What does it mean to be “Human?”

Human Origins: Our Distant Past

Mary & Louis Leakey

Olduvai Gorge: The Cradle of Mankind

•Northern Tanzania

•30 miles long

•295 ft deep

•5.3 Million years ago

Laetoli Fossil Footprints

•3.6 million years old

•Earliest evidence of bipedal walking

Donald Johanson: “Lucy”

The Early Hominids

Australopithecine

• Means, “Southern Ape”

• Appeared in Africa 4-5 million years ago

• Stood upright and walked on two legs

• Brain: 1/3 size of modern human

Homo Habilis• Means: “Handy Man”

• Appeared in Africa 2.4 million years ago

• Used crude stone tools

• Brain: ½ side of modern humans

Homo Erectus

• Means: “upright man”

• Appeared: 2-1.5 million years ago

• Early stone tools (i.e., hand axe)

• Learned to control fire

• Migrated out of Africa

Homo Sapiens

• Means, “Wise Man”

• Appeared in Africa about 200,000 years ago

• Migrated around the world

• Wide range of tools

• Created fire

• Developed language

Homo Neanderthalensis vs. Homo sapiens

Out of Africa: Migrations of Homo sapiens

Possible coastal routes of human migration

Possible landward routes of human migration

Human Origins200,000-250,000

years ago

Southwest Asia100,000 years ago

Australiaas many as 60,000

years ago

Europe40,000 years ago

Siberia40,000 years ago

North America12,000-30,000

years ago

Migrations in Oceania

Oceania1600 B.C.E.-500 C.E.

Chile12,000-13 ,000

years ago

Paleolithic People: Culture Begins

• Nomadic

• Hunter-gatherers

Paleolithic Art and Religion

•Buried the Dead

•Cave Paintings

•Animism: a belief in a spiritual world

Paleolithic Technology• Crude chipped

stones

• Over time, better tools were developed– More refined– More specialized

What does it mean to be “Human?”