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Chapter 1 - Worlds Together Worlds Apart
World History (HIST2A)
University of California Santa Barbara
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Professor Digeser
History 2A
Spring - 2020
CHAPTER 1: BECOMING HUMAN
Introduction:
➔ Homo sapiens, or modern humans, originated in a small region of Africa about 200,000 years ago and migrated out of Africa less than 100,000 years ago. ‘‘We are all Africans’’.
● Out of Africa Thesis; thesis which contends that modern humans are descendants of recent migrants out of Africa
● However, there are doubters and do not agree with the thesis; they believe that as the early dispersed geographical settings, they took on diverse personality traits and distinctive physical appearances, with the result that they appear today as different races.
● But now it is becoming clear that all humans share a common heritage, and our differences are not genetic or crudely physical, but mainly cultural.
● Most of the common traits of humans evolved over many millennia and crystallized on the eve of the exodus from Africa.
● The differences in humankind’s cultures are less than 15,000 or 20,000 years old.
➔ Hominins preceded humans; humans came from only one stock of migrants out of Africa.
◆ As they fanned out across the world, our ancestors adapted to environmental constraints and opportunities.
◆ They created languages, families, and clan systems, (often innovating to defend themselves against predators).
◆ One of the biggest breakthroughs was the domestication of animals and plants-- the creation of agrarian settlements. Humans began producing their own food and stopped following it.
➔ Evolution vs Modern Humans
● Evolution: is the process by which the different species adapt in response to their often changing environments in ways that enable them to survive and increase in number; adaptation to environmental surroundings.
● Transformative changes were often brought by dramatic alterations in climate and by ruptures of the earth’s crust caused by the movement of tectonic plates below the earth’s surface.
● The changes in the rotation of the earth around the sun caused radical climate variation.
● Climate change has been dramatic and radical over time.
○ There were times when glaciation reached all the way to the equator, while other times the climate was so warm that dinosaurs flourished in antarctica and ferns grew in the canadian arctic.
● The term modern humans refers to members of the various homo sapiens subspecies that evolved about 200,000 years ago (in relative terms to life of the universe & earliest hominins).
● Humans evolved in varying environments, passed through successive waves of migration, adaptation, and innovation.
I. Precursors to Modern Humans
➔ Creation Narratives
● Creation narrative: various accounts of the creation of the universe and humankind’s place in it, conceived by virtually all peoples.
● Creation narratives have varied over time and across cultures.
● Example: only 350 years ago, english clerics claimed on the basis of biblical calculations and christian tradition that the first day of creation was Sunday, October 23, 4004 BCE.
forms of life on earth, & the decisive role that changes in climate have played in the evolution of living forms.
○ These scholars of ancient cultures whose information comes mainly from non-literary sources such as fossils, monuments, & artifacts.
➔ Early Hominins & Adaptation
● In his Descent of Man (1871), Darwin predicted that Africa was the likely birthplace of humanity.
● In 1924, an Australian anatomist at the Witwatersrand University Medical School, named Raymond Dart discovered a skull and bones that appeared to be human and partly ape
○ He labelled it the Southern Ape of Africa, or Australopithecus africanus
○ Believed that the creature was an extinct race of apes intermediate between living anthropoids (apes) and man
○ This individual had a brain capacity of approximately 1 pint or a little less than ⅓ that of a modern man
○ Australopithecines: Hominins species that appeared 3 million years ago and unlike other animals, walked on two legs. Although not humans, they carried the genetic and biological material out of which modern humans would later emerge.
○ Colleagues & mentors disagreed with him, so he ended his research.
○ Robert Brown, a Scottish doctor, discovered other fossils and in 1946 published a book with Dart, The South African Fossil Ape-Men:The Australopithecine (this book convinced doubters).
○ Australopithecines, over many million years in Africa, developed into more than six species.
- Species: a group of animals or plants possessing one or more distinctive characteristics ◆ Lucy
● In 1974, an archeological team working at a site in present-day Ethiopia unearthed a relatively intact skeleton of a young adult female australopithecine in the valley of the Awash River
○ Named the skeleton based on the popular Beatles song ‘Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds”
○ Stood a little over 3 ft tall, walked upright, skull contained a brain within the ape size range, and her jaw and teeth were human-like; her arms were long, legs were short --she was probably a skilled tree climber, might not have been two-footed at all times,
○ Skeleton was half a million years older than any other complete hominid skeleton found
◆ Adaptation
● The places were researchers found early hominin remains in southern and eastern africa were characterized by drastic changes in the earth’s climate, with regions going from being heavily forested and well watered to being arid and desert-like and then back again
● Survival required constant adaptation (the ability to alter behavior and to innovate) and finding new ways of doing things.
● Hominins also had opposable thumbs; another trait that helped them survive
○ Gave them great physical dexterity, enhancing their ability to explore and to alter materials found in nature--especially to create & use tools
● Hominins also used increased powers of observation & memory; cognitive skills which they used to gather food & to hunt for meat
○ These skills were also used for problem solving & much later, language too
● Early hominins were highly social; they lived in bands of about 25
● Survived by hunting small game & gathering wild plants; also by finding safe hiding places
○ They sought ecological niches where a diverse supply of wild grains & fruits & abundant wildlife ensured a secure, comfortable existence.
● Hominins communicated through gestures, and might have established a form of spoken language that led to the establishment of rules of conduct, customs, & identities.
● Early hominins lived this way for more than 4 million years
○ Their survival was surprising; there were not many of them and they struggled in hostile environments surrounded by a diversity of large mammals, including predators such as lions.
○ Over this 4 million year period, their brains more than doubled in size; their foreheads became more elongated; their jaws became less massive; & they began to look much more like modern humans
● Adaptation to environmental changes also led to new skills & aptitudes-- this expanded the ability to store & analyze information
● With larger brains, hominins could form a mental map of their world; larger groups of hominins created communities with a shared understanding of environment
◆ Diversity
● Hominins were much older and much more diverse than we thought
● Researchers discovered bone remains of a chimpanzee-sized hominin named Orrorin tugenensis, that walked upright on two-feet
○ They had teeth closer to modern humans but arms & hands for tree climbing which seemed more apelike
● Researchers found a skeleton (named it Homo naledi) with upper body parts that resembled that of the early pre-Homo finds, while hands, palms, & wrists, the long legs & feet, are similar to those of modern humans; but brains were small so they were probably part of the australopithecine group
○ Maturation & brain growth required mothers to spend years breast-feeding & prepping food for children after their weaning
◆ Use of Fire
● Homo erectus began to make rudimentary attempts to control their environment by means of fire -- another significant marker in the development of human culture.
● It was also powerful, for here was a source of energy that humans could extinguish & revive at will. Because they were able to boil, steam, & fry wild plants, early humans could expand diets.
◆ Early Migrations
● Homo erectus individuals first migrated to Southwest Asia, then along the Indian Ocean shoreline, moving into South Asia & Southeast Asia and later northward (China); from East Asia to Japan, as well as from New Guinea to Australia; Europe was last place occupied in Afro-Eurasia
Chapter 1 - Worlds Together Worlds Apart
Course: World History (HIST2A)
University: University of California Santa Barbara
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