The Natural History of Technology

Introduction

Good places to start

Beck, B.B. (1980). Animal Tool Behaviour: The Use and Manufacture of Tools by Animals. New York: Garland STPM Press.

Frisch, K. von (1974). Animal Architecture. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.

Robinson, R.J. (2001) Natural history of technology. Prometheus Research Group.

Books

Must-read books - original sources, commentaries and collections

Beck, B.B. (1980). Animal Tool Behaviour: The Use and Manufacture of Tools by Animals. New York: Garland STPM Press.

Bonner, J.T. (1980). The Evolution of Culture in Animals. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

Byrne, R. (1995). The Thinking Ape. Evolutionary Origins of Intelligence. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Collias, N., and Collias, E. (eds) (1976). External Construction by Animals. Stroudsburg, Pa.: Dowden, Hutchinson and Ross, Inc.

Corballis, M.C. (1991). The Lopsided Ape. Evolution of the Generative Mind. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Crook, J.H. (1980). The Evolution of Human Consciousness. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Frisch, K. von (1974). Animal Architecture. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.

Gibson, K.R., and Ingold, T. (1993). Tools, Language and Cognition in Human Evolution. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Ingold, T. (ed.) (1988). What is an Animal? London: Routledge.

Luria, A.R., and Vygotsky, L.S. (1992). Ape, Primitive Man, and Child. Orlando: Paul M. Deutsch Press, Inc.

McGrew, W.C. (1992). Chimpanzee Material Culture. Implications for Human Evolution. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Oswalt W.H. (1973). Habitat and Technology. The Evolution of Hunting. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc.

Parker, S.T., and Gibson, K.R. (1990). ‘Language’ and Intelligence in Monkeys and Apes. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Robinson, R.J. (2005). Birth of Reason. Prometheus Research Group:.

Quiatt, D. and Itani, J. (eds) (1994). Hominid Culture in Primate Perspective. Niwot, Colorado: University of Colorado Press.

Schick, K.D., and Toth, N. (1993). Making Silent Stones Speak. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson.

Vauclair, J. (1996). Animal Cognition. An Introduction to Modern Comparative Psychology. London: Harvard University Press.

Papers

Key papers & discussions

Brewer, S.M., and McGrew, W.C. (1990). Chimpanzee use of a tool-set to get honey. Folia Primatologica, 54, pp.100-104.3.

Etienne, A.S. (1984). The meaning of object permanence at different zoological levels. Human Development, 27, pp.309-320.

Wynn, T., and McGrew, W. (1989). An ape’s view of the Oldowan. Man (ns), 24, pp.383-398.

Journals

Journals that regularly carry valuable papers on this topic

Websites

Websites worth knowing about