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Human Prehistory
The first bipedal hominids emerged over 5 million years ago in Africa.
The human species began to emerge in East Africa around 2.5 million years ago.
Between 2.5 million years ago and 100,000 years ago, the human species went through a variety of evolutionary phases in different parts of the world.
Human Prehistory
A large number of human species were generated over time (all believed to be descended from H. Erectus), but most of them disappeared well before the appearance of “modern humans,” Homo sapiens sapiens.
Current theories posit that adverse climatic conditions and competition from other species (human and non-human) caused the other humanoid species to disappear.
Human Prehistory
A major pre-agricultural development is the experience of massive human species migration.
Some thousands of years after the human species originated in eastern Africa, they began to pour out into other regions, most likely in search of food.
Ultimately, humans settled around the world.
The Paleolithic Age
The Paleolithic Age (Old Stone Age) lasted for almost two million years (until about 14,000 years ago).
Humans began to walk more upright and they developed a larger brain capacity.
Humans during this period tamed the use of fire (about 750,000 years ago) and used simple (mostly stone) tools.
Wearing animal skins enabled humans to live in colder climates.
The Paleolithic AgeIt is believed that the first humans left
Africa about 750,000 years ago.Other species such as Homo pekinensis
(Peking Man) have been found in China and Indonesia and date from 600,000-350,000 years ago.
The Paleolithic Age
Human remains have been found in Britain that are 250,000 years old.
Humans crossed into Australia (via Southeast Asia) about 60,000 years ago.
The Paleolithic Age
Humans came across the Siberian land bridge into North America at least 25-30,000 years ago (maybe earlier).
The Paleolithic Age
By 25,000 BCE, Homo sapiens sapiens occupied (in small numbers) virtually every region of the world that is currently inhabited except New Zealand, some other Pacific islands, and Bermuda.
The Paleolithic Age
This means human history begins at a point when the species was widely dispersed.
Since humans were spread out, and in small numbers, environmental conditions caused the formation of local cultures and institutions, setting the stage for the current regional aspect of human identity.
The Paleolithic Age
Modern humans (Homo sapiens sapiens) emerged between 240-120,000 years ago.
Today, every human on the planet is of the same species…H. sapiens sapiens.
The Paleolithic Age
H. sapiens sapiens coexisted with other human species such as Neanderthals (actually a subspecies) for many thousands of years.
We don’t know exactly how H. sapiens sapiens triumphed over the other species.
The Paleolithic Age
Anatomically, modern humans can be characterized by the lighter build of their skeletons compared to earlier humans.
Modern humans have very large brains (avg 1300 cc).
Housing and protecting this brain involved the reorganization of the skull into what is thought of as “modern”—a thin-walled, high-vaulted skull, with a flat, near vertical forehead.
The Paleolithic Age
Modern human faces also show much less (if any) of the heavy brow ridges and prognathism of other early humans.
Our jaws are also less heavily developed, with smaller teeth.
The Paleolithic Age
It is believed that H. sapiens sapiens had less of an advantage with brain capacity and more of an advantage with running ability.
Neanderthals were excellent at long-distance, slow running which worked when hunting large game.
But H. sapiens sapiens had the advantage with smaller, swifter animals.
The Paleolithic AgeSo archeologists don’t
know if H. sapiens sapiens simply out-competed other species like Neanderthals--clubbed them to death (our species was very violent from the outset)—or intermarried with them.
Some of you may have more Neanderthal DNA in you than you realize
The Paleolithic Age
Soon after the emergence of H. sapiens sapiens, sociobiologists believe humans developed what has become known as the “speech gene” (actually an articulation gene).
This gene is hidden among 50,000 other genes.
The Paleolithic Age
The “speech gene” greatly facilitated human communication (more talking-less grunting) which helped lead to organized human societies.
From this point onward, there have been no major evolutionary changes in the human experience.
The Paleolithic Age
The human species, even before H. sapiens sapiens was a tool-using animal, more adept than other species at finding tools for hunting, gathering, or for use as weapons.
During the Mesolithic (12,000-8,000 BCE) and Neolithic Eras (8,000-3,000 BCE) tool use became increasingly deliberate.
The Paleolithic Age
But instead of just finding tools, humans became capable of making them, fashioning rocks, wood, and bone into better weapons, better tools, and even primitive boats.
The Paleolithic Age
About 25,000 years ago, Paleolithic peoples began miniaturizing their stone tools.
Known as “micro-blades,” these smaller and more refined spear points, arrowheads, knives, and scrapers were often mounted in antler, bone, and wooden handles.
Paleolithic Art
In February 2012, a cave was discovered in northern Spain (called El Castillio) with paintings carbon dated to c. 42,000 years ago (the oldest known in the world).
This date coincides with the earliest known Homo sapiens in Europe.
Some archeologists believe the art to be the work of Neanderthals, which has caused some archeologists to rethink Neanderthal culture.
Paleolithic Art
In Australia, cave paintings have been found of long extinct fauna (dating to over 40,000 years ago), making it one of the oldest known Paleolithic art sites.
Paleolithic Art
Chauvet Cave (southern France), dates to c. 35,000-30,000 BCE.
Megaceros (an extinct deer).
Paleolithic ArtAltamira (northern Spain). Discovered in
the 1880’s, it was the first discovered example of Paleolithic cave art.
Considered the Sistine Chapel of cave art. Horse and Bison c. 15-10,000 BCE
Paleolithic Art
The Gua Tewet (Tree of Life) in Borneo. Age unknown.
Historians and archeologists do not know exactly how Paleolithic people understood the nonmaterial world.
Paleolithic Art
The prevalence of Venus figurines and other symbols throughout Europe has convinced many scholars that Paleolithic religious thought had a strongly feminine dimension.
This was embodied in “Great Goddess” figurines and focused most likely on regeneration and renewal of life.
Paleolithic Art
Venus of Willendorf (Austria) -carved limestone about 41/2” high, c. 25,000 BCE. The most famous of the Venus figurines.
Paleolithic ArtCarved Venus on a cave wall and Venus of
Lespugue (carved tusk found in southern France)
C. 25-15,000 BCE
The Paleolithic Age
It seems likely that Paleolithic peoples developed a cyclical view of time that drew on the changing phases of the moon and on the cycles of female fertility—birth, menstruation, pregnancy, new birth, and death.
Such understandings of the cosmos, which saw endlessly repeated patterns of regeneration and disintegration, were very different than later Western views, which saw time as moving in a straight line toward some predetermined goal.
The Paleolithic Age
Along with the increased use of tools came the domestication of certain animals.
Tool use and animal domestication set the framework for the emergence of agriculture.
The Paleolithic Age
Initially the dog was domesticated, and before the advent of agriculture, in some parts of the world it was also the horse.
The Paleolithic Age
Recent published research (May 2013) of DNA skeletal evidence in Siberia found that dogs may have been domesticated twice as long ago as previously thought (32,000 years ago).
People who had dogs during a hunt would likely have had an advantage over those who didn't.
The Paleolithic Age
Dogs would also have served as a warning system, barking at hostile strangers from neighboring tribes. They could have defended their humans from predators.
And finally, though this is not a pleasant thought, when times were tough, dogs could have served as an emergency food supply.
The Paleolithic Age
Sheep (Western Asia) 8500 BCECat (Mesopotamia) 8500 BCEGoats (Western Asia) 8000 BCEPigs (Western Asia) 7500 BCECattle (Eastern Sahara) 7000 BCEChicken (India) 6000 BCEDonkey (NE Africa) 4000 BCEHorse (Central Asia) 3600 BCE
The Paleolithic Age
Approximately 14,000 years ago the last great ice age ended…this enabled humans to live in more northern climates.
About 12,000 years ago (roughly 10,000 BCE), it is estimated that there were, at most, 5-10 million people in the world.
It is a very small number, very widely dispersed, but agriculture will be introduced into this framework.
Hunter-Gatherers
But before agriculture, humans were hunter-gatherers (also known as foragers).
Theories about why humans migrated out of Africa include drought and that hunter-gatherer societies require as much as 2.5-4 sq miles of space per person.
Even modest population growth would force hunter-gatherers to move a little further to seek out new space and new hunting grounds.
Hunter-Gatherers
A hunter-gatherer society has the fewest social divisions.
Usually (but not always) the men hunt animals and the women gather plants (they don’t plant, they only gather).
Even though more prestige is given to the men for supplying meat, the women gatherers usually contribute more food to the group (up to 4/5ths of the total).
Hunter-Gatherers
Hunter-gatherer groups are always nomadic and usually have between 10-25 members (kinship based).
As food supplies dwindle in one area, they move on to another.
Hunter-Gatherers
Hunter-gatherer societies place a high value on sharing food, which is essential for their survival.
Hunter-Gatherers
Women tend to breast feed their young for 3-5 years, both for nourishment and to limit their ability to conceive more children.
A hunter-gatherer society cannot afford to have too many mouths to feed and too many young children are a burden for a society always on the move.
Between nourishment, disease issues, or infanticide, children have only a 50/50 chance of reaching adulthood.
Hunter-Gatherers
According to some anthropologists, 50% of all newborn females were killed by their parents during the Paleolithic Age.
Some societies also practiced senilicide.The diet of foragers consisted mainly of
gathered foods—plants, roots, nuts, small animals, and insects—supplemented by scavenging or hunting.
Since what they hunt/gather is perishable, they don’t accumulate personal possessions (only what they can carry).
Consequently, there is no concept of wealth/poverty within the group.
There are no rulers and decisions are made through discussion at the group level.
There usually is a shaman, an individual thought to be able to influence the spirits.
Hunter-Gatherers
Hunter-Gatherers
Since their needs are basic and they don’t accumulate material possessions, hunter-gatherers have the most leisure time of all human groups.
Hunter-Gatherers
Modern anthropologists studying the few remaining hunter-gatherer societies have concluded their lives are not “nasty, brutish, and short” as was thought but instead they tend to be characterized by adequate and varied food supplies, high levels of health and fitness from a balanced diet and frequent exercise, freedom from disease epidemics, and as mentioned, there is ample “leisure” time.
Hunter-Gatherers
All human groups were once hunter-gatherers.
Up until a few hundred years ago, these groups were still common.
Today, there are less than 300 hunter-gatherer groups worldwide.
Pygmies in Africa and aborigines in Australia are among those whose traditions are vanishing.
Origins of Patriarchy
The most accepted theory on the origins of patriarchy (a male dominated society) points to the social consequences of reproduction and early child-rearing.
To balance the high death rate and maintain the population, women had to have many children.
Between pregnancy, birth, and nursing, women spent much of their lives around the camp.
Origins of Patriarchy
With a child at her breast or in her uterus, or one carried on her hip or on her back, women were physically encumbered.
These encumbrances led to women staying home (at camp) and men becoming the hunters of large animals.
Over time, men became dominant as they hunted, made contact with other tribes, traded, and waged war.
Origins of Patriarchy
Men controlled the instruments of death, the weapons of war and of the hunt.
Men gained prestige by killing animals (protein source) to feed the tribe, by being victorious in battle, and by accumulating (limited) possessions through trade.
Some sociologists believe that some men may have risked their lives as warriors to acquire women (as prizes).
Origins of Patriarchy
Since men tended to risk their lives more often than women (hunting, battle, etc) they came to believe in their own superiority.
Many male activities became shrouded in secrecy and men created elaborate rules and rituals to avoid “contamination” by females.
Paleolithic Impact on the Planet
As early human species spread across the planet, they entered continents that had no earlier hominine colonization, particularly Australia and the Americas.
Humans proved to be highly adaptable and technologically “proficient” by initiating a wave of extinctions among the megafaunal (that is, large sized animal) inhabitants of these continents.
Paleolithic Impact on the Planet
Since these megafaunal animals had no previous experience with the introduced predators (humans), they became relatively easy prey.
It is estimated that in the Americas nearly 75% of all animals weighing over 100 lbs disappeared after the arrival of humans. In Australia that number is closer to 90%.
Paleolithic Impact on the Planet
The largest species were the most threatened because they moved and reproduced very slowly: the mammoth, woolly rhinoceros, and giant elk disappeared in Eurasia; the horse, elephant, giant armadillo, and sloth vanished in North America, and in Australia dozens of large marsupials disappeared.
The Mesolithic Age
The Mesolithic Age (Middle Stone Age) went from 12,000-8,000 BCE.
Major changes included the ability to shape and sharpen stone tools, make needles out of bone, etc.
More animals were domesticated, like cows.
Pottery and basket-making begin to be developed for use as food storage.
The Neolithic Revolution
The advent of the introduction of agriculture and animal husbandry (known as the Neolithic revolution) is considered by many historians to be one of the two key changes in the human experience—since our species emerged.
The other key change?
The Neolithic Revolution
Archeologists and historians believe agriculture was “invented” in at least three separate places sometime between 9,000 BCE and 5,000 BCE.
The first occurrence was in the northern Middle East/Black Sea region with the domestication of wheat and barley.
It probably occurred because of changes in the animal supply.
The Neolithic Revolution
Women most likely started the Neolithic revolution because as gatherers, they were probably the ones who noticed if you drop some seeds in the ground, a little later something else happened.
We’ll never know if this happened by accident or by design.
The Neolithic Revolution
The second “invention” occurred in southern China and continental Southeast Asia around 7,000 BCE with the introduction of rice.
The Neolithic Revolution
The third clear separate “invention” was the domestication of corn (maize) in Central America around 5,000 BCE.
Traces of the oldest known corn (Teosinte) was found under this boulder in Mexico.
The Neolithic Revolution
Agriculture may have been invented in other places too, like sub-Saharan Africa and northern China. We simply don’t know.
But by 5,000 BCE agriculture had gradually spread and was becoming the most common economic system for the largest number of people in the world.
The Neolithic Revolution
Despite the advantages of agriculture over hunting and gathering, its widespread adoption was slow.
One reason for this slow spread was that the contacts among relatively far-flung populations was minimal (it took several thousand years for agriculture to disseminate from the Middle East to Europe).
The Neolithic Revolution
Not all regions were suitable for agriculture; some were arid (dry) or heavily forested.
An alternative economic system based on nomadic herding of animals (known as pastoral societies) prevailed for a long time over agriculture in parts of the Middle East, Africa, the Americas, and especially Central Asia (some still exist today).
The Neolithic Revolution
These nomadic pastoral groups found they could tame and breed some of the animals they hunted—goats, sheep, pigs, cattle, and camels.
These pastoral societies developed in regions where low rainfall made it impractical to build life around growing crops.
The Neolithic RevolutionAgriculture involves settling down, which might
not have appealed to some hunting-gathering societies that valued their capacity (freedom) to move around.
Agriculture might have been repellant to societies where males were accustomed to boasting about their hunting exploits.
The Neolithic Revolution
When agriculture was introduced, it brought massive changes to the human experience.
First, it changed the nature of work. Agriculture involves more work, particularly for men, than hunting and gathering.
It is estimated that hunting/gathering, on average, involves about 3 hours of work a day.
The Neolithic Revolution
Agriculture, especially “in season,” requires much, much more.
Agriculture redefined and increased the work expectations of human society.
Agriculture also redefined gender relations. In most hunter/gatherer societies, men did the hunting and women the gathering. Since both groups contributed to the food supply, women had some influence in society.
The Neolithic Revolution
In agricultural societies, patriarchal systems predominated.
Since men increasingly assumed the role as the principle cultivator of crops, they increased their dominance over women.
In all agricultural societies, not only does male dominance over women occur, but older males dominate younger ones.
This characteristic of agricultural societies still exists in our world today.
The Neolithic Revolution
The most obvious reason for the increase in male dominance was that agriculture both permitted and required an expansion of the birthrate.
Domestication also benefited the domesticated species (plant and animal) as farmers protected them from predators and helped them reproduce, ensuring their survival (which is why there are so many dogs, sheep, and cows and so much wheat, rice, and corn).
The Neolithic Revolution
More secure food supplies—that’s the principle advantage of agriculture over hunting/gathering.
Producing more abundant and more predictable food supplies permitted larger numbers of children to be born.
Agricultural societies needed more children to work the land.
The Neolithic Revolution
Greater food supplies created new patterns of child rearing and an increase in the per capita birth rate (usually between 5-7 births per family).
In a hunting-gathering society, children have relatively few functions until they reach their early teen years.
The Neolithic Revolution
In agricultural societies, childhood and work became closely associated.
Virtues, such as hard work and obedience, became part of the lessons children learned in an agricultural society.
The Neolithic Revolution
Early farmers faced limitations on the amount of food they could produce since there was a shortage of laborers (why so many children were needed), water, and nutrients (it would take thousands of years for people to understand the benefits of animal fertilizer).
So there were three main farming technologies early farmers adopted that reflected these limitations.
The Neolithic Revolution
1. Horticulture: traditional gardening techniques (clearing land, tilling then planting then harvesting).
Since human labor provides all the energy, the effectiveness of early tools was critical.
2. Swidden (slash and burn): weeding out excessive trees to allow more sunlight and nutrients to reach the ground.
Trees/vegetation cut, then area burned, then plots cultivated.
The Neolithic Revolution3. Chinampas: created by Mesoamerican
farmers, growing crops on man-made floating fields of timber and soil, anchored in the middle of lakes.
The Neolithic Revolution
The advent of agriculture raises some interesting questions about human progress.
First, a major drawback was the introduction of new inequalities between men and women.
A second drawback was that agriculture allowed people to settle in clustered communities, which exposed inhabitants to periodic epidemic diseases.
The Neolithic Revolution
A third drawback was that agricultural societies altered the local environment in a way that hunter/gatherer societies did not.
Some regional environments were damaged, even destroyed, by agricultural communities (which we will see later).
But agriculture clearly had advantages, which was why it spread (albeit very slowly).
The Neolithic RevolutionWhere Agriculture Began (BCE):
Southwest Asia (Fertile Crescent) 9000Egypt and the Sudan (Nile Valley) 8000China (Yangtze and Huang He valleys) 7000Australasia (New Guinea Highlands) 7000-4000Sub-Saharan Africa 3000-2000Mesoamerica (Central Mexico) 3000-2000South America (Andes and Amazonia) 3000-2000Indus valley 2500-2200North America (Mississippi valley) 2000-1000
The Neolithic RevolutionOne of its advantages was that it produced
products that could be fermented and turned into alcohol.
Some historians believe this is one of the reasons why men gave up hunting to adopt agriculture.
Clay, southern Iraq, 3100 BCE (3”x4”).
The Neolithic Revolution
One of the first things agricultural societies did when they developed writing was to write down recipes for the fermentation of wheat, barley, grapes, etc.
The Neolithic Revolution
More systematically, agriculture significantly increased food supplies.
This in turn allowed families to have more children and resulted in population expansion.
These conditions prevailed in much of the world from about 9,000 BCE until about 300 years ago.
The Neolithic Revolution
But agricultural economies were constrained by limitations in the amount of food that a worker could generate.
Even the most advanced agricultural economies required about 80% of the population to be involved in agriculture.
The Neolithic Revolution
This limited the size of cities to be no more than 20% of the population (most were less) and limited the amount of taxation that could be levied.
More taxes = ?Only within the last century did Russia’s
agricultural society have an urban level that was more than 10% of the population.
The Neolithic Revolution
Agricultural societies also generated cultural emphases, especially by encouraging attention to the spring season (and the divine forces responsible for creation and renewal).
The Neolithic Revolution
The crucial features of agriculture were its role in population increase and its capacity to generate food surpluses.
This freed some people to do other things, like manufacture containers (pottery) that could hold food or seed from one season to the next.
The Neolithic Revolution
One of the first areas where agricultural societies generated technological advancement was in the area of pottery making (needed to maintain an agricultural economy) and metal working.
The Neolithic Revolution
The world’s oldest known city is Jericho, located in today’s West Bank (Palestine) and dated to about 9,000 BCE.
The city was surrounded by springs near the Dead Sea.
The Neolithic Revolution
The second oldest known was a famous Neolithic village in southern Turkey: Catal Huyuk.
The map at right was drawn in the 6th millennium BCE.
The Neolithic Revolution
Catal Huyuk was a thriving village between 7,000 – 3,000 BCE.
Artwork found there includes the world’s oldest known murals on human built structures.