Dunno, seems too easy, Mike.

Apparently many North American indian cultures had no word/concept for TIME. Yet they apparently still have (had?) a rich enough "culture" as far as story telling - even made up stories - are concerned.
They had basic tools and basic techniques that let them get along for several thousand years. I'm sure they asked questions... their story telling confirms this. Their progression of tools confirms this. Their use of cultivation confirms this.

But I somehow see a concept of TIME as critical for the kind of stuff you're talking about. I think that recognizing time and then doing things to accommodate/abbreviate/extend time is the important distinction.

cheers



>People often wonder where the cultural explosion came from. It seems
>art, and advanced tools, and richer language and cultures seemed to pop
>up out of nowhere at the same time tens of thousands of years ago.
>
>Noone really knows why. I think it is this:
>
>Somebody asked a question.
>
>Think about it. At some point in time human beings had language. They
>could use it to give commands to each other in order to hunt or maybe
>even tell stories to each other.
>
>But no one had invented the word "How" or "Why" yet. Noone had ever
>asked another person a question. The only way their culture could grow
>is when they observed stuff.
>
>And then that all changed. Someone asked a question.
>
>What is more, they realized that noone had an answer to some of those
>questions so they did something pretty cool.
>
>They made one up.
>
>Think about it. There has to be sometime in our species' development
>when this happened for the first time.
>
>They didn't just take commands, they didn't just listen to stories; but
>they found understanding in what they were doing, and they could make
>up their own stories.
>
>The result was they could ask "Why do I do it this way? Can't I do it
>in a new better way?" which lead to rapid advances in tool making. And
>another result was art.
>
>Culture could now grow deeper and richer and in new dimensions.