The Importance Of Material Culture

Since the 1800’s, anthropologists and archaeologists constantly try to uncover the mystery of the intelligence and skills of our ancestral humans to survive the wonders of the world hundreds of thousands of years before us. Material culture, the physical representation of the current society’s technology and beliefs, is one of the most effective ways to study and investigate these questions. Researchers try to unearth artifacts of previous societies, like their tools, weapons, and art to examine the myths of their intellectual and imaginative level as time progresses. Our ancestors’ imagination and intellect is extremely important because the ability to harness and effectively use it is extremely crucial to the evolution of our society and ultimately, our survival.

Tools allowed them to have regular access to meat within their diet, which was an important turning point in human evolution. Furthermore, weapons are also a reflection of the early humans improvement in cognitive abilities as they realized the importance of their safety and it showed that humans were beginning to become smarter as they had to adapt to protect their families from prey and required more efficient hunting of a wider selection of food, like different types of animals. Lastly, the artwork of the humans during the time revealed their level of intellect, imagination and safety. The progression and change in human material culture directly reflect the changes in human cognitive abilities over