bows and arrows across cultures evolve simultaneously?

Question

....and yet separately across cultures? (eg.native americans & african tribes) I guess what I'm asking is if the tool was invented by one person so long ago and then taught, or if several different people from different cultures invented it at the same time. There's a phrase that describes this phenomenon, but I fergot[sic] what it is...

-well the way I was viewing it was that, as opposed to spears or slings or axes, bows and arrows seem like they could be on that threshold where if one person didn't develop it, it might not exist today. I mean there has to be a class of ideas like that too doesn't there? Of course you would never hear of them...lol.

Answer 1

They aren't a hard concept for a weapon, and it's perfectly possible that humans in different parts of the world thought of it independently. Or, on the other hand, maybe the bow and arrow is older then we even know, to the point we all go back to early ancestors that invented it and humankind has kept it.

Answer 2

Bows and arrows, along with many other inventions including the automobile and electric and the telephone are all examples of similarities and cultural crosses. Not the same day or time, even the same decade but, it was stated by Einstein that had not one culture invented , say a telephone, another would have sooner or later.

The spear, the Attila then the bow, somewhere along the line the sling was in there also.

Answer 3

There is some evidence to suggest that bows and arrows are "conservation tools," in that the lithic (stone) resources needed to make an arrow point are small. In North America, we see an interesting pattern. When lithic resources are abundant, we tend to find a lot more large points, like those made for spears/atlatls. In places where lithic resources are thin, we tend to see more smaller points, like those for arrows. Atlatls, being more powerful hunting tools, and being about as accurate as a bow, and having a longer range, may well have been the preferred hunting tool.

It's possible that bow and arrow technology was always present from very early times, like the atlatl, but was only needed when the lithic resources weren't there for atlatl use.

Like I said, there is some evidence to suggest this. It's not established fact as far as I know.

Answer 4

The development of an idea or tool at the same time by two disparate cultures unaware of each other's existence is called a 'coeval discovery'.

An example of a 'coeval discovery' is calculus in 1600 by Sir Issac Newton in England and Liebnitz in Germany.

Answer 5

No they did not occur simultaneously. . There is evidence to show that the use of bows and arrows spread along with the spread of the homo-sapiens out of Africa.

Answer 6

Probably because bows work well. The concept of something that bends and catapults something through the air makes sense and works. I'm guessing pure coincidence.