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Science

Playing With Weapons Was a 'Normal' Part of Prehistoric Childhood, Study Finds (sciencemag.org) 83

Posted by BeauHD from the like-father-like-son dept.
sciencehabit shares a report from Science Magazine: Prehistoric children may have been cherished by their parents -- but until recently, they've been neglected by many archaeologists, who assumed that childhood is simply about toys and games. Now, a new study adds to the growing literature that prehistoric children were hard workers, who learned from an early age to use the weapons and tools that would help them with the rigors of adulthood. The tools and weapons the team found "were just not made for adult-sized hands." Instead, they appeared to be scaled-down versions for children. Perhaps, the researchers speculate, adults fashioned the tiny tools so that youngsters could begin to hone the hunting skills they would later need.
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Playing With Weapons Was a 'Normal' Part of Prehistoric Childhood, Study Finds More

Playing With Weapons Was a 'Normal' Part of Prehistoric Childhood, Study Finds

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  • Were they dull or sharp? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by gurps_npc ( 621217 ) on Wednesday December 18, 2019 @08:47PM (#59534648) Homepage

    Dull weapons are toys (Nerf, plastic swords, etc.)

    Still training to use the real stuff. But not intended to be used for real.

    • I once recall hearing some statistic that back in the older times that something like only 3 out of 5 children born living until the age of five. I'd assumed it was mainly down to lack of food and medicine, but perhaps there's a more pointed explanation for some of those deaths. Perhaps Ralphie being told that he'd shoot his eye out [youtube.com] was really just seem deeply rooted part of the human consciousness engraved in our neural pathways over thousands of years and hundreds of generations.

      Realistically though th

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by PPH ( 736903 )

        but it would have been too expensive to give precious metal to children or to spend the considerable effort required to craft it to be fit for actual use

        The article in TFS says that these weapons were found on the Oregon coast, dating back 1700 years. So I doubt anyone had much in the way of metal weapons. Mainly wood, stone, flint, bone, etc.

      • Re:Were they dull or sharp? (Score:5, Informative)

        by Dunbal ( 464142 ) * on Wednesday December 18, 2019 @11:18PM (#59535232)
        Diarrhea is/was the #1 killer of children in undeveloped nations. In fact it's one of the indices used to evaluate if a country is actually developing or not, since cutting down on diarrhea outbreaks means improved sanitation, potable water infrastructure, education, hygiene etc.

      • Re:Were they dull or sharp? (Score:5, Insightful)

        by cayenne8 ( 626475 ) on Thursday December 19, 2019 @09:31AM (#59537046) Homepage Journal
        This wasn't just prehistoric.

        In the US till only a few decades ago...it was more common here too.

        Heck, junior high and high schools used to have shooting classes offered, with REAL guns.

        I remember in the HS parking lot in the mornings, you'd see lots of pickup trucks with gun racks in the cab with rifles and shotguns in them.

        No one batted an eye, and no one ever got shot up at school with them either.

        And not, this was NOT a rural city I'm talking about, but it wasn't too far from the city to go deer hunting, etc....

        Most everyone I grew up with as a child, had families with firearms, and most of my peers shot guns at a young age, our parents told us about them, showed us how to use them AND, more importantly, to respect them and know they were not toys.

        I had the fear of God put into me if I were to ever even touch one when not in an emergency (like someone breaking in the house when I was alone).

        Not sure when parenting and attitudes changed so badly in general and in particular with guns.

        And back then, there were no gun checks, they were MUCH easier to get, heck, till the early 80's I believe, they still sold guns at hardware stores, Western Auto, etc.....you could buy one mail order.

        So, it was much easier to get them than now.

        But something happened with people....dunno WTF it was tho....we had easier access to weapons as kids, but you never heard about the problems we have today....so, something caused the "people" problem we see today.

        • But something happened with people....dunno WTF it was tho....we had easier access to weapons as kids, but you never heard about the problems we have today....so, something caused the "people" problem we see today.

          People haven't changed, except for becoming less violent (probably mostly due to not being poisoned by lead anymore). Your ability to hear about the problems has changed. The whole nature of media and how news stories evolve is practically unrecognizable compared to those days (which also leads to

          • People haven't changed, except for becoming less violent (probably mostly due to not being poisoned by lead anymore). Your ability to hear about the problems has changed. The whole nature of media and how news stories evolve is practically unrecognizable compared to those days (which also leads to certain new categories of murder-for-attention, of course, which weren't options in the past).

            Well, partially.

            I agree things are magnified by the 24/7 news cycle needing sensationalism......but I think it is lar

      • 40 to 50 years ago nobody thought a thing about giving a rifle to a 10 year old. I myself had a .22 rifle when I was 10 years old as well as a few of my friends. Every other weekend or so, my dad would hand me a hand full of .22 bullets, 15 to 20 or so. Our house backed up to some woods and I would go place targets in the woods up to about 100 feet away and shoot at them. Most of the targets were scrap pieces of wood. My friends on occasion would join me too.

        In 1976 my elementary school Johnson Elementar

        • My step-dad owned fish and game sporting store, I had access to all kinds of guns that was late 70s early 80s. My step brother accidentally took one of his guns to the school and when he realized it he just unloaded it and had them lock it up in the office for him.

          They taught archery in junior high, many of boys had their own compound bows, I don't think they do that anymore. The country club still gives free gun safety and hunter safety training (membership not required), they have advanced marksmen course

      • I once recall hearing some statistic that back in the older times that something like only 3 out of 5 children born living until the age of five

        More like 50% survival to the age of one. Lower to age of 5. The main killers being linked malnutrition and disease. If they got old enough to get a name (4 or 5 in many societies today, and reports of similar in the past), then they had a reasonable chance (better than evens) of surviving to see their children have dead children. At which point, you can start givin

    • Are you under the delusion that someone can't kill you with just a stick?

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by gl4ss ( 559668 )

      sharp or semi sharp of course.
      arrows, bows, whatever, guns.

      you know that "kids" played with all of these things until very recently. that the study even thinks this is remarkable is the actually remarkable thing. and of course the kids had to do chores. f the parents of the people who did the study had to do chores. if you go into any 3rd world country you can see kids doing household chores that more or less are "work", like herding cows or using tools to help with cooking or what have you.

    • We used to play with dull weapons getting ready for Vietnam.

    • When I was 10 I got a pocket knife and it was sharp. We weren't even cave men. It was just a few decades ago. A few counties over in the sticks, kids my age were probably still getting 22s, and you can kill somebody with that. I'm pretty sure the little prehistoric weapons for kids were sharp.

  • It's a normal part of childhood today (Score:5, Informative)

    by Crashmarik ( 635988 ) on Wednesday December 18, 2019 @08:51PM (#59534664)

    It's also been part of childhood since people have been etching things into clay tablets.
    How is this surprising or even interesting ?

    • Hunted with a single shot 22 short rifle until I proved myself... got a 7 shot 22 magnum at 12 after two years of slogging through the snow driving deer to more seasoned hunters, without killing anyone, deer included.

      This is my weapon, this is my gun, this is for shootin', this is for fun.

    • Re:It's a normal part of childhood today (Score:5, Insightful)

      by markdavis ( 642305 ) on Wednesday December 18, 2019 @09:41PM (#59534834)

      >"It's also been part of childhood since people have been etching things into clay tablets. How is this surprising or even interesting ?"

      +1

      I was going to write the exact same thing. This is a big fat "duh". The problem is that recent generations who grew up with hyper-protective parents don't seem to know this anymore. And instead of having productive, confident young adults, we seem to often end up with wussy, insecure, and scared young adults, who value safety above all else (instead of freedom or privacy). I can't help but think there is some relationship there.

      • Part of the problem is how we let the laws get so messed up when saying "I'm going to kick your ass" is a felony and actually doing it is a misdemeanor. Now the really bad boys are the ones that talk crap on facebook and don't follow through?!?

        My son got into a fight in junior high. A kid sucker punched him his friends broke them up grabbed him and held him back and he was yelling at the other kid didn't even get a punch in. They charged him with felony criminal threat for saying "I'm going to kick your ass

    • I know I had my first knife by 5 or 6, because we had to have talks about me bringing it to school. By 12 I was getting paid $10 by my grandfather to help mow the gun range, and then we always got a half hour of shooting in after. That was about the age I found an old rusty kid's bolt-action .22 leaning up against a tree in the woods on my grandparents' property. Cleaned that up and that was my first real gun.

      Prior to that I definitely had bb guns, slingshots, bow and arrows.... FFS, when I was about 8 my f

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Phydeaux ( 82550 )

        Too true. In the 80s we'd have BB gun wars- jean jackets and shop glasses in a free-for-all shoot out (*1* pump maximum!) Childhood was nothing but danger. BB guns wars, bottle rocket wars, tennis ball cannons, improvised zip lines, throwing stars, butterfly knives, M-80's.

        I'm a bit more responsible parent (a lot less absent for sure) so the daughters both got Red Rider BB guns at 7 and, upon passing hunter's ed (@11 & 12), take-down 10/22s. Now I hunt with the girls using ARs chambered in .300BLK. They

    • Re:It's a normal part of childhood today (Score:5, Interesting)

      by tamarik ( 1163 ) on Wednesday December 18, 2019 @11:06PM (#59535172) Homepage

      Hell, weapons have been a part of my youth and I'm only 60. Got my first deer rifle at 11. Dad made it and my brother and I had to hit 9 of 10 poker chips at 250 yards. Bows, slingshots, knives,etc were common. I've got a great scar on both sides of my right hand where I missed catching an arrow shot straight up... We learned how to use and respect them early. All the pickups in my high school parking lot had long guns in them, rifles or shot guns depending on season. None of us ever shot each other. This was the late '70s. We scrapped over girls and stoopid stuff, bullied each other, but no one ever went and got a gun. I don't understand what has happened since then.

      • Comment removed based on user account deletion

        • My father is 65 and he used to take his hunting rifle to school when he was a boy and keep it in his locker because he had hunters safety course after classes.

          This was allowed and nobody got hurt.

    • The interesting part is how much effort was put into them, and that they shared the form and function of adult tools. Everyone knows that kids will play with tools they find and pretend sticks are weapons, but that is much different that an adult spending hours and hours flint knapping a knife for a 6-year old.

      • Well, flint knapping is fun. And when you are at a spear tip and break it during making it, making something else from the remains is just logical

        On the other hand it is not hard to imagine that kids already where part of the workforce and worked in a pipelined manufactory. E.g. in setting in spear tips and arrow heads. That is done with a glue based birch tar, and then wrapping the part with warm strings drained in birch tar, or with wet leather ropes that shrink when drying.

        Kids involved in such work, or

    • Well, it does help quash some silly recent theories about nearly everything being a social construct, or that the toys boys naturally gravitate towards make them violent monsters.

  • Did they also have blue haired weirdos to screech endlessly about the patriarchy too?

  • Book quote for the season (Score:4, Funny)

    by i.r.id10t ( 595143 ) on Wednesday December 18, 2019 @08:56PM (#59534686)

    Considering the season, perhaps a quote from The Hogfather (GNU Terry Pratchett) would be appropriate -

    âoeYou can't give her that!' she screamed. 'It's not safe!'
    IT'S A SWORD, said the Hogfather. THEY'RE NOT MEANT TO BE SAFE.
    'She's a child!' shouted Crumley.
    IT'S EDUCATIONAL.
    'What if she cuts herself?'
    THAT WILL BE AN IMPORTANT LESSON.â

  • Other animals teach their young to hunt. (Score:3)

    by Kernel Kurtz ( 182424 ) on Wednesday December 18, 2019 @09:02PM (#59534702)

    Modern humans that hunt often teach their children as well.

    I'd be surprised if this was not also the case with prehistoric hominids.

  • Obvious? (Score:3)

    by night ( 28448 ) on Wednesday December 18, 2019 @09:03PM (#59534706)

    Kids today (given the chance) will play with matches, knives, bb guns, bats, bow and arrow, etc. Why think it would be any different for our ancestors?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Hydrian ( 183536 )
      Because of the chance of litigation or DCF implications. There are so many ways to blame the parents for 'neglecting' or 'endangering' a child now, parents are scared to let children take chances where they can get hurt and grow. It feels like you have to illegally raise your child to raise them to decent, robust, and resilient human/adult.
  • People use the tools they needed to hunt with.
    To keep that skill, they used the best tools they had for years and started the hunting education early?

    Like education today with reading, math, science, sport, art, languages ... learning a trade.. getting the exam results needed to get into a better university...

  • I suppose that depends on the definition of "prehistoric". I certainly used to play with real weapons (and even make them) when I was a kid.

    • I suppose that depends on the definition of "prehistoric". I certainly used to play with real weapons (and even make them) when I was a kid.

      Bet you rode dinosaurs, too.

      • The IBM 360 came later. I don't know about riding dinosaurs, but I certainly herded them ...

        • Re: (Score:3)

          by cusco ( 717999 )

          We rode the one at college occasionally. No faster way to warm up after walking through the snow than sit on top of the System 36.

      • I did not ride dinosaurs, and the only pony I tried, I jumped up from one side, and felt down the other, the pony did not bother. (Of course without saddle).

        My weapons where real enough, though. Unless you think a spear with a glass tip made from a broken bear bottle, or glass - respectively pocket knife blade - tipped arrows are not real weapons. Rest assured: the pumpkins and other stuff I shot, disagrees: they are real.

  • Are we talking about age 2; age 10; age 15 ? Male or female ? How dangerous is the particular environment in which they are living ?

    Seems like very different rules would apply. Generally one must assume that the young must quickly learn survival strategies, including weapons. Most mammals undergo such training, why not humans?

    As we watch those mammal young play-fighting with each other on various documentary films, we note that they get pleasure from the lessons. It's nice to think that many of those early

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by cusco ( 717999 )

      Hell, there would have been weapons and tools laying around everywhere, there weren't any "spear safes" to lock them up in. First lesson: don't spear your little brother.

  • Now children play with their phones instead. What a disgrace! A prehistoric kid probably had better common sense and was (obviously) more physically fit.
  • I grew up with guns, bows, knives, slingshots, boomerangs and spears so what would you expect from a hunter gathering society?

  • What's with the scare quotes around normal? Is this to imply that the research was wrong or they were cherry-picking?

  • "Weapons" in this context means knives, swords and axes.

    That means you can't put your finger in the wrong place and a piece of metal flies out at mach 3. It means if you put your finger in the wrong place, you cut yourself and that hurts but by the time you're big enough to swing that thing around dangerously, you've already cut yourself a few times and understood instinctively that it's a dangerous toy.

    I'm probably the last generation that grew up with pocket knives. It was just something you had. It was u

  • ... childhood is simply about toys and games ...

    Yeah, that's why children are sent to school: The dishonesty of that phrase is mind-boggling. Childhood is about learning to fit in, by using the skills and tools that adults use: Be it cap/Nerf guns and tiny hammers, or crying-sound dolls and incandescent-light-bulb ovens. For most of history, children did not have rights and thus were forced to work from a young age, mainly in hunting, carting and sexual services. The jobs changed after industrialization but it was still sweat-shops and slavery. The

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by cusco ( 717999 )

      incalcuting [sic] murder long before they can drive a car

      What do you think Hero stories were? The hero went and killed the enemies by whatever means the culture thought appropriate. The hero frequently then slaughtered the parents, wives, and children of the enemy as well and probably stole everything they had owned. Boys were expected to grow up to be heroes.

      It's only the last couple of generations that people started to pretend that war, at any scale be it tribal or world-scale, is about anything but mass murder.

  • Of course they did, they do today. For instance, gun safety and hunter safety programs are common in schools, as are rifle and pistol teams. I was on the rifle team for a while when I was in junior high.

  • In Amazon rainforest tribes, 4 year old kids get their first knife/machette and are already completely adapted to survive in jungle. Speak about cultural differences :)

  • This is surprising? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Opportunist ( 166417 ) on Thursday December 19, 2019 @04:20AM (#59536206)

    They should have asked any DIY person who fixes things around the house and finds their kids wanting to "help" them, finding that they can't handle the 4-kilo power drill and give them a set of toy tools for Christmas.

    Kids want to be like their parents. They see things they do and they want to do it too. You think that's a trait that developed in the last few thousand years? It's way more likely that this is how our species works, that kids see parents do something and that they want to copy it. Parents like it when their kids try to do what they know (or at least think) makes them successful, so they will try to give them what's needed to make the kids successful.

    Is it me or is that obvious to anyone who has ever dealt with kids? Or at least was one at some point in time...

    • This sort of thing isn't interesting because it is surprising, it is interesting because this is legit evidence of something that otherwise would just be probable. Obviously kids want to use whatever tools they see their parents use, but here we see that a society where manufactured goods were difficult to come by took the time to make some for the children, too, versus the kids just wailing about with grass stalks they pretended were spears. They probably even scored a squirrel now and then. If we found

  • From 0 - 6 a child is nursed. At 6 a child receives a name. From 6 - 12 a child learns the stone hammer and the spear. At 12 the child becomes a man. From 12 to 24 a man works to make a steady life for himself. From 24 to 48 a man makes a family. From 48 and on - assuming a man lives that long - a man goes into the jungle to live the hermit life and seek spiritual enlightenment.

    This is the traditional path of life from ancient times. Why is it suddenly news?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by cusco ( 717999 )

      Depended on the culture. Among the Inca the child was named at 2 years old (when it was deemed likely to survive), by 5 they had a job, by 8 or 9 they had responsibilities.

  • This is also almost corgotten nowadays: Nudity and sexuality were not taboos.
    No sex with children, of course. But no problems with them seeing it either, because why would there?

    There are still tribes out there, where a party consists of a big orgy in public in the village center. And the kids run around on the outskirts of that place, imitating the grown-ups with each other, as a form of playing.

    Makes their sexual behavior much more healthy when they finally reach puberty and beyond. The learn that it is a

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by barakn ( 641218 )

      Everyone used to bathe naked up until not that long ago.

      Umm.... is there some hot new trend I'm unaware of?

  • In prehistoric times it seems more likely to me that the kids would be taught to use and make tools from the get go. We know that playing with edged weapons and tools is common amongst tribal communities today, just as it was in my fifties western childhood. For sure using blunt weapons for technical practice has been common in training for war across the ages but I wouldnâ(TM)t have thought it likely in the paleo period.
  • My Father taught me to solder and to wire up basic circuits before I was ten. That was in the 1950's. As an engineering student a bit latter It was somewhat surprising that a number of my lab instructors didn't know how to do either. Migrating into computers back in the dark ages I have always maintained that Soldering was my first programming language.

    Kids need to have some freedom to learn on their own at an early age. Yes, there might be some risks, but as they get older the risks get greater an
  • ... back in the 60's a lot of us boys played with toy guns. Nobody shit their pants about it either. It was totally normal. Kids today have no imagination. It's all about video games today. We HAD to go outside and play, our parents MADE us. Now you hardly see any kids outside during summer school. It's sad. And one of the reasons kids are overweight today.

  • ... you probably hit a scenario:

    - Tools Available: Rocks.
    - Weapons Available: Rocks.
    - Toys Available: Rocks.

  • In the United States, anyway. We've really evolved as a culture!

  • I am 100% convinced that "...many archaeologists, who assumed that childhood is simply about toys and games..." is rubbish, and any actual archaeologists reading that, rolled their eyes in exasperation. Science "journalism", going, "Wow! New study shows X (Ed:that is obvious to the laity, let alone the actual academic field)! Say Whaaaaat!" is frankly a scourge.
  • Ummm. DUH! That's how you raise descendants...

    Have you been to a grocery mart lately? See the mini carts for kids?!
    Smart off-the-grid folks teach their kids how to use hunting weapons early, as to lots of third world cultures.

    What the heck is news about this?!?!?!
    I am not an archaeologist or anthropologist, yet even I presumed survival training starts as early as possible.

    Only our modern society maintains pervasive idiocy in this area (among others)!
    (I do suppose that allowing kids to immerse int

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