From tree-dwelling primate to genus Homo

1. From tree-dwelling primateto genus Homo The emergence of the first human beings

2. Overview of the lecture • The dwindling forest habitat • The earliest ground dwelling Hominids • Evolution of the foot: Bipedal locomotion • Evolution of the hand: Tool use • Evolving brain: path to language and culture • Homo erectus • Homo sapiens.

3. The dwindlng forest habitat • Impact of climate change • Retreat to the tree at night: chimps. • Full-time life on the ground: Australopithecus • Requirements for life on the dangerous ground. • Improved tool use. • Stronger social organization • Group communication

4. Bipedal locomotion and tool use • Why not return to quadruped movement? • Need to carry tools and food. • Need to see on the grassy savannah. • “Natural selection”: Differential mortality

5. Key evolutionary process:Evolution of the human brain • Increase in brain / body size. • Restructuring of the brain.

6. Cross section of the human brain

7. The localization of cerebral functions

8. Impact on females and childbirth • The dilemma of painful childbirth. • Prolonged childhood dependence • The antecedents to human family and marriage.

9. From biological to cultural evolution • From genetically programmed to learned behavior. • The emergence of a cultural mode of survival. • The relation between “culture” and “intelligence” • Biological evolution and racial differences.

10. Homo erectus and migration to China • African origins of the genus Homo. • Homo erectus: 100% increase in brain size • The Homo erectus tool kit • Homo erectus and long distance migration.

11. Peking Man北京猿人Běijīng Yuánrén

12. Peking man •  Found at Zhoukoudian near Beijing in 1920s. • Goes back as far as 770,000 years. • Began with a tooth.   Later excavations yielded • skullcaps • jawbones, • facial and limb bones, • the teeth of about 40 individuals • Average cranial capacity: 1,000 cc. • Special features: first documented use of fire. • The disappearance of the fossils.

13. The emergence of modern humans • The increased brain: from 800 to 1,250 cc. • From core tools to flake tools • The Neanderthal question. • Cro-Magnons, hunting, and long-distance running. • The Cro-Magnon cave paintings

14. The evolutionary sequence to Homo sapiens

15. Altamira cave bison

16. Cave painting hunting scene

17. Dancing shaman

18. The question of language origins • No direct evidence in the fossil record. • Homo erectus and the theory of “proto language” • Cro-magnons almost certainly had language

19. “Stone age” technologies • Paleolithic big game hunting. • Mesolothic: hunting / gathering • Neolithic: the transition to agriculture

20. Disappearance of big game hunters • Impact of climate change. • Retreat of the animals. • Migration to the Americas • “Paleolithic overkill”: • Emergence of the “Mesolithic”

21. From Paleolithic to Mesolithic • Paleolithic economies disappeared millennia ago. • Definition of “Paleolithic” and “Mesolithic” • Cultural anthropologists have studied groups using Mesolithic technology: hunting and gathering. • Examples: • Inuit (Eskimo) • Bushmen of the Kalahari Desert • Australian aborigines • Pygmies of Central Africa

22. Ethnographic Strategy: Participant observation • “Holistic” description as the first task. • Search for universal components of human cultures. • Economic base: making a living. • Kinship and marriage. • The raising of children. • Expressive dimensions of culture: music, art, etc. • Power and conflict resolution • Healing of illness. • Disposal of the dead • Religion: dealing with invisible spirits.

23. Hunter-gatherer features • Economy: hunting wild animals, gathering vegetation. • Long distance running. • Occupational specialization only by age and gender. • Monogamous egalitarian gender relations. • Domestic economy: Sharing of meat. • Social organization: Nomadic bands. • Much leisure time. • Relgion: zoomorphic spirits.