Technology
Tools weren’t just a product of human evolution, but actually drove it as well. ~ American paleoanthropologist Thomas Morgan
The evolution of hominin symbolic thinking had its practical turn with engineering, which welded observation and theorization to application. The initial impetuses for hominid engineering were getting enough to eat and surviving inclemency. Engineering impulses broadened to create art.
Cultural evolution strongly depends on population size. ~ French paleontologist Maxime Derex et al
Thanks to societal stability, engineering became a self-perpetuating gyre, succored (or stymied) by culture. Technology engendered cooperation and materialist culture, both essential to further technological development. Symbolism, technology, culture, economics, and social value systems became entangled in constructing civilization.
