Cultural Beginnings: Biological Capacity

Cultural Beginnings

• Culture encompasses beliefs, practices, values, attitudes, laws, norms, artifacts, symbols, knowledge, and everything a person learns and shares as a member of society.

Biological Capacity for Culture

• The development of culture in humans is linked to biological factors like thinking, speaking, gripping, and walking/standing capabilities.
• The developed human brain is the primary biological component enabling culture by facilitating skills like speaking, touching, feeling, seeing, and smelling.
• Humans possess a larger brain (1.4 kg) compared to chimpanzees (420 g) and gorillas (500 g).
• The vocal tract produces and reproduces sounds to transmit ideas and values, facilitated by the brain's comprehension of sound.
• A Homo heidelbergensis hyoid bone fossil suggests language origins may date back 500,000 years.
• Neanderthals possessed a similar hyoid bone, suggesting they may have had similar speech capabilities.
• The human thumb's ability to oppose other fingers is an exclusive trait which enables power and precision grips.
• Power grip allows humans to hold tools firmly.
• Precision grip allows humans to hold and pick objects steadily using their fingers.
• Bipedalism is the capacity to walk and stand on two feet.
• Quadropedalism is using all four limbs.

Human Origins and Toolmaking

• Early Australopithecines (A. afarensis and A. africanus) may have practiced the crudest methods of toolmaking.
• Toolmaking started 2.6 million years ago.

The Oldowan Industry

• The Oldowan industry is a stone tool industry using hard water-worn creek cobbles made of volcanic rock.
• Tools were made through percussion flaking method which is a process involving the systematic collision of a hammer stone with a core stone.
• Mary and Louis Leakey discovered evidence at Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania, dating back 2.6 million years.
• Homo habilis used the Oldowan industry, which spread to Europe and Asia during Homo erectus migration 1.9-1.8 million years ago.
• By 1.8-1.6 million years ago, the Oldowan industry had reached Java, Indonesia, and Northern China.

The Acheulian Industry

• Homo erectus developed the Acheulian industry from Homo habilis through percussion flaking.
• Homo erectus created bifacial hand axes with straighter and sharper edges.
• Other tools included choppers, cleavers, hammers, flakes used as knives and scrapers.
• The industry was named after Saint Acheul in France, where the artifacts were discovered.
• The artifacts date to 1.5 million years ago.

The Mousterian Industry

• Homo neanderthalensis (Neanderthals) developed the Mousterian industry in Europe and West Asia between 300,000 and 30,000 years ago.
• The industry was named after Le Moustier in France.
• The Levalloisian technique used a premade core tool to extract a flake tool with sharpened edges.

The Aurignacian Industry

• The Aurignacian industry was present in Europe and southwest Asia from 45,000 to 35,000 years ago.
• The term Aurignacian was derived from Aurignac, an area in France where the evidence for this industry was found.
• Raw materials included flint, animal bones, and antlers.
• The method used to create fine blades was similar to the Mousterian industry.
• The cave paintings in El Castillo Cave, Spain depict the environment early humans lived in.
• The Venus of Schelklingen was sculpted from a woolly mammoth tusk.
• The earliest evidence of music appreciation was found through a bone flute discovery in Hohle Fels, Germany.

The Magdalenian Industry

• The Magdalenian Industry saw the end of the Paleolithic period.
• The industry was named after the La Madeleine site in Dordogne, France.
• Revolutionary advancements in technology include the creation of microliths from flint, bone, antler, and ivory.
• A defining method in toolmaking was the application of heat on the raw material prior to flaking for a more precise cut.
• By 10,000 BC, this industry had spread to parts of Europe, including Great Britain, Germany, Spain, and Poland.

Processes of Cultural and Sociopolitical Evolution

• The Paleolithic stage provided the bases for the development of complex human groups through the establishment of culture.

The Neolithic Revolution

• The Neolithic period is characterized by the shift from foraging to agriculture.
• Foraging made early humans nomads, and agriculture encouraged permanent settlement, affecting behaviors, attitudes, beliefs, and material inventions.

Characteristics of Paleolithic and Neolithic Societies

• Paleolithic societies used small, handy tools for a mobile lifestyle, whereas Neolithic societies utilized a wider array of larger tools due to a sedentary lifestyle.
• Paleolithic societies were limited to personal accessories and small, portable tools, while Neolithic societies included structures and large containers.
• Art in Paleolithic societies was small and limited to personal ornaments. Neolithic societies created artworks that required a longer length of time and a greater number of people.
• Paleolithic societies subsisted through foraging; Neolithic through agriculture.
• Leadership in Paleolithic societies was based on age and knowledge, whereas in Neolithic societies, it was semi-rigid and based on legitimacy.
• Paleolithic societies had no social divisions and promoted a communal lifestyle and Neolithic the elites vs. working class emerged.
• Paleolithic societies had small populations, while Neolithic societies had large populations.

Early Civilization and the Rise of the State

• A state is a political entity with territory, sovereignty, people, and government.
• Divine right theory: Rulers ascended to power based on their filial relationship with supernatural forces and entities.
• Force theory: A group forces members of another group to subject themselves to their rules.
• Paternalistic theory: The father is the leader of the first political unit, which grew as the number of the members of his family grew.
• Social contract: The creation of a state was a mutual agreement between the ruler and the ruled to ensure order and security from outside threats.
• Natural theory: Humans have an innate need to be part of a community, indulging in politics.

Democratization of Early Civilizations

• Around 507 BCE, Cleisthenes proposed demokratia in Athens to disperse power from the elites to the masses.
• A counter theory suggests democracy was first practiced in the Fertile Crescent region, specifically in Nippur.

The Legacy of Early Humans to Contemporary Population

• UNESCO manages matters relating to human heritage.
• Cultural heritage encompasses both material manifestations and living expressions inherited from ancestors.
• Tangible heritage is divided into movable and immovable categories.
• Stonehenge is an immovable tangible heritage.
• The sarcophagus of Tutankhamun is a movable tangible heritage.
• Movable tangible heritage pieces are often removed and transferred to museums for safekeeping and maintenance.
• Immovable tangible heritage pieces are left to the elements of nature and are vulnerable to decay and corrosion.

The Role of Museums in Preserving Human Heritage

• New roles of museums include fostering community solidarity through shared history and regeneration and development of the local economy

Famous Museums and Artifacts

• Top museums with the biggest collections of artifacts and fossils include the Smithsonian Institution, Le Louvre, and the British Museum.
• The Rosetta Stone allowed for the translation of Egyptian hieroglyphics.
• Zahi Hawass asserted Egypt's right to reclaim several of its artifacts.
• The National Museum is the key museum in the Philippines.