From Andrew Edgar, Cardiff, UK
Colin Barras’s intriguing article on the relationship between human and non-human culture may have missed a significant difference. Human cultures, and the development and manufacture of technologies within them, depend upon a division of labour. No one person is typically responsible for the whole thing(5 April, p 36).
To take the example of the violin used in the article, the instrument-maker relies on a forester for wood; a carpenter, no doubt, processes the wood into a form in which it can be used by the instrument-maker; a sheep farmer supplies the gut for strings; and at the end of the process, someone else actually plays the violin, typically using music composed by yet another specialist. So, could the reason why human cultures develop so swiftly be down to this exploitation of specialisation and cooperation?
