One of Those "Anthro Geeks..."

One of my classmates did a powerpoint presentation today in Human Origins class on "Manipulation of Natural Objects and Development of Motor Skills and Tool Use." She figured it would be pretty easy, being that a good quarter of the class had already taken Lithic Technology the previous semester. By the end of the class, EVERYONE was locked in serious debate over every little detail. Not so much because of everything she talked about, but because someone would argue against a point she made, like bipedalism being a result of having to sit up straighter to work the tools, but then someone would jump in and argue something else from that point or take the argument into a completely different direction. Many of us wound up having to explain that for Oldowan tools (oldest known stone tools) wouldn't require much "upright work", and that bipedalism didn't happen in one night or even a year. There was also the question of cranial capacity increase being a prerequisite for tool manufacture (which isn't necessarily true, being that cranial capacity isn't directly proportional to intelligence--some crows have learned how to tell which light at a stoplight means "stop" by observing how cars stop and go according to their colors. They use that knowledge to drop nuts on the streets while the light is red & wait for the car to drive over them & crack them open).
Anyway, it was neat, because I had to get in and defend some of the stuff about lithics (like how some think it's easy to make an Oldowan-style tool--try it and see how "easy" it is and how bruised you get), and by the end of class I was overstimulated and wanted to keep doing Anthro stuff. Unfortunately, I had to go to a History class and force myself to sit through a lecture.
Sometimes it's still hard to get used to the fact that I'm a huge geek.