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Human Cultural Evolution

What is cultural evolution?

• The term given to long term changes that arose because ideas and behaviours that were learned were passed on to offspring.

• Therefore, cultural evolution can be defined as a non-genetic means of adaptation. It further enhanced the success of early humans.

•NCEA definition:

• Evolution of learned behaviour / ideas / beliefs / abstract thought / knowledge between generations (not within a generation).

Key factors in human cultural evolution:

• 1) Capability of brain related to brain size

• 2) Making and use of tools

• 3) Fire

• 4) Agriculture and domestication of animals

1) The development of Intelligence

• Read through Page 375.

• Do page 375 & 376.

Key points with the development of intelligence

1. Brain size relative to body size is the key to intelligence. For example, whales have bigger brains than humans but are less intelligent.

2. In modern humans 2 areas of the brain (cerebral cortex) have become highly developed:

a) Broca’s area – this is concerned with speech. It controls the muscles of the jaw, lips, tongue, soft palate and vocal chords during speech.

a) Wernicke’s area – this is concerned with language of comprehension and the ability to listen.

2) Toolmaking

• A tool is defined as something made or modified, typically hand-held, to carry out a particular function.

• Keywords to include in your answers:• Number of strikes Stone efficiency • Flakes removed • Uses• Cutting faces• Shape• Planning

What distinguishes tools made by humans and those made by animals

such as chimpanzees?

• Only humans use tools to make other tools and only humans used tools that left an archaeological record. No other animals shaped rocks into tools.

• The use of tools to enter new environments meant humans became less and less effected by biological evolution.

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Use of tools (stone, wood, bone)H. habilis (and maybe later australopithecines

spp) used Oldawan tools

Simple tools that enabled tasks such as cutting and grinding.

They were used to work wood, cut meat and cut reeds.

One-sided pebbles with very few flakes taken off.

Described as choppers, scrapers and pounders.

Only had one cutting face.

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H. erectus used Acheulean toolsStone tools that have been worked all over with

many flakes being struck off a central core.

Tear drop shaped

Worked on both sides to have two cutting faces, this shows more planning and development.

Most common tool was the hand-axe.

May have attached to Bone/wood but no evidence so can’t be assumed.

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H. neanderthalensis – Mousterian tools

Selected particular stone types e.g. flint.

Developed a sophisticated method of removing large thin and very sharp flakes off a central core.

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Developed a wide range of tools for specialised tasks but only seem to have used stone (and wood).

These enabled them to take advantage of a wider range of food and all parts of a carcass.

Also enabled them to produce shelter, clothes etc

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H sapiens used Upper Palaeolithic tools which were superior to those of Neanderthals.

Besides stone and wood, they used bone and antler.

Stone was used even more economically with many more blows required to make them.

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They were able to get more tools from each kilogram of stone.

242 left = M Paleo; 3 right = U Paleo

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U Palaeolithic Borer

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U Palaeolithic Saw

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U Palaeolithic Saw

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Fire

H. erectus was the first to have controlled use of fire with these benefits:

• Provided warmth enabling colonisation of colder areas

• Providing light to extend working day

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• Improving the taste and digestibility of food, killing parasites and destroying plant toxins (beans).

• Repel dangerous animals

• Stampede game into traps

They probably only maintained naturally started fires.

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H sapiens were able to start fire artificially using ‘firestone’ – pyrite when struck with flint produces a spark hot enough to ignite tinder.

They could also build fires with air channels that made fires hot enough to burn bones.

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NCEA 2007

There is evidence that Homo erectus used fire.

(a) Explain two benefits to Homo erectus of using fire.

QAchievement Achievement with Merit

Two(a)

Identifies TWO uses of fire

warmth defence  cook foodprovide light at night herding animals (not hunting)making tools.

NOT just “able to surviveNOT just ‘activities’ or ‘socialisingNOT easier to eatBenefits of using fire (TWO) at night/in colder areasanti-predator defences eg. fire scares away predators easier to digest/destroy parasites/access greater range of food / more palatable / preserve food for toolmaking/preparing food / planningto get more foodharden points of wooden tools / weapons.

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Food-gathering

H. habilis ate plant material when available and probably supplemented this by scavenging meat.

H erectus seems to have hunted cooperatively using fire to stampede animals into traps

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Considerable cooperation and organisational ability would be required to hunt elephants regularly.

H sapiens were skilled hunters – several large mammal species became extinct at the same time as modern humans were on the rise.

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Shelter and Clothing

By about 13 000ya H sapiens had spread to almost all parts of the world. Small groups tended to move with the seasons to optimise their food resources. They may have had a series of home bases.

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The earliest shelters were probably natural ones, such as caves, overhangs and large trees. Creating artificial shelters allowed flexibility in where they were located. Clothing enhanced their ability to withstand cold.

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Range of Neanderthals

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Abstract thought (communication, language,

art, spirituality)

This enables them to communicate which in turn leads to the passing on of ideas, co-operation, etc.

So hominids could use abstract thought to solve problems and avoid selection pressures.

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Neanderthals and modern humans developed activities beyond satisfying the needs of immediate survival.

Evidence of this is found in the burying of the dead with certain items such as food, flowers, beads, clothes and tools.

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This suggests a belief in the after-life.

They also had musical instruments (e.g. a 40 000 year old whistle was found with Neanderthal tools), made cave paintings (maybe to bring luck to their hunting) and made clay statues (maybe as fertility charms).

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A gifted artist sculpted this female image from mammoth ivory 26,000 years ago, exaggerating the breasts on which both arms originally rested. Our cast is a restored version of the original, which was damaged during excavation in France. The artist lived during an explosively creative period in human evolution--between 50,000 and 25,000 years ago--when art and symbolic behaviour proliferated.

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A Neanderthal tomb burial from La Chapelle aux Saints,France, dating from about50,000 years ago(Anthropological Institute,Turin, Italy). The extremeinfirmities of the skeleton of an old man found at La Chapelle suggest that he was cared for by other members of his clan, or he would not have survived as long as he did. Such discoveries helped to change the original perception of Neanderthals as being brutish and ape-like

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A 25 000 year old bone whistle

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A 43 000 - 82 000 year old flute

The notes on the Neanderthal flute are consistent with 4 notes of the minor diatonic scale (flatted 3rd and flatted 6th included). All the notes, even in the lesser match #1, are still within the general pitch range able to be considered as notes within the diatonic scale.

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Hole pattern matches modern flute for Do, Re, Mi

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Neanderthal cave art

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Archaic Homo sapiens cave art

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Dispersal of modern hominids

Two main hypotheses exist:

• The Multiregional Hypothesis

• The Replacement (or ‘Out of Africa’) Hypothesis

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The Multiregional Hypothesis suggests that H erectus migrated from Africa about 1mya and formed additional populations in Europe and Asia. Parallel evolution occurred and they all became H sapiens with regional differences.

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The ‘Out of Africa’ Hypothesis suggests that H erectus migrated from Africa about 1mya and formed additional populations in Europe and Asia. Only the African population evolved into H sapiens and again migrated into Europe and Asia replacing H erectus as they went.

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Out Of Africa Hypothesis

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Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) is only inherited from ones mother. After 10 generations a person only has mtDNA from 1 person out of 210!

The only source of variation in mtDNA is by mutation.

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mtDNA mutates 10 times faster than nuclear DNA so is useful for studying short-term evolutionary change.

By comparing mtDNA there was found to be 147 kinds. As expected, closely related people had similar mtDNA.

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Therefore an evolutionary tree could be constructed which showed two main branches; the African and everyone else.

This suggests two main groups; those who stayed in Africa and those who left.

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By knowing how quickly mtDNA mutates it is possible to date the split at about 200 000ya (or 10 000 generations ago).

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mtDNA analysis suggests that we evolved in Africa.

Modern humans are very similar genetically, more so than chimpanzees. This opposes parallel evolution which should produce greater genetic variation.

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Genetic and fossil evidence seems to support the replacement hypothesis.

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Domestication of animals.

The first domesticated animal was in S E Asia with the dog about 12 000ya followed by pigs and goats about 10 000ya.

The people were initially nomadic and may have followed migratory animals.

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From this they may have become nomadic herdspeople before eventually settling down to temporary and finally permanent settlements.

Advantages of domesticating animals:

• A steady supply of milk or hair for food or materials.

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• A herd or flock does not decay, they act as a ‘living larder’.

• They can be killed at the optimum age.

• Could be used to carry and lift heavy loads.

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Disadvantages of domesticating animals:

• Many human diseases originated in animals (c.f. avian flu).

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Domestication of plants.

Plants were harvested as early as 20 000ya though they weren’t domesticated until barley and wheat were grown about 10 000ya.

This coincided with a change in dry climate (small ice age) which limited grain supply.

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Advantages of domesticating plants:

• It was possible to produce surplus food to be stored or traded

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Harvesting crops planted months earlier would have lead to larger and more permanent dwellings.

Being settled means they could acquire more than they could carry and develop specialised tools including pottery.

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Having a food surplus meant that not everyone was needed for food production and division of labour resulted. Tradespeople became expert in their area and could develop their technology faster.

They could trade food to other tribes for tools, clothes etc.

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Disadvantages of domesticating plants:

• Dependency on good weather. If crop failed your family starved!

• Competition with herbivores at all stages of production (growing and storing).

• Monocultures are vulnerable to disease.

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• Developing a sense of ownership and competition with other tribes for territory.

• Being settled would increase the incidence of disease and cause problems with waste disposal.