone thought of using it for weaponry...

The greatest advances in modern computing technology have been in the service of synthesizing sound, and recording and playing music - more than military applications...

And I'm sure there are other examples to make a good case that music, not weaponry, has historically been the cutting edge of technology.

 

The first step that we know of in human evolution was Homo habilis. It is highly unlikely that these beings had any understanding or use for music. At this point in evolutionary stage the only purpose of anything was for survival. When you say tool, I think you might be thinking of a stick or something, my definition of a tool is something that is MADE to be useful. So yes it might be possible that they picked up a stick and hit it a few times to make some sort of a beat, but I think it is far more likely they were much more worried about surviving to do this. The first actual tools were stones that were made to cut and skin animals. I would suspect they used rocks to kill the animal and then cut it with the tools they had made.

While it is wishful thinking, it is quite unrealistic to think that the first tool was used to make music.

 

Yeah but you see this is just the sort of idea that I want to overcome, since music is such a natural, intuitive, deeply rooted instinctive thing.

 

oh Pythagoras

 

Ok. . . well there is no evidence what so ever that these early beings had any understanding for art, music, or anything, only survival. It's all nice to have wishful thinking, but it simply isn't reality. Violence and survival is far more deeply rooted in our instincts than art.

 

hmm...
I know crows will take wire and bend it into insect catching tools, and that chimps make spears...
but... it's possible we used sticks and such to make a loud noise to scare away predators. if you want to consider that music, maybe?

 

It would be a bit more positive obviously, yes. It wouldn't put mankind in a different light though. We would still have the same history right.

 

18,000 years ago people didn't have time to sit around and jam, man's kind first tool was probably a spear, sharpened flint on a stick or something along those lines. This made staying alive alot easier. One food was alot easier to kill, and also you have to remember from an animal point of view the human is not a very strong animal. We walk on 2 legs, we're not very fast, not strong, very vulnerable to the elements, we fear our own mortality, our best sense is sight which does no good in the dark. That 1st spear all of a sudden put people on the top of the food chain, and being on the top of the food chain is what gave us the ability to be able to sit down and think sometimes, and eventually culture formed, then civilization.

 

True, except about the time thing. Just like animals they probably had lots of time after their dinner. I mean, what else was there to do? I dig the visualisation of the first tool in 2001: a space odyssey very much

 

I tell you what, go out into the wilderness completely naked with nothing, take enough opiates or something with you to make your brain about 10 or 12 times less functional the entire time, and then come back and tell me what you did with your "spare time". I guarantee you'd be trying to stitch together clothes, make tools, fend off mountain lions, and preserve your meat instead of making crappy beats with a stick.

Face it, people are violent, and our only instinct is that of survival, you don't believe me, try it.

 

The only instinct of every animal is survival and of course that's going to make them violent when it comes down to it, but that doesn't make the animal as a whole violent, take brown bears, most people are scared shitless of them but they normally leave people alone unless they feel threatened

 

Exactly, and if you even start to walk towards one the first thing they do is stand on their legs and start running toward you. Maybe if you put one in a cage then he is used to all the human contact they don't do that, but you get out in the woods and it's a whole different ball game. So no animals don't go around the woods looking for trouble, but whatever you do, no matter what it is, try and feed them food, pet them, whatever, they are going to feel threatened, and then they become violent. Survival and Violence go hand in hand, there is no doubt about it.

 

I don't think taking (even if it may be the right kind of) opiates with you into wilderness will give you a good insight of what the first humans did with their sparetime but ok. We're not the same as them anymore you know.
What I ment with the time left after they fed themselves: look at a lion or most other predators. After they ate most of them gonna rest and take it easy. If you have a brain like the first humans you probably keep yourself busy with all kinds of things, survival indeed, but also just messing around (space odyssey example) exploring and so discover the use that for example a bone has: hitting.

 

Bears aren't that scared of people, if they were they wouldn't go wandering into people's backyards to look for food, obviously if you start to approach the bear though it's going to think something is up. Look at watering holes in Africa, when it rains after the dry season, lions, hippos, gazelles, all kinds of animals go to it at once to drink, a truce in the natural world. Animals are smarter then we give them credit for.

 

The point I'm trying to make is our brains then were about the size of a baseball, now however you want to simulate that affect, you're free to try, because I'm not sure how to do that.
What you don't seem to understand is that humans are very weak in nature, without tools, meaning clothes, cutting devices, weapons, etc we are very low on the food chain. A lion and other predators can survive without tools because they already have what they needs to survive, we don't. We have to make what we need. Meaning, string to sew with, an actual needle, tools to cut with, spears to throw with, ways to preserve meat, etc, etc. The last thing on the mind of Homo habilis was making beats with a stick.

So take in the fact that their brain was the size of a baseball, with no evidence supporting that the first tool was an instrument, mixed with the only thing they were worried about then was surviving, it was very highly unlikely that they cared anything for making music. Now 2 MILLION years later is when you started seeing primitive paintings on the wall and such, and it is quite likely they made a few beats, but as for the first 2million years of our evolution, it was all about survival. Because of their brain size, they would have no understanding of music.

 

I agree with you for sure that the first tool probably WAS a tool of hunting or a weapon.
I just think they wouldn't think about sewing material and stuff neither at first and spent their time in the beginning indeed with figuring out how they could be sure of survival. They just didn't know shit and so they most likely spent their time rather inefficient at first. So, before they figured out how to use any tool they had lots of time, just like other animals. Have you seen 2001: a space odyssey? You know where I'm coming from then.

 

Yes, 2001 is my favorite movie of all time. I love Stanley Kubrick's directing, especially where he makes the connection between tools, with the bone flying in the air and then switching to the spaceship, as if to say it was only a blink compared to the lifetime of a star.
Yes, but if you noticed how he used that first tool (by beating to death his opponent) then you know where I'm coming from. Is it likely they made a few beats? Possibly, but I doubt they had any idea, or understanding of what they were doing.

 

I'm with you on that! He eventually finds out he could knock his rival out with it, teehee.

 

Yea I couldn't help but laugh, *boink*