Hominids to Humanity
The Unbinding of Isaac
The mythopoeic past
Our Humanity Emerges
The “precondition” of civilization
- faith in the unseen “higher law”
- value of human life
- strength of love
- exercise of free will
I. Internal and External
Evolution
First step toward civilization
Homo sapiens ca. 200K BCE
↓
Civilization ca. 3500 BCE
Civilization is a by-product of human evolution
…development of the human mind
…response to environmental change
A. Paleolithic
1. 1 – 2.5 M
Homo habilis and erectus
↓
↓
Homo sapiens (200K)
“thinking man”
2. Dispersal
- Multiregional theory
multiple
- Out of Africa theory
one branch
3. Hoppin’ hominids
approx. time
200K BC
70K BC
1700 CE
2012 CE
approx. #
–1M
– 10,000 (Toba Super-eruption)
–1B
–7B
B. The Pleistocene Era:
Ice, Ice, Baby
1.6M-10K BCE
1. Hidden uses of adversity
- migration
- “cold filter”
2. Fresh meat!
- community
- protein
C. The Paleolithic Revolution
1. Neanderthals
- 500-30K (?)
Abstractions
2.
Cro-Magnon - sapiens sapiens
40-10K
Lascaux
3. They are us
(anatomically & intellectually “modern”)...
…but we’re more
sophisticated
Myth & history
The Epic of Gilgamesh
Gilgamesh
Enkidu
mythopoeic
2100 BCE
II. Neolithic Revolution
A. End of an era
1. Climate change
Pleistocene Overkill
2. Ice age tech
12,000-10,000 BCE
The Agricultural (neolithic)
Revolution
ca. 9,000 – 5000 BCE
B. The Fertile Crescent
1. Nutritious plants
- cereal grains
2. Cooperative animals
- “big four”
C. I should have stayed on the farm
1. Domestication
2. Horticulture
10-8000 BCE
8000 BCE
3. Animal husbandry
7-5000BCE
D. Settlement:
1. Risks
rewards & risks
Gilgamesh
- disease
- malnutrition
- loss of mobility
- vulnerability
- exploitation
- gender inequities
Sex at Dawn (2010), Ryan & Jethá
2. Rewards
- surpluses, material + intellect
- time = creativity → complexity
“Sticky”
Egyptians, ca. 2000 BCE
CIVILIZATION
Edouard Manet, At the Bar of
Folies Bergère 1882