Sounds like this conversation is just how paleoanthropologists flirt with each other, and I’m betting the ones making the “evolutionary psychology” arguments are the ones going back to their rooms at the conference center alone.
For sure, people can forge deep connections through the exchange of handicrafts. And, being outside of language, that would work exactly the same for early humans as it does now. But it only works if the other person does similar crafts themselves. Like, crocheting a blanket for a civilian hits very differently to crocheting a blanket for another constructed-textiles person, who can understand the content.
