Wattana by Chris Herzfeld

Author:Chris Herzfeld [Herzfeld, Chris]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780226168623
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Published: 2016-04-27T04:00:00+00:00

Great Apes as Fiber-Users

How can one explain the lack of interest shown by the scientific world in the fibroconstructive techniques and items of comfort that are omnipresent in the world of great apes? According to the first articles dealing with the cultures of chimpanzees and of orangutans, elements fashioned from fibers account for about 92% of the objects, devices, and tools that one finds in their world. The difficulty of studying objects manufactured using fibroconstructive techniques (it being necessary to climb up quite high to examine the nests, and objects made out of plant materials are ephemeral) is not sufficient to explain this indifference. “Tool ideology” (Kenneth P. Oakley, 1964) undoubtedly played a role in overshadowing all other aspects. In the article “Axes of Perfection: Stone Implements and the Predicament of Progress in 19th Century Prehistoric Archaeology,”47 Nathan Schlanger demonstrates the extent to which tools constituted the cornerstone of a nascent discipline in the nineteenth century: the study of prehistory. Providing reliable evidence of hominization, they are perfect mediators between the very distant past and the present.48 Moreover, the direction taken by the discipline is built on the underlying sweeping dichotomous categories of male versus female, of the hard versus the soft, of the public versus the private (intimate) domains. Fibers are considered to be soft materials, in contrast with stone, representing the hard. A great divide exists between, on the one hand, the intimate and comfort (traditionally placed on the feminine side), and, on the other hand, the technical and domination of nature. All this seems to have implications for the question of culture in the great apes, as well as for numerous other sectors of primatology. Here, too, the history of the discipline seems to have been marked by the omnipresence of the tool. Yet material cultures of both ancient hominids and great apes are by no means limited to the stone tools beloved of prehistorians: they constitute only a minute fraction. A major part of the cultures born within the forest environment is naturally linked to fibers and the use of fibroconstructive techniques. Paying greater attention to knots and nests thus adjusts our thinking towards a paradigm where the use of fibers is taken into account, and where the human is an artisan and a builder, rather than a maker and tool user. As proposed by Nold Egenter, it would surely be very fruitful to ponder the question of hominization using construction as a starting point. But the questions and options prescribed by prehistorians are so dominant that methodological tools for exploring these dimensions are lacking. Primatologists align themselves with their prescriptions and give precedence to use of a stone tool to break nuts on a natural anvil, which is admittedly impressive in its proximity to the stone tool industries of ancient hominids. Nonetheless, primates are clearly “fiber users,” rather than “tool users.” For Tim Ingold, activities linked to weaving are antecedent to those concerned with production. From his viewpoint, “making” is a modality of “weaving”: “Only if we are capable of weaving, only then can we make.

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