Pollution, Land

Abstract

Human activities with objects over the past 2.5 million years have had a significant impact on human cognitive, linguistic, and social configurations. Although other animals, including mammals and birds, employ simple tools to achieve certain tasks (such as using sticks to extract termites from mounds), no other animal makes composite objects or objects that are creatively abstracted from natural forms to produce completely invented shapes and designs. Material culture can be viewed through four dynamic processes: production, distribution, consumption, and discard. Each of these processes leaves a durable signature in the archaeological record through the recovery of artifacts along with their locations of use and abandonment. Production results in the manufacture of objects as well as the discard of waste fragments. The distribution of objects enables one to trace historical trade patterns in both raw materials and finished goods. The consumption and use of objects includes not only daily activities but also ritual use and the consecration of objects through burial with the dead. Finally, the act of discard is often purposeful in that [p. 514 ↓ ] the treatment of unwanted objects indicates cultural perceptions of cleanliness and social order.