ABSTRACT
Probably the most generally accepted definition of man at the present time is that of man-the-toolmaker, in which the concept of “toolmaking to a set and regular pattern” is implicit. Benjamin Franklin is usually credited with the idea of Homo faber, but it was Kenneth Oakley, of the British Museum (Natural History) who appreciated its significance as a break-through in mental development and, thus, as a basis for an objective definition of man. The definition is a good one in that it not only recognizes the importance of behavior in phylogeny but presupposes the evolution of certain functional trends such as bipedalism, manual dexterity, cerebral expansion and the possession of speech.
