>>more than 2,000,000 years between Advanced Australopithecus and Neanderthal, and the tools of these two groups—sharp stones—were virtually alike—and the two groups as they are believed to have looked—were hardly distinguishable.
>>
>>the suddenly, some 35,000 years ago homo sapiens appeared and swept neanderthals off the map.
>>
>>these homo sapiens—cro-magnons—were the creators of cave art—cavemen.
>>they roamed freely, they knew how to build shelters, and for millions of years Man’s tools had been stones of useful shape—yet cro-magnons made specialized tools and weapons of wood and bone.
>>
>>so, how is it that after 2,000,000 years of being naked apes, without much change, did we suddenly become creatures that made art and weapons?
>>
>>The explosion in question took place approximately 35,000 years ago. If I am not mistaken, native Americans only migrated over the Bering Strait 20,000 years ago, so they would not be isolated from what we're talking about.
>
>I'd agree with Jim that this is too simple - hey, even with simple hunting, when a scout comes to report, when the hunters see him, they'll ask him "where's the animal". Or a courier may ask "who's the boss here to give message to".

Perhaps. Keep in mind we're talking about Neanderthals here. Do you really think they communicated so richly?

>But the specific question (which may not have been "why" but rather "why not", IMO)

Yes, it may have been a specific question that triggered the explosion (maybe "why do I do what I do?" or "where did we come from?" or "what does it all mean?"), as opposed the general suggestion that asking any question to another human being for the first time set up a chain reaction.

But I wouldn't underestimate the signifigance of that just yet.

>which created the fashion of changing the way things were done may have come to be by simple necessity. I can imagine a situation where the usual way of doing something was suddenly impossible, because of some mishap or disaster, and when everyone started asking "how shall we {insert action here} now that we don't have {insert missing resource}"... once someone did have an idea. The importance of the "why not" is obvious - somewhere a significant change had to be pushed through to change the ways and try something new.

Very true.