Understanding

Culture, Society and

Politics
 LESSON 1: Human
Evolution and Culture
CULTURE
Culture is defined as “the complex whole
which encompasses beliefs, practices, values,
attitudes, laws, norms, artifacts, symbols,
knowledge, and everything that a person
learns and shares as a member of the
society” (Tylor, 2010)
Biological Capacity
for Culture
Our Thinking Capacity

- The primary
biological component
of humans that
allowed for culture is
the developed brain.
Our Speaking Capacity

- The vocal tract acts as

the mechanism by
which sounds are
produced and
reproduced to transmit
ideas and values
Dan Dediu
-- from Max Planck Institute
for Psycholinguistics,
Netherlands
-- argued that language may
be rooted as far as 500 000
years ago based on the
discovered bone fragment
from an ancestor known as
Homo Heidelbergensis.
Homo heidelbergensis

This fossil has a

hyoid bone which is
crucial for speaking
as it supports the
root of the tongue.
Homo neanderthalensis

Our nearest relative, was also

found to have the same bone,
which functions similarly as ours.
Our Gripping Capacity

- The hand of a human

has digits (fingers) that
are straight, as
compared with the
curved ones of the other
primates.
TYPES OF GRIP
● Power grip – enabled
humans to wrap the
thumb and fingers on an
object.
● Precision grip – enabled
humans to hold and pick
objects steadily using
their fingers.
Our Walking and Standing Capacity

Bipedalism – capacity to
walk and stand on two feet
Quadropedalism – uses all
four limbs
Human Origins and the
Capacity for Culture
Australopithecines
1. Oldowan Industry
Hammer
-A stone tool industry; stone
Core
characterized by the stone

use of “hard water-worn Flakes

creek cobbles made out
of volcanic rock”
(O’Neil, 2012)
Mary and Louis Leakey
Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania

They found an evidence to

support the existence of
the Oldowan industry at
Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania
which was dated at 2.6
million years ago.
Homo habilis
OLDOWAN INDUSTRY

AFRICA
EUROPE
ASIA

JAVA, INDONESIA
NORTHERN CHINA
2. Acheulian Industry
– This industry was named
after Saint Acheul, a patron
saint in southwest France,
as these artifacts were
discovered in the area; a
more complex industry.
Church of Saint Acheul
Homo erectus

Homo erectus
created hand axes
that were bifacial,
shaped in both sides,
and with straighter
and sharper edges
2. Acheulian Industry
USAGE
● Light chopping of wood
● Digging up roots and bulbs
● Butchering animals
● Cracking nuts and small
bones
KINDS
● Chopper, Cleavers and
hammers, flakes as knives
and scrapers
3. Mousterian Industry
- Developed by Homo
neanderthalensis in
Europe and West Asia.
This industry was named
after a site in France
called Le Moustier, where
evidence was uncovered
in 1860.
●The tools were combined
Acheulian industry techniques
with the Levalloisian technique
● Used of a premade core tool
● Extraction of a flake tool
● All sides are sharpened
● Reduced size
● More handy
 The differences of the tools are primarily due to the
shifting needs of the users who were adapting to their
environment.
 By the end of the Paleolithic period, early
humans have been engaged in proto-culture type
of industries wherein they did not just create
tools but also started creating art and other
symbolic materials.
4. Aurignacian Industry

●Mainly present in Europe and southwest Asia

from 45 000 to 35 000 years ago.
●The term Aurignacian was derived from
Aurignac, an area in France where the evidence
of this industry was found.
 Users of this industry used raw materials such
as flint, animal bones, and antlers.
●More advanced tool making industry
●Development of self-awareness
●Cave paintings and the fabrication of
accessories such as figurines, bracelets, and
beads.
 Cave paintings found in
El Castillo Cave, Cantabaria
Animal-themed figurines
Venus of Hohle Fels
Hohle Fels bone flute
4. Magdalenian Industry

● Developed at the end of the Paleolithic period

as it transformed to the Neolithic period;
● Named after the La Madeleine site in
Dordogne, France.
● Advancements in technology such as the
creation of microliths from flint, bone, antler,
and ivory.
●They were engrossed
in creating figurines,
personal adornments,
and other forms of
mobility art.
●Application of heat on
the material prior to the
BARBED HARPOONS
flaking process.
● The use of temporary man-made shelters such
as tents made of animal skin.
● It allowed the early humans to be more mobile.
● Great Britain, Germany, Spain and Poland
Processes of Cultural
and Sociopolitical
Evolution
 The Neolithic Revolution

Major shift in economic subsistence of the early humans from

foraging to agriculture
Characteristics Paleolithic Neolithic
Included a wider array
Small and handy for of small and bigger
Tools mobile lifestyle tools due to sedentary
lifestyle
Limited to personal
Included structures,
Personal accessories and small
decorative ornaments,
properties tools that could easily be
large containers
carried around
Small and limited to Included the creation of
personal ornaments, artworks that required a
Art bigger, artworks were longer length of time
done but not within a long and a greater number of
time frame people
Characteristics Paleolithic Neolithic
Subsistence Foraging Agriculture

Semi rigid; based on

Not rigid; based on
Leadership legitimacy (religious
age and knowledge
beliefs, social status)

None; communal Elite vs. working

Social divisions
lifestyle class

Popular size Small (30-50 people) Large (in thousands)