The Injury Costs of Knapping.
Abstract
For at least three million years, knapping stone has been practiced by
hominin societies large and small, past and present. Thus,
understanding knapping, knappers, and knapping cultures is fundamental
to anthropological research around the world. Although there is a
general sense that stone knapping is inherently dangerous and can lead
to injury, little is formally, specifically, or systematically known
about the frequency, location, or severity of knapping injuries.
Toward this end, we conducted a 31-question survey of modern knappers
to better understand knapping risks. Responses from 173 survey
participants suggest that knapping injuries are a real and persistent
hazard, even though a majority of modern knappers use personal
protective equipment. A variety of injuries (lacerations, punctures,
aches, etc.) can occur on nearly any part of the body. The severity of
injury sustained by some of our participants is shocking, and nearly one-quarter of respondents reported having sought or received
professional medical attention for a flintknapping-related injury.
Overall, the results of this survey suggest that there would have
likely been serious, even fatal, costs to knappers in past societies.
Such costs may have encouraged the deployment of any social learning
capacities possessed by hominins or delayed the learning or exposure
of young infants or children to knapping.
Open access:
https://doi.org/10.1017/aaq.2023.27
More than half of all injuries to hands and fingers.
Fortunately less than 1% to the family jewels (see fig.1).
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