Human Evolution And Culture PDF

The need to scrutinize human anatomy to understand culture is indispensable. Physical and cultural anthropologists argue that we could trace how culture became possible by understanding our biological makeup. The primary biological component of humans that allowed for culture is the developed bra...

The need to scrutinize human anatomy to understand culture is indispensable. Physical and cultural anthropologists argue that we could trace how culture became possible by understanding our biological makeup. The primary biological component of humans that allowed for culture is the developed brain. It has the necessary parts for facilitating pertinent skills such as speaking, touching, feeling, seeing, and smelling. The frontal lobe and The partial the motor cortex lobe allows for function for cognition and motor touch and abilities. taste abilities  The temporal The occipital lobe allows for lobe allows hearing skills for visual skills As the brain is the primary source of humans’ capacity to comprehend sound and provide meaning to it, the vocal tract acts as the mechanism by which sounds are produced and reproduced to transmit ideas and values.  Look at your hands. Notice how your thumbs relates with your other fingers. This capacity to directly oppose your thumb with your other fingers is an exclusive trait of humans.it allowed us to have a finer grip. Thus, we have the capability to craft materials with precision.  The hand of human has digits (fingers) that are straight, as compared with the curved ones of the other primates. Notice that the human is proportionately longer than those of the other primates. These characteristics of human hand allowed for two types of grip: power and precision. Power grip enables humans to wrap the thumb and fingers on an object; it became the cornerstone of our capacity to hold tools firmly for hunting and other activities Precision grip enabled humans to hold and pick objects steadily using their fingers. This capacity was crucial for tool-making activities. Primates have two forms of locomotion: bipedalism and quadropedalism Bipedalism is the capacity to walk and stand on two feet Quadropedalism is the capacity to walk using all limbs. Although apes are semi-bipedal, humans are the only fully bipedal primates. Being bipedal, humans gained more capacity to move while carrying objects with their free hands. Human Origins and the Capacity for Culture It is believed that the crudest methods of toolmaking may have been practiced by the earlier Australopithecines The Oldowan Industry, a stone tool industry, is characterized by the use of “hard water-work creek cobbles made out of volcanic rock” These raw materials were then made into tools through percussion flaking, which is a process involving the systematic collision of a hammer stone with a core stone. The impact of the collision of a hammer stone with a core tool (used foe general purposes) and a flake tool (used as a knife). This industry is known to have been used by Homo habilis.  Homo erectus developed a more complex industry from what they inherited from Homo habilis. Using the same process of percussion flaking, Homo Erectus created hand axes that were bifacial, shaped in both sides, and with straighter and sharper edges.  The industry was developed by Homo neaderthalensis (Neanderthals) in Europe an West Asia between 300 000 and 30 000 years ago. This industry was named after a site in France called Le Moustier, were evidence was uncovered in 1860. The word Augrignacian was derived from Aurignac, an area in France where the evidence for this industry was found. Users of this industry used raw materials such as flint, animal bones, and antlers. The cave paintings found in the El Castillo Cave in Cantabaria, Spain provide us with a glimpse of the environment that the early humans lived in. Most of the paintings are that of the animals that existed at that time. Apart from the animal-themed figurines, archaeologists also unearthed human-inspired figurines. The Venus of Schelklingen, which is also called the Venus of Hohle Fels. This figurine was sculpted from a woolly mammoth tusk. The earliest evidence of music appreciation was also related to this period through the discovery of a bone flute in Hohle Fels, Germany. This industry saw the end of the Paleolithic period as it transformed to the Neolithic period. The industry was named after the La Madeleine site in Dordogne, France. This industry, which is also a proto-culture used by the early humans, was defined by several revolutionary advancements in technology such as the creation of microliths from flint, bone, antler, and ivory. A defining method used in toolmaking during this period was the application of heat on the material prior to the flaking process. This was done by casting the raw material on fire, which allowed for a more precise cut upon flaking. Another cultural milestone for the users of this industry was the use of temporary man-made shelters such as tents made of animal skin. This period is characterized by a major shift in economic subsistence of the early humans from foraging to agriculture. PALEOLITHIC - Small and handy for mobile lifestyle NEOLITHIC - Included a wider array of small and bigger tools due to sedentary lifestyle PALEOLITHIC - Limited to personal accessories and small tools that could easily be carried around NEOLITHIC - Included structures (e.g., houses), decorative ornaments, large containers PALEOLITHIC - Small and limited to personal ornaments, bigger artworks were done but not within a long timeframe NEOLITHIC - Included the creation of artworks that required a longer length of time and a greater number of people PALEOLITHIC - Foraging NEOLITHIC - Agriculture PALEOLITHIC - Not rigid; based on age and knowledge NEOLITHIC - Semirigid; based on legitimacy (religious beliefs, social status) PALEOLITHIC - None; communal lifestyle NEOLITHIC - Elite vs working class PALEOLITHIC - Small (30-50 people) NEOLITHIC - Large (in thousand)  Rulers ascended to power convinced that their right to rule is base don their filial relationship with supernatural forces and entities. The concept of the god-king that was upheld in the city of Sumer in example  A group forces members of another group to subject themselves to their rules. This was observed among the Mayans, as conflict over access to rivers resulted in the subjugation of one group by another. The father essentially is the leader of the first political unit, which grew as the number of the members od his family grew. This is true for highly patriarchal, male-dominated societies.  The creation of a state was a mutual agreement between the rules and the rules to ensure order and security from outside threats.  Humans have an innate need to be part of a community. The Greek Philosopher Aristotle described humans as “political animals,” as it is their nature to indulge in politics  It is believed that an Athenian statesman named Cleisthene proposed demokratia as a political ideology that aimed at dispersing power from the monopoly of the elites to the masses.  The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) is the primary transnational entity that manages and negotiates matters relating to human heritage. Tangible heritage could be divided into two categories: movable and immovable.