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Where does the bow and arrow come from? |
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| Jan11-07, 08:04 AM | #1 |
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Where does the bow and arrow come from?
I was wondering about the evolution of ideas and realised that there seems to be no intermediate stages for that simplest of weapons the bow and arrow.
If you have nothing similar to work from building a bow and arrow is quite a complex task. Does anyone have any thoughts of what were the intermediate stages between man with sticks and string to man with projectile weapon system. |
| Jan11-07, 09:23 AM | #2 |
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| Jan11-07, 12:21 PM | #3 |
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I imagine the boomerang came about because someone just happened to throw a stick and noticed how it behaved and then successively made improvements. Whether successive improvements were by one person or successive generations, I don't know. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boomerang |
| Jan11-07, 01:34 PM | #4 |
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Where does the bow and arrow come from?
First, ropes, cords and strings were probably developed independently of any hunting concern.
After all, there are lots of other uses for strings. That's my view, anyway. |
| Jan12-07, 02:18 AM | #5 |
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I still can't find a series of logical inventions that create a bow and arrow from other practicle weapons.
If you have a hand axe and club then you make a flint axe. Axe heads flying off during use could give you the idea to use the axe handle to hurl a spear. So I can see a logical evolution of the spear thrower as a compound weapon. But a bow and arrow uses spears too short to throw and a stick and sinew arrangement that has to be complete before it will work. Being a rocket scientist I don't know the time lines, but it has just occurred to me that if the bow came after fire then it might be possible that the bow was developed for peaceful fire lighting purposes and then was turned into a weapon, but I'm not sure that all civilisations use bows for fire lighting. A recent programe I saw indicated that acient Britons used the abundent flint and iron pyrate nodules found on the beaches across most of southern England. |
| Jan12-07, 03:12 AM | #6 |
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| Jan12-07, 05:29 AM | #7 |
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Surely there must be some intermediate steps, or some parallel development. not a leap from throwing one handed from the shoulder to firing two handed from the body? |
| Jan13-07, 08:01 AM | #8 |
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Interesting that the Indians of N. America used bow and arrow, but was the development independent from the Eurasian peoples? http://www.centenaryarchers.gil.com.au/history.htm - "The discovery of the first stone arrowheads in Africa tends to indicate that the bow and arrow were invented there, maybe as early as 50,000 BC." http://pages.britishlibrary.net/thir...en/history.htm - "From prehistoric times, the bow was a principal weapon of war and of the hunt throughout the world, except in Australia." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_archery |
| Jan13-07, 09:40 PM | #9 |
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| Jan15-07, 07:23 PM | #10 |
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You can make fire by spinning a stick against another piece of wood until it heats up. Spinning by hand is done by holding the stick between both palms and "rubbing" them back and forth. It works, but it can take a long time for the tip of the stick to get hot enough. Taking the time it takes is not a problem if you're a caveman since there's nothing to watch on TV. Now, if you have this daily chore and you have access to a rope, you will probably think about this eventually: roll the rope once around the stick and get two people to do a push-pull action. The stick will spin easily and heat up much faster. And now you have also invented family entertainment as well as tug-of-war so you can be sure the technology will be retained for generations. If you are trained in such high tech but find yourself alone, you will probably think of tying both ends of the rope to another branch with a little bit of tension in it. Now you can move this bow back and forth by yourself and light up you cigar (which is why you're alone in the first place). Since the bow is a handy fire tool, you will probably hold on to it. Who knows, it may find other uses... |
| Jan16-07, 02:20 AM | #11 |
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That was the only conclusion I could come up with (Post #5), but what came first the bow or fire? And what became of the British hitting things with rocks method, that I think must me much more efficient as it still the basis for lighters today.
Unless of course it was lets say the French who used the Bows for fire lighting due to a lack of rocks to hit things with, and then imported them into Britain in exchange for cheap DVDs or something. I think I need an expert in ancient history to tell me when these things turn up in different timelines. |
| Jan16-07, 10:22 AM | #12 |
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Today something else comes to mind, which always makes my eyes water. One of the natural ways to use rope is to attach both ends to separate objects for various reasons. From this use, I don't think it's a big stroke of luck to notice how the tension can make objects "bounce" and cover some distance. PlayStation-deprived kids would likely discover the slingshot this way. The bow and arrow are a simple evolution from it. Using rope would lead to the bow and arrow quite naturally. |
| Jan16-07, 10:30 AM | #13 |
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I am surprised that some think there must have been some in-between steps. Occasionally there are people who just invent something totally new. I have no reason to believe that people in the past were less creative than us.
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| Jan16-07, 04:15 PM | #14 |
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| Jan16-07, 05:08 PM | #15 |
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| Jan17-07, 02:07 AM | #16 |
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I have the oppertunity of doing a mini anthropological study at the moment by having a 5 month old child to watch. You can observe how, seeing every object as a new item, he goes through a series of experimentation to see how best to pick it up, which way it best fits in his mouth. Everything he does he evolves from 1st principles until (In a few weeks or so) his capacity to link new objects with memories of similar objects becomes stronger.
Give an educated adult a set of objects and they use their experience of complex constructions plus their desire to fulfuill a capability gap to create something new, but even then they work from a base of known connections and evolve the idea. Remove all prior knowledge and I believe they will be reduced to banging rocks together to see what happens. I challenge anyone to find me an example of an invention within recorded history where there were no in between steps. There have been some intuitive leaps but usually after a lot of banging transistors together to see what happens. |
| Jan17-07, 06:48 AM | #17 |
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So what is your definition of an "In between step"? How small is the step? What constitutes simple for one may be complicated for another. Why does a step have to be real? An imaginary step can still lead to a real conclusion, based on real principles.
How about Leonardo's Drawings of a Helicopter. From his imagination, the proof is his drawings. |
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