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 (wise-man)

• 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 ‘hunter-gatherer’ (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/top10_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