The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex, Vol. IDarwin, Charles
Science
The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex, Vol. I
Darwin, Charles
Evolution (Biology); Human beings -- Origin; Sex differences; Sexual dimorphism (Animals); Sexual selection in animals
Even to hammer with precision is no easy matter, as every one who has
tried to learn carpentry will admit. To throw a stone with as true an
aim as can a Fuegian in defending himself, or in killing birds, requires
the most consummate perfection in the correlated action of the muscles
of the hand, arm, and shoulder, not to mention a fine sense of touch. In
throwing a stone or spear, and in many other actions, a man must stand
firmly on his feet; and this again demands the perfect coadaptation of
numerous muscles. To chip a flint into the rudest tool, or to form a
barbed spear or hook from a bone, demands the use of a perfect hand;
for, as a most capable judge, Mr. Schoolcraft,[199] remarks, the shaping
fragments of stone into knives, lances, or arrow-heads, shews
“extraordinary ability and long practice.” We have evidence of this in
primeval men having practised a division of labour; each man did not
manufacture his own flint tools or rude pottery; but certain individuals
appear to have devoted themselves to such work, no doubt receiving in
exchange the produce of the chase. Archæologists are convinced that an
enormous interval of time elapsed before our ancestors thought of
grinding chipped flints into smooth tools. A man-like animal who
possessed a hand and arm sufficiently perfect to throw a stone with
precision or to form a flint into a rude tool, could, it can hardly be
doubted, with sufficient practice make almost anything, as far as
mechanical skill alone is concerned, which a civilised man can make. The
structure of the hand in this respect may be compared with that of the
vocal organs, which in the apes are used for uttering various
signal-cries, or, as in one species, musical cadences; but in man
closely similar vocal organs have become adapted through the inherited
effects of use for the utterance of articulate language.
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