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Published online 31 March 2008 | Nature | doi:10.1038/news.2008.714
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Whaling scene found in 3,000-year-old picture
Arctic carving shows complexity of ancient hunting groups.
Northern hunters may have been killing whales 3,000 years ago and commemorating their bravery with pictures carved in ivory.
Archaeologists working in the Russian Arctic have unearthed a remarkably detailed carving of groups of hunters engaged in whaling — sticking harpoons into the great mammals.
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I suppose it tells us that there was a problem 3000 years ago, and we solved it socially. It was necessary then to hunt and gather, but it is because of creative pursuits that not everyone went around hunting whales i.e. the human self-similarity which manifests itself as a generic creative drive results in diversity of behaviour and that the diversity of perceived problems/behaviours helps the generic creative drive stay put. It would be interesting to study the effect of creativity on the diversity of behaviours and vice-versa and how this interaction affects the size of the problem set (my guess is that the problem set never majorly decreases in size, just the nature of problems changes).
I sincerely cannot understand the possible discovery of the social efforts to hunt together. After all in Egypt, at the same time, thousands of people were building pyramids. The same occurred in the Americas with the Mayas, Aztecs and Incas.
Petr- The Egyptians and the Aztecs, Mayans, and Incas all had abundant agrarian societies. This was an impossibility with the Inuits. All the food they had was what they could get from hunting and fishing, and I think it remarkable they had as much organisation as they did. Are you implying this is so trivial that it doesn't deserve discussing? Otherwise, I don't really understand your post.