Transcript Prehistory to the beginnings of agriculture

Why Study History?
• Just one “damn fact after another”?
• History Helps Us Understand People and
Societies
• History Helps Us Understand Change
and How the Society We Live in Came
to Be
• The Importance of History in Our Own
Lives
Why Study History? (cont.)
• History Contributes to Moral
Understanding
• History Provides Identity
• Studying History Is Essential for Good
Citizenship
• Studying History helps to build essential
skills
• Looking at evidence, evaluating different
opinions/perspectives, assessing past
examples of change
• History Is Useful in the World of Work
Who Studies History?
• Some Specialists
• Archaeologist – studies human culture (both
prehistoric and historic) through analysing
material remains and environmental data
• Anthropologist – studies the whole of
humanity – primarily concerned with
cultures and cross cultural comparisons
• Palaeontologist – studies all life on Earth
(esp. influences of global geography and
climate on various life forms: i.e. evolution
and adaptation)
Prehistory
• What is “history”?
• “Historia” from the Greek
• Meaning: inquiry by examination of
evidence
• Better put: piecing together the past to make a
coherent story
• History deals with human presence
• Where to we get the proof?
• Written records
• Archaeological discovery
Age of the World
• The world is about 4.5 to 5 billion
years old
• significantly younger than the
universe which is at three to five
times that old
• How do we know this? – combination
of dating techniques, geological
theory, astronomy
Beginnings of Life on Earth
• first appeared about 4 billion years ago
• small, single-celled creatures
• evolved in to larger, multi-celled
creatures like seaweed and jellyfish
• followed, eventually, by such things as
vertebrates
• that is, things with “backbones”
Adaptation to land
• about 300 million years ago,
vertebrates and some invertebrates and
plants
• began to adapt to land
• first successful adaptees: amphibians
• followed by: reptiles
Mammals
• 60 million years ago, mammals became
the dominant life form
• following the destruction of the
dinosaurs
• may have been due to the impact of
an large asteroid
• although there are other theories
such as disease, massive volcanic
eruptions, and so forth.
Natural Selection
• The process where by life forms
become increasingly complex is
called natural selection
• it is also known as “evolution” or
“biological evolution”
• a theory first advanced by Charles
Darwin in the mid-1800’s
The Order: Primata
• humans belong to the order Primata
• along with tree shrews, lemurs, monkeys, and
apes
•
What are we?
• First vertebrates, second mammals, third primates
• Primates initially developed as tree dwellers – large
brain case in proportion to body size, long fingers
and toes, and stereoscopic vision (brain puts
together two images for better clarity and depth
perception)
Variation within the human family
• early anthropoid types: hominids
• consistent evolution away from early
hominid types
• natural selection (Charles Darwin)
• toward a more modern type
Genetic studies
• including mitrocondrial DNA, show
decisively that great apes and human
share a common ancestor
• gorillas splitting from the common line:
5 million years ago
• chimpanzees--sharing 99+% of your
DNA--3 million years ago---and use
language, tools, and live in complex
societies
Differentiation in Humans
• six or seven ice ages ago
• Pleistocene era
• product of natural selection
Climate Change
• More Recently: Pleistocene Epoch (1.8
M – 10,000 yrs ago)
• Periods of short ice ages alternating with
warmer, interglacial periods.
• A little further back: Miocene Epoch
(around 13 M years ago) & Pleiocene
(5.3 M – 1.8 M)
• very cold climate led to drier climates
worldwide (spread of grasslands and
prairies)
Earliest hominids
• in Africa
• 4 to 4.5 million years ago
• on the Savannah's (The Savanna
Hypothesis) – increase of ‘grazers’
• used simple tools and weapons
• choppers, bashers, smashers, and
sharp edges
Earliest hominids, cont.
•
•
•
•
similar to modern humans
smaller brains--1/3 current size
upright posture—app. 3 feet tall
capable of limited tool-making and
(possibly) some speech, affecting
development of the brain
Australopithecus Aferensis
The Savannah's
•
•
•
•
a good place to start
Warm
Abundant food sources
Some shelter
Evolutionary Changes
• Upright walking limits sun exposure and
allows cooling breezes
• Grassland not the safest place for slow
moving omnivores
Australopithecus
• earliest hominid types (human-LIKE)
• lived for over 2 million years (fairly
successful)
• lived with other hominid types
• evidence is increasing, and theories are
currently being modified to take new
evidence into account
Australopithecus
• Discovery of skeleton AL-288-1, north
of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
• Nicknamed “Lucy”
• Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds
• 4’6”, 55lb., bipedal Brain 500 cc
(modern human: 1400 cc), limited
speech but opposable digit
• Estimated date of death: 3.5 million
years ago
LUCY
Australopithecus
afarensis
Other Hominids
• descended from afarensis:
• africanus, habilis (handy-man) ,
erectus (upright-man), sapiens (wiseman)
• In many ways, they reflect a
progression towards “US”
Global spread of hominids and Homo
Sapiens
Homo-erectus
• descended from afarensis
• larger cranial capacity than homo-habilis
• Probably first early humans to fit
squarely into category of ‘huntergatherer’ (top of the food chain, instead
of prey)
Homo-erectus (cont)
•
Evidence The structure of Homo ergaster’s facial bones
suggests they had a human-like nose with downward
pointing nostrils. This allowed them to add moisture to
exhaled air, useful for an active species roaming
through dry, open terrain.
•
Animal bones from ergaster sites have been found
etched with the characteristic marks of stone tools used
for butchery.
•
Several Homo ergaster fossils have been discovered in
the Lake Turkana region of Northern Kenya, including a
near complete skeleton known as ‘Nariokotome Boy’.
•
Homo erectus fossils have been found all over Asia,
from Zhoukoudien in China to Sangiran on the island of
Java, Indonesia.
Homo-erectus (cont.)
• Oldest tools go back 2.4m years
• Use of fire likely limited until much
later in the fossil record – rise of
homo heidelbergensis and homo
neanderthalensis
Development of Hominids
• Animals adapt themselves to
environment
• Hominids adapt environment to
themselves
• Use of tools
• Language
• Complex cooperative social structures
Modern Humans
• immediate ancestor: Homo erectus
• 500,000 years ago
• first to use the hand axe and other
stone tools
• Used fire – maintained (eventually
mastered)
• (possibly) began the process of wiping
out all other homonid life-forms
Let’s stop here today!
On an evolutionary note:
Top 10 Useless Animal Features
http://www.livescience.com/animalworld/top
10_vestigial_organs.html
Social organization of early humans
• hunting groups
• requiring sophisticated verbal
communications
• first evidence of metaphysical ideas
• reverence for the dead
• Neanderthal ritual burials
• use of fire
Dispersion of humans
• use of fire allowed dispersion from the
savannahs
• to cooler areas during the ices ages
• also increased the potential food supply
greatly
• cooking helps liberate proteins and
carbohydrates
• Proteins mean bigger bodies and bigger
brains
Current evolution
• thought to have reached it current point
about 40,000 years ago
• appearance of homo sapiens
• if Neanderthals are considered to be homo
sapiens, then the time-frame increases
considerably
• relationship to Neanderthal?
• none, based on recent DNA studies
• mtDNA (mitrocondrial DNA)
Neanderthal
Homo
sapiens
Important Transition
• previously: adaptation to environment
• process of mutation and natural
selection
• genetic processes adapt the life form to
the environment
Human control of environment
• with fire, humans could adapt the
environment
• potentially entering a third stage, NOW
• when both genetics and environment
can be controlled
Life as Hunters and Gatherers
• most of human history as been as
hunters and gathers
• development of tools
• particularly “blade technology”
• blades, slings, bows, arrows, spears,
etc
• Paleolithic Age (Old Stone Age)
Big Game Hunting
•
Evidence of intelligent coordination
of hunting expeditions
– Development of weaponry
– Animal-skin disguises
– Stampeding tactics
• Lighting of fires, etc. to drive game into
kill zones
Requires planning, communication
Social Organization?
• how do you know?
• comparisons with surviving hunters and
gatherers?
• archaeology?
Social Organization, con’t
•
•
•
•
•
no formal religious structures
no formal political structures
small groups of twenty to fifty persons
depending on the environment
food acquisition methods still very
simple
Division of labor
• men: hunting animals
• women: hunting plants
• both task are equally important to
survival
• division of labor is based on physical
strength and endurance
• average work week: 15 hours
Relationships
•
•
•
•
•
family groups
kin-ship ties
conflict between groups?
low population and simple technology
cooperation between the members of
the group, for the survival of the group
Competition and power?
•
•
•
•
little between group members
each did what they did best
and what the group needed
The Gods Must be Crazy
Private Property ?
• constant movement vs. personal
possessions
• inability to carry many things
• basically a community of property
Romantic interpretation ?
•
•
•
•
•
morally superior and peaceful ?
ruled by women ?
more “in touch” with the cosmos ?
simple, virtuous people ?
life-style and technology, inhibit war
and avarice
Origins and development of religion
and metaphysics
• absolutely no explanation for any
phenomena in the physical world
• causes the development of religion and
magic, which are the same things
• a method of explanation
“Some force with intelligence and intent
did this thing.”
• a “technology” for control
“If we do (or don’t do) what this force
wants, it will help us, or not harm us.”
• ex. Bodo, the Nose-Picker
Characteristics
•
•
•
•
sees the whole world as supernatural
Shamanistic in “religious” practice
no priests (in the usual sense)
concept of an afterlife
The Natural Environment
• By 13,000 BCE Homo sapiens in every
inhabitable part of the world
• Archaeological finds:
• Sophisticated tools
• Choppers, scrapers, axes, knives,
bows, arrows
• Cave and hutlike dwellings
• Use of fire, animal skins
The Natural Environment
• Humans hunted many mammal species
to extinction
• Climactic change may have accelerated
process
• The process continues to this day as
hundreds of animal and plant go extinct
each decade, directly due to human
actions
Books on the Subject
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Donald C. Johanson and Maitland A Edy.
Lucy: the Beginning of Humankind
Richard E. Leakey. The Making of Mankind
Tim M. Berra. Evolution and the Myth of
Creationism
Richard Dawkins. The Blind Watchmaker
Richard Dawkins. The Selfish Gene
Richard Dawkins. The River of Life
Stephen J. Gould. …anything
Books continued
•
•
•
•
•
•
Christopher Stringer and Clive Gamble. In
Search of the Neanderthals.
Christopher Stringer and Clive Gamble. African
Exodus. The Origins of Modern Humans.
(I forget). Mapping Human History
Jared Diamond. The Third Chimpanzee: The
Evolution and Future of Humans
Lauren Ristvet. In the Beginning: World
History from Human Evolution to the First
States.
Eugenie C. Scott. Evolution vs. Creationism:
An Introduction