Nature, Humanity, and History: The First Four Million Years
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African Genesis
Remains of ancient creatures were too fragmentary to be convincing
Charles Darwin
1. Published Origin of Species, argued that the time frame for all biological life was
longer than most people had supposed
2. Proposed natural selection, the process by which biological variations that
enhance a population’s ability to survive became dominant in that species
3. The Descent of Man- stated that humans were descended from ape-like creatures
who were hairy and tailed quadrupled
1891- ancient skullcap (Java Man) was discovered by Eugene Dubois on a Southeast
Asian island
1924- Raymond Dart discovered African southern ape
1. which he argued was transitional between apes and early humans
2. People went against idea that brains came first
1950- Mary Leaky and Louis discovered a wealth of fossils in the exposed sediments
of the Great Rift valley of eastern Africa
Australopithecines and humans are members of a family of primates known as
hominids
98 percent of human DNA is identical to that of the great apes
3 traits distinguished humans from apes and other primates
1. Bipedalism- walking upright on 2 legs
2. Large brain: able to think abstractly, experience emotions, and control motor
movements
3. Human larynx lies much lower in the neck
Climate change led to evolutionary changes
1. Great Ice Age- 2 mil to 11,000 years ago (Pleistocene epoch)
2. New species evolved
3. Colder and warmer period were separated
1974- Lucy, a skeleton of a 25-year-old, was discovered by Donald Johnson
1977- Mary Leakey discovered fossilized footprints in northern Tanzania
1960s- Louis Leakey discovered homo habilis (handy human)
1. Brain 50% larger, added to intelligence
2. Became extinct 1 mil years ago
Homo eretus appear 1 million years ago
1. Brains 1/3 larger than homo habilis
1984- Remains of a 12-year-old male of the species discovered by Richard Leakey on
the shores of Lake Turkana in Kenya
1. Remains closely resembled humans from neck down
Homo sapiens emerged 400,000 to 100,000 years ago
1. Brains were a 1/3 larger than homo habilis
2. Greater speech capacity
II.
History and Culture in the Ice Age
A. Food Gathering and Stone Technology
1. Stone Age- 2 million years ago to 4 thousand years ago
2. Paleothic- Old Stone Age- 10,000 years ago
3. Neolithic- New Stone Age- associated with agriculture
4. Homo habilis made tools by chipping flakes off the edges of volcanic stones
5. Homo eretus were capable of killing leopards and other large predators
a. They made ax tools for skinning, sharpening wooden tools, and digging up
edible roots, can buther elephants
6. Homo sapiens were skillful and contributed to a series of ecological crises
a. 40,000 to 13,000 years ago, mammoths disappeared
B. General Divisions and Social Life
1. Enduring one between human parents made it easier for vulnerable offspring to
receive the care they needed during the long period of their childhood
2. Ice Age women did most of the gathering while men did most of the hunting
C. Hearths and Cultural Expressions
1. People erected huts of branches, stones, bones, and skins as seasonal camps
2. 15,000 years ago in Ukraine, a camp with communal dwellings were framed with
the bones of elephant-like mammoths
3. Animal skins were used to make clothing
4. Oldest cave paintings in Europe and North Africa date to 32,000 years ago with
cave paintings featuring oxen, reindeer, and horses
5. Vallon Pont-d’Arc- features rhinoceros, panthers, bears
6. Societies made have complex religions
III.
The Agricultural Revolutions
A. The Transition to Plant Cultivation
1. Semicultivation- people would scatter the seeds in locations where they want
them to grow
2. Tools were developed to improve agricultural use, such as polished or grown
stone heads to work the soil, sharp stone chips, etc
3. Fire got rid of unwanted undergrowth and ashes were a natural fertilizer
4. Transition to agriculture has been traced in the Middle East
a. Humans transformed wild grasses into grain
b. Crops were first domesticated in the Middle East then were later grown
elsewhere
5. Eastern Sahara- able to support farming during a wet period from 8000 B.C.E.
a. Drier conditions in 5000 B.C.E led many Saharan farmers to move to the Nile
Valley
6. In Greece around 6000 B.C.E. they combined local experiments and Middle
Eastern borrowings
7. 4000 B.C.E. farming developed at light-soiled plains of Central Europe and along
the Danube River
8. Other places developed agriculture
B. Animal Domestication and Pastoralism
1. Animals domesticated to provide meat, milk and energy
2. Change from wild gazelle to sheeps
3. Pastoralists remained in Sahara
C. Agriculture and Ecological Crisis
1. Holocene Era- since around 9000 B.C.E.
2. Global warming drove people to develop agriculture
IV.
Life in Neolithic Communities
A. Rural Population and Settlement
1. Debates over whether transition from foraging to farming was peaceful or not
2. Colin Renfrew- as population densities rose, individuals who had to farm at a
great distance form their native village eventually formed a new farming
settlement
3. Expanding farming communities were organized around kinship and marriage
4. Traditions of Kikuyu farmers on Mount Kenya in East Africa relate that women
ruled until the Kikuyu men conspired to get all the women pregnant
B. Cultural Expressions
1. Agricultural people seemed to worship their ancestors and had a close
relationship with nature
2. worshipped the Earth Mother, Sky God, etc
3. megalith- were used to mark burial chambers and calendar circles
C. Early Towns and Specialists
1. Towns had elaborate dwellings and ceremonial buildings made of mud brick,
stone, and wood
2. Pottery jugs, jars, and pots stored liquids
3. Two towns excavated in the Middle East are Jericho on the west bank of the
Jordan River and Catal Huyuk in central Anatolia
a. Jericho- 8000 B.C.E. dwellings at Jericho were round, mud-brick structures,
massive stone wall to block invaders
b. Catal Huyuk- prospered from long distance trade in obsidian
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Hunting retained a powerful hold on people’s minds
ii.
They had a shrine for every 2 houses
iii.
They had copper and lead