Ah, but it appears they may be a single subject, or at least closely correlated subjects in understanding the evolution of the brain and consciousness of self.

Mirrors in the Brain, How Our Minds Share Actions, Emotions and Experience has been highly recommended to me by a psychiatrist with whom I work. I'll be ordering it and reading it soon. He says the research is quite brilliant, but they do not quite connect all the dots.

He is a rather noted psychoanalytical psychiatrist with a strong interest in neuroscience (a rather uncommon combination), and has been invited to write a paper that moves toward connecting the dots.

Apparently the parts of the brain involved with sophisticated tool making have to do with fine motor skills and language. Both involve understanding of the use of symbols. Use of symbols suggests the ability to distinguish between self and others, and it all is somehow wrapped up with mirror neurons.

I'm gonna go edumacate myself on it.