The Culinary Origins of Human Occupation: Part 2 (Communication and Interaction Skills)

Abstract

In a previous paper (Ellerin, 2013), the concept of energy metabolism was introduced as the central theme of evolutionary biology and thus an essential component of a biological understanding of human occupation. As noted there, the threat to the food supply that compelled the Plio-Pleistocene ancestors of human beings to adopt meat-eating prompted the development of stone tool technology. The fabrication and use of stone tools selected for motor and process skills that would later prove essential for occupational activity. This paper describes how tool skills, like genes, need to be transmitted between group members and between generations to ensure species survival, for which the development of language, sociability, and a propensity to learn, all assisted by a prolonged period of postpartum dependency, were crucial elements in the development of the communication and interaction skills that would later complete the cardinal occupational skill set of human beings. Tool manufacture and tool use cultivated these social competencies just as they had cultivated the sensorimotor and cognitive competencies required to manage food with tools. The challenge for contemporary human beings is to continue to develop their two-million-year-old technological tradition without irreparably harming the environment on which the survival of the human species depends.

Keywords:

• Human evolution
• Tool use
• Language
• Social behavior
• Human development

Acknowledgements

Carolyn M. Baum, PhD, OTR/L, FAOTA, Program in Occupational Therapy, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri, USA

Ann Burkhardt, OTR/L, OTD, FAOTA, Bristol, Rhode Island, USA

Constance Carter, Head, Science Reference Section, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C., USA

Yvette Hachtel, JD, MEd, OTR/L, School of Occupational Therapy, Belmont University, Nashville, Tennessee, USA

Barbara Kornblau, JD, OTR/L, FAOTA, DAAPM, ABDA, CDMS, CCM, CPE, Coalition for Disability Health Equity, Washington, DC, USA

Linda Wilson, PhD, MSc, DHA, NDAET, NZROT, Otago Polytechnic, Dunedin, New Zealand