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Human intelligence is usually demonstrated through the ability to use a tool. Consequently, the human/machine relationship is a permanent feature of human intellectual activity. And yet additional factors such as the tool user and the tool used differ radically from each other and cannot use each other as a model. However, if one considers that the link between the user and the user's tool cannot be broken, collective work, and hence the knowledge management relating to it, must be considered as an interaction between configurations (human and machine), and not simply as interpersonal interactions. Knowledge management (preservation, transmission, and organisation of technical cultural heritage) is one of the basic and constant aspects not only of all productive activity, but of all cognitive activity, whether this is examined at individual or collective level.Knowledge management practices therefore have a history in which the mental aspects of economic history and technological history intertwine. This defines a field that can be called cognitive anthropology. By studying the tools and methods used to manage the intellectual property and resources implemented in production, this field aims to understand the mental functioning of human beings. In other terms, it fashions a theory of thought based on knowledge management thanks to the study of production as a cognitive activity.