The First Industries

It is correct to place at the head of man’s needs food and drink, for he must under penalty of quick death satisfy his need for these daily. But when one comes to discuss housing, dress, and the first industries, it is impossible to place in order of priority these needs which different forms of human activity supplied. Country, climate, and environment must all be taken into consideration, and it is only right to warn the reader that, in this study of those different forms of each which underwent an evolution whose stages can be approximately dated, I do not imply that the order of discussion is the true chronological one. It is quite likely that all developed in a measure together. At the same time, it seems to me logical to begin with the study of the various tools which, one after the other, aided man, the homo faber, to make what he needed, adding thereto the study of the more or less rudimentary utensils which he made with them.