Have humans always cut their fingernails?

Question

How did people cut nails before nail clippers? What did the cavemen do with their nails?

Answer 1

Without being cut nails break after a while on their own provided you do a lot of manual labor, as ancient people did.

Answer 2

This is an interesting question! All nails grow - humans and  dogs, for example, have nails that need to be trimmed. So for at least as long as there have been modern Homo sapiens people have had growing finger nails. Perhaps they chewed them off? Or perhaps they wore down from work? Wolves' nails wear down through friction, because wolves travel on foot more than modern domesticated dogs. Anybody out there have a better idea? I am curious now too....

Answer 3

Not Howard Hughes. And as hard as it was for cavemen to survive, I'm sure they broke off naturally.

Answer 4

The reason they grow as much as they do is because they were used as tools before we had the ability to replace them with manufactured tools.  So they were either bitten off or worn down/broken through use.

Answer 5

no it was concieved the same time manners, and etiquette and stuff like that was invented, otherwise they got cut or broke on theyre own because everything was done by hand

Answer 6

Humans must have always cut their nails... because they are not worth anything as a defense mechanism..  They are weak and thin and can't cut anything worth cutting.  

You can trim and file down your nails with your teeth...(I know because I do)...

also, it is important to have your nails be trimmed for foreplay... you can't have long nails...they hurt.

Answer 7

silly....they wore them down from the work they did, they tore them off, or they bit them. I would imagine this was a caveman thing. I would assume as soon as royalty and a hierarchical society came around, they quickly learned how to file them with special rocks or tools then the privileged would value and judge others based on appearance of hands and fingernails to point out what type of person you were...peasant/ worker or privileged.

Answer 8

Ever since they realized they had teeth.

Answer 9

Bite them...

was that really that hard to figure out?