The trends you need to understand relate to the following:
Use of tools (stone, wood, bone) |
Use of fire |
Clothing |
Abstract thought (communication, language, art) |
Food-gathering (hunter-gatherer, domestication of plants and animals) |
Shelter (caves, temporary and permanent settlements) |
Evidence for cultural evolution:
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Biological evidence
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Other evidence
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- Skull size, shape and cranial capacity have increased in specific areas that are associated with parts of the brain related to language, speech and thinking. This evidence suggests that those hominins were capable of thinking and communicating - the complete premise of which cultural evolution is based.
- The size of the sagittal crest, zygomatic arch and jaw size, along with size and shape of teeth, suggest the diet of hominins changed over time - from raw vegetation (requiring big, grinding molars) to cooked food which was soft and easy to eat.
- Skeletons have been found buried in a way that suggests spiritual beliefs or affection/respect was present in hominin populations. Specific positions the bodies were found in, materials they were buried with etc. suggests they were not just left where they died, but respectfully buried and perhaps mourned.
- Particular stone tools have been found which are not naturally shaped. but shaped in similar ways that suggest a particular method/technique has been used by many individuals and that foresight/planning has been employed.
- Evidence of fireplaces in communal areas where food may have been cooked. Fire is a huge part of the cultural evolution of hominins.
- Large animals bones found near human bones suggest that the hominins were able to hunt and kill large animals to eat; requiring tools, strategy and co-operation - all parts of a group culture.
1. Use of tools
(stone, wood, bone)
Now that the hands are freed up as a result of bipedalism, early hominins were able to pick up objects and start banging them together and doing random things with them. Over time particular techniques developed such as banging rocks on other objects to break them open - allowing new resources to be exploited. This fuelled the development of the brain and over time, brain function increased. However, such behaviours are not genetically coded for... they must be taught. Tool making is a learned behaviour. Making particular tools and accessing particular resources helped further biological evolution.
There are four tool groups
- each associated with a particular time in history and with particular hominins
- each associated with a particular time in history and with particular hominins
Oldowan tools - (used approx. 2.5 to 1.2 million years ago)
The first tools ever made - manufactured by Homo habilis.
Created using smooth pebbles from river beds - often oldowan tools are referred to as 'pebble tools'. If you bang two of these rocks together, you can make them somewhat pointy - the pointy end can be used to crack things open, such as bones, big roots, etc. These were called 'choppers' and this refers to the stone core. The flakes that were removed were also used for cutting plants and butchering animals. A vast new selection of foods were now available to Homo habilis. Click here for more pictures.
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Acheulean tools - (used approx. 1.5 million years ago - 600,000 years ago)
More sophisticated than oldowan tools - manufactured by Homo erectus in areas such as East Africa, Europe and India
These tools were made by striking more flakes off a central core to produce a teardrop shape tool. A 'hammerstone' was used to create such a tool - often called a handaxe. Handaxes were very versatile and used for things such as cutting and breaking up wood, cutting up carcasses, scraping and cutting hides. Acheulean and Oldwowan tools are referred to as Lower Paleolithic tools, or Early Old Stone Age tools. However, Acheulean tools were made with greater precision and required many more controlled blows to produce specifically shaped tools. In contrast to Oldowan tools, Acheulean tools were the planned result of a manufacturing process. Click here for more pictures.
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Mousterian tools - (used approx. 400,000 - 200,000 years ago)
Like acheulean tools, however these tools were made from the flakes chipped off and manufactured by Homo neanderthalensis in areas such as Europe
These tools were made by striking a core to shape it specifically, then striking a large flake off the shaped core. This flake was then further shaped - several flakes could come from the one core. After all the flakes were removed, the core was discarded and not used. The technique used to make these tools is called the Levallois technique. Such tools required foresight; the ability to envisage the shape of the tool before making it - this requires quite complex thought - a result of a larger brain. There are many different types of Mousterian tools, over 60, made from stone and flint.
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Upper paleolithic tools - (used approx. 90,000 - 12,000 years ago)
These tools were made from the many different materials and were manufactured by Homo sapiens - different populations of Homo sapiens used different materials.
These tools required a lot of planning and were created using very intricate procedures. Tools such as fish hooks, spear heads and bone needles (for making clothes) were made out of bone,ivory, antler, wood, stone and flint. Upper paleolithic tools are the most advanced tool group.
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2. Use of fire
Thanks, Homo erectus!
Fire has always been around - humans never created fire.
Lightning strikes, for example, were ways that fire was created when early hominins were around. Homo erectus was the first hominin to harness fire, then make it. It took a very long time for hominins to make fire... for a long time they just used it when it was already roaring. |
Evidence for hominins using fire include:
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The benefits of controlling and using fire:
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Warmth
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Light
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Cooking
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Home base
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Protection
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Tool prep
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Traps animals
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Having a source of warmth allowed more hominins to survive, and therefore reproduce. They were also able to explore colder areas, such as northern Europe, and survive ice ages. Dispersal of hominins would not have been as extensive without fire.
This means that when it was night time, fire was used to help hominins see. This means they could stay awake longer, spending their time making more tools, butchering carcasses, being productive. This allowed them a greater chance of survival and better technology to aid in their success as a species.
Cooking improves the tenderness and digestability of food, as well as making it safer to eat (killing bacteria and parasites). Cooking speeds up the eating process, allowing more time to be dedicated to tool-making and other social activities.
This leads to unity within populations. Food would be brought back to the 'home base' so it could be cooked - meaning more sharing of resources was occurring. This may have lead to more complex social interactions between individuals. Fire is though tot have brought hominins together and made them more tight-nit.
Particularly dangerous animals. This means more hominins were able to survive, and therefore reproduce, continuing the development of cultural and biological evolution.
Holding particular types of rocks over a fire allows them to strengthen and become more durable. This would have been beneficial for hominins as sturdier tools allowed for greater hunting success, as well as defence from predators - increasing their survival.
There is evidence to suggest that hominins were clever enough to light fires and stamepe animals in a direction that they either end up in the fire or in a trap/ambush. Either way, fire was used to assist hominins in hunting.
Fire & food
Cooking food allowed more calories to be consumed by hominins. This led to a period of accellerated brain growth, as the body had more energy for such things. During the period of time after fire was harnessed, brain size increased drastically. This increase in brain size led to more complex cognitive activity and more intelligent hominins, which led to further development of tools, language and co-operative behaviours.
3. Clothing
Clothes weren't created by hominins so they could look fabulous, they were a way of keeping warm. Homo neanderthalensis were big on clothes-making. They would kill animals, skin them and use their hides for clothing. They made tools which allowed them to sew pieces together! Clearly, clothing was very beneficial and has lasted to this day - used now by Homo sapiens.
Tools
Hominins who made clothes needed something to make them with! Tools were required, particularly needles for sweing pieces of hide together. Bone was a common material found to be used as needles.
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Planning
For clothes to be made, a lot of forethought was required. For example, the hominin needed to consider: what material was best to use, how to get it, how to skin the animal, how to treat the hide, how big to make the clothing, how to sew pieces together, what to sew them together with, etc. All this thinking could only be done by hominins with a relatively large brain.
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Co-operation
Killing and skinning small animals like rats would be highly inefficient when it comes to sourcing materials for clothing. Instead, bigger animals were used - but bringing these animals down required more than one person. Teamwork was valuable when acquiring materials to make clothing with. The more fur the animal had - the better! The bigger the animal, the more clothing you could make too!
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4. Abstract thought
(communication, language, art)
Communication
Over time, hominins started communicating with words and clear facial expressions, rather than with noises (such as grunts) and basic body language. The more effectively individuals could communicate, the more likely they were to survive and/or reproduce. Communication leads to higher survival rates due to the increased ability/capacity to co-operate more effectively to find food and/or hide or defend themselves from predators.
Remember, communication is not just language. You can communicate a lot without even talking! Think about the look your teacher gives you when you're not paying attention... or when you're asked to find a partner and you communicate with your friend who's on the other side of the room... Many animals can communicate without talking.. dogs, cats, horses, deer, ants...
Remember, communication is not just language. You can communicate a lot without even talking! Think about the look your teacher gives you when you're not paying attention... or when you're asked to find a partner and you communicate with your friend who's on the other side of the room... Many animals can communicate without talking.. dogs, cats, horses, deer, ants...
Language
As brain size increased, specific areas of the brain become more complex and developed... such as Broca's area and Wernicke's area. These two aprts of the brain are vital for the development and comprehension of language!
Broca's area
Broca's area is involved in speech production. If the Broca's area doesn't work, an individual can think of exactly what to say but has immense trouble saying it.
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Wernicke's area
Wernicke's area is involved in comprehension. If the Wernicke's area doesn't work, an individual can speak clearly but has trouble understanding what other people say.
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After humans diverged from the ancestor that humans and apes share, the shape of the vocal tract changed. As prognathism became reduced, the human mouth became much smaller and less protruding. A flexible tongue also developed which could be controlled more precisely. The neck also became longer. Such biological changes allowed noises to become more controlled and meaningful. Proper speech, actual articulated speech is thought to have come about only 50,000 years ago. This is because only fossils dated back to 50,000 years ago look as though they had an anatomy capable of producing complex speech patterns.
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Improved communication (due to the development language) meant that ideas could be shared, plans could be made, stronger friendships could form.
Several Neanderthal skeletons have been found that show evidence of injuries that have healed during the lifetime of that individual - that they have had a life-threatening injury but managed to survive it. Such injuries are very hard to withstand alone, suggesting that injured Neanderthals received help from others; an indication of altruism. This is a complex social behaviour. Such behaviours may have contributed significantly towards the survival of many individuals, increasing their life expectancy.
Art
Art is a big 'umbrella term' - many things are considered art.
As hunting strategies improved (discussed further down page) and length of day was increased due to the light of fire, hominins found they had more time up their sleeves. This was increased when farming/agriculture began (discussed further down page). Now, there was time to satisfy emotional needs as well as physical needs. Among ancient Neanderthal populations and modern humans are cave paintings, carved statuettes, ornaments and beads - many with reference to animals that were important to those populations in that time, particularly as a food source - for example, horses, deer, oxen, bison and mammoths. Paintings have been discovered in North Africa and Australia, as well as in many caves in Europe and Asia. The making of jewellwey, musical instruments and ornaments requires a huge depth of thought, only capable by those with a large brain. The remains of early hominins such as Homo habilis have not been found with anything that resebles art, jewellery or music - this is thought to be because their brains had not developed the capability to think and make such things.
Art was closely linked with spirituality... another form of absract thought that developed as brain size increased.
Spirituality
Evidence suggests that Homo neanderthalensis and Homo sapiens were spiritual in one way or another - that they believed in life after death.
Such complex thoughts are a result of a large brain - both these species have much larger brains than any other hominins.
Such complex thoughts are a result of a large brain - both these species have much larger brains than any other hominins.
Evidence:
So many intact skeletons have been discovered. The fact that they are intact, rather than just one or two bones, suggests that the bodies had been buried. If the bodies were just left to rot, carnivores would likely have taken off with pieces to eat. Many skeletons were also found in particular orientations or positions - suggesting they were carefully placed there.
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Many skeletons were found with tools, pollen grains (suggesting flowers were decorating the dead bodies) and bones of fleshy parts of game animals. This suggests that bodies were decorated after death - perhaps as an offering or a way of helping the dead pass into an afterlife.
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5. Food-gathering
(hunter-gatherer, domestication of plants and animals)
Scavenger to hunger-gatherer
Earlier hominins ate meat from carcasses of dead animals they found. This is scavenging - looking for scraps. Meat found this way was able to be cooked once fire was harnessed, which aided in the digestability of such food and fuelled brain growth. With an increased effectiveness in communication (due to increase in brain size), hominins such as H. erectus and their descendants were able to hunt for animals to kill, rather than to just find dead ones that had already had a lot eaten out of them.
Hunting animals allowed more calories were able to be consumed and gave hominins more energy for other tasks. By coming up with strategies for hunting, less time was spent out in the field chasing animals and instead time could be spent making tools or making babies! By hunting in groups, many hominins could go out and come back with enough food to feed their entire family, plus the rest of the living group. By learning and understanding the behaviour of animals (due to a larger brain) this allowed for successful hunting plans and complex tools which assisted hunting. Eventually the domestication of animals and the development of agriculture came about (see below), which continues to this day.
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This video shows one method used to hunt for antelope. Although the hunt takes several hours, only a few group members are involved (not the entire family) and they are able to bring down a big mammal which will feed many. While these men were out hunting, the rest of their group were free to carry out other tasks that were beneficial to the group.
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Domestication of plants and animals
i.e. Hunter-gatherer to farmer (H. sapiens)
i.e. Hunter-gatherer to farmer (H. sapiens)
In more recenmt times, seeds would be collected and intentionally planted so that crops could grow and be harvested. Animals were captured and looked after by the group and allowed to reproduce. When required, animals would be killed for food but there would always be animals to replace them. This is the beginning of the domestication of plants and animals, as well as the beginning of selective breeding. With an agricultural lifestyle, hunting and gathering was no longer necessary - freeing up time for individuals to learn other skills.
- The first plants to be domesticated were wheat (wild wheat) - around 18,000 years ago.
- The first animals to be domesticated were dogs, then goats, sheep and pigs.
Advantages
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Disadvantages
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6. Shelter
(caves, temporary and permanent settlements)
Shelter increased survival.
Caves are basically pre-built shelters. Once fire was harnessed it became safer to explore caves (fire providing the light to see inside dark caves and potentially scare out any inhabitants). H. erectus, H. neanderthalensis and H. sapiens used caves as shelters in some parts of the world - this is evidenced by the many tools found inside/around caves (tool types can indicate which hominin species likely inhabited the cave) as well as the cave paintings found (only for the later hominins). Caves were not the ideal shelter though. Many animals that were hunted by hominins would migrate - following the rain patterns. If H. erectus stayed by their cave all year, they would starve as their food source would have disappeared.
Temporary settlements were formed by the nomadic hominins - those groups of H. erectus who moved around with the herds of animals. (Perhaps this was part of the reason H. erectus left Africa in the first place?). This allowed a place for the group to gather, communicate, refine their tools, cook food, look after each other. Temporary settlements increased the survival of the group.
Permnanent settlements were formed by H. sapiens - when they began domesticating plants and animals it made more sense to stay put. Why collect and plant seeds then leave them to go somewhere else? Keeping plants and animals well-looked-after led to the construction of permanent settlements, rather than temporary. This was usually near rivers or streams where water was easily accessible (reducing the need to travel). By planting crops in the ground, there is no point moving away from them - you need to wait a long time for them to grow - so populations stay put and eventually reaped the benefits. This freed up a large amount of time for indivduals to develop other skills - evidence at places of permanent settlements suggests that some individuals became specialists in tool-making, others in pottery, music, sport, art, herbal medicines, etc.