Harvard students, meet the Stone Age
Though they’ve long been portrayed as unintelligent brutes, Neanderthals were far more sophisticated than popular culture — and car insurance commercials — might suggest. To prove it, Christian Tryon asks his students to break rocks. Tryon, an assistant professor of anthropology, is the creator of a freshman seminar called “Finding Your Inner Neanderthal,” in which — among other activities — students attempt to manufacture their own Stone Age tools from scratch. “Caveman is usually this derogatory term, like the commercials say, ‘So easy a caveman could do it,’” Tryon said. “[But] that’s not true. It’s not very easy at all to make these stone tools. I want students to learn to appreciate the craftsmanship that went into making these tools tens of thousands of years ago, and … by immersing themselves in making what, in many ways, is the oldest technology, I think that’s a really powerful way to appreciate the...