The Paleolithic Age: 95%

1. The Paleolithic Age: 95% Or we were gatherers and hunters most of our time on planet earth

2. The Origin of Man • Some 5 million to 6 million years ago, our ancestors diverged from African apes and the line leading to chimpanzees • 20 to 30 different species of hominid or humanlike creatures developed • In eastern and southern Africa

3. Bipedalism • All hominids were bipedal • Bipedal = To walk upright on two legs

4. Mary Leakey • In 1976, Mary Leakey uncovered in what is now Tanzania a series of footprints of three such individuals, preserved in the cooling volcanic ash about 3.5 million years ago • Two of the hominids appeared to be holding hands

5. Then something really remarkable • About 2.3 million years ago, one particular hominid’s brain grew larger • Scientists believe this brain growth was due to extreme and rapid climate change that required the ability to adapt • Homo Habilis or “Handy Man” had evolved

6. And then Homo Sapiens • Some 250,000 years ago, Homo sapiens emerged in Africa • And sometime after 100,000 years ago, Homo sapiens began to migrate out of Africa • They eventually settled every habitable region of the world!

7. Paleolithic =The Old Stone Age • 95% of humanity’s time on earth • Food-collecting or gathering and hunting way of life • Refers to food-collecting or gathering and hunting way of life • Foraging societies • Small groups, mobile, nomadic

8. But at the mercy of nature • Inability to store food • Few personal belongings due to nomadism • Did not build permanent settlements

9. But accomplishments too • Development of spoken language • Ability to make simple tools out of stone • Ability to control and use fire • Ability to adapt to a multiplicity of environments

10. Homo sapiens=Wise humans • The Stone Age lasted from 2.5 million years ago to 5,000 or 6,000 years ago • But three phases of the Stone age • Paleolithic • Mesolithic • Neolithic

11. Stone Age Periodization • Paleolithic (“Old Stone Age”) -ending 12,000 years ago and overlapping with the Great, or Pleistocene, Ice Age • Mesolithic (“Middle Stone Age”) -lasting from 12,000 to 10,000 years ago • Neolithic (“New Stone Age”) -beginning around 8000 BCE

12. Greatest Concern • Ensuring a steady and plentiful food supply • Food collectors not food producers

13. Clothing • Earliest clothes: Furs and animal hides • As time passed, learned to use plant fibers • By 26,000 years ago, some Stone Age peoples were weaving cloth and even dyeing it to add color

14. Social Organization • Based on family unit • Extended families clustered together • Extended families formed clans bound by ties of kinship • Clans formed bands and tribes

15. Scarce Resources • Scarce resources led to the practice of nomadism • Moved on to other areas in search of resources

16. Worship • Worshipped many deities • Made sacrifices to gods and spirits • Buried their dead

17. Gender Division of Labor • Assigned by gender • Men = Hunted • Women = Gathered • But men’s roles were not necessarily seen as superior to women’s roles • This division continued after Stone Age and gave rise to long-standing gender inequality that did favor men

18. Essential Question • In what significant ways did the Paleolithic period differ from the world we live in today?