HUMANS AND COLLECTIVE LEARNING 1

THRESHOLD 6 – EARLY HUMANS

LOOKING BACK: WHAT HAPPENED IN THRESHOLD 5?

Threshold 5 focused on the emergence of living things on Earth. During the first 10 billion years in
the history of the Universe, there were no living things. We learned:

 About the conditions required for the emergence of life.

 What similarities exist across all living things.
 How life has changed over time, evolving from simple life forms to complex organisms.
 How life is affected by changes in astronomical, geological, and biological conditions.
 How DNA enables living things to pass adaptations to new generations.

THRESHOLD 6 – EARLY HUMANS

Most of what we know about the origin of humans comes from the research of
paleoanthropologists, scientists who study human fossils. Paleoanthropologists identify the sites where
fossils can be found. They determine the age of fossils and describe the features of the bones and teeth
discovered. Recently, paleoanthropologists have added genetic technology to test their hypotheses. In
this article, we will tell you a little about prehistory, a period of time including pre-humans and humans
and lasting about 10 million years. During the Prehistoric Period, events were not reported in writing.
Most information on prehistory is obtained through studying fossils. Ten to twelve million years ago,
primates divided into two branches, one included species leading to modern (current) humans and the
other branch to the great apes that include gorillas, chimpanzees, bonobos, and orangutans. The branch
leading to modern humans included several different species. When one of these species—known as the
Neanderthals—inhabited Eurasia, they were not alone; Homo sapiens and other Homo species were also
present in this region. All the other species of Homo have gone extinct, with the exception of Homo
sapiens, our species, which gradually colonized the entire planet. About 12,000 years ago, during the
Neolithic Period, some (but not all) populations of H. sapiens passed from a wandering lifestyle of hunting
and gathering to one of sedentary farming, building villages and towns. They developed more complex
social organizations and invented writing. This was the end of prehistory and the beginning of history.

Table 6.1 SUMMARY OF THRESHOLD 6 – EARLY HUMANS

GOLDILOCKS EMERGENT
THRESHOLD INGREDIENTS STRUCTURE
CONDITION PROPERTIES

Collective
Long
Learning, i.e.,
preceding
capacity to share
period of
Same as all life + information
Highly specific evolution
highly developed precisely and
biological generating
EARLY HUMANS manipulative, rapidly so that
structures highly
perceptive, and information
governed by developed
neurological accumulates at
human DNA. manipulative,
capacity. the level of the
perceptive,
community and
and
species giving rise
neurological
to long-term
capacity.
historical change.

Suggested Video

Threshold 6: Humans and Collective Learning | Big History Project

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ppIzSaP2jWI

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6.1 A BRIEF ACCOUNT OF HUMAN EVOLUTION

What is human evolution?

Human evolution is the lengthy process of change by which people originated from apelike
ancestors. Scientific evidence shows that the physical and behavioral traits shared by all people originated
from apelike ancestors and evolved over a period of approximately six million years.

One of the earliest defining human traits, bipedalism -- the ability to walk on two legs -- evolved
over 4 million years ago. Other important human characteristics -- such as a large and complex brain, the
ability to make and use tools, and the capacity for language -- developed more recently. Many advanced
traits -- including complex symbolic expression, art, and elaborate cultural diversity -- emerged mainly
during the past 100,000 years.

Humans are primates. Physical and genetic similarities show that the modern human species,
Homo sapiens, has a very close relationship to another group of primate species, the apes. Humans and
the great apes (large apes) of Africa -- chimpanzees (including bonobos, or so-called “pygmy
chimpanzees”) and gorillas -- share a common ancestor that lived between 8 and 6 million years ago.
Humans first evolved in Africa, and much of human evolution occurred on that continent. The fossils of
early humans who lived between 6 and 2 million years ago come entirely from Africa.

Most scientists currently recognize some 15 to 20 different species of early humans. Scientists do
not all agree, however, about how these species are related or which ones simply died out. Many early
human species -- certainly the majority of them – left no living descendants. Scientists also debate over
how to identify and classify particular species of early humans, and about what factors influenced the
evolution and extinction of each species.

Early humans first migrated out of Africa into Asia probably between 2 million and 1.8 million
years ago. They entered Europe somewhat later, between 1.5 million and 1 million years. Species of
modern humans populated many parts of the world much later. For instance, people first came to
Australia probably within the past 60,000 years and to the Americas within the past 30,000 years or so.
The beginnings of agriculture and the rise of the first civilizations occurred within the past 12,000 years.

Paleoanthropology

Paleoanthropology is the scientific study of human evolution. Paleoanthropology is a subfield of

anthropology, the study of human culture, society, and biology. The field involves an understanding of the
similarities and differences between humans and other species in their genes, body form, physiology, and
behavior. Paleoanthropologists search for the roots of human physical traits and behavior. They seek to
discover how evolution has shaped the potentials, tendencies, and limitations of all people. For many
people, paleoanthropology is an exciting scientific field because it investigates the origin, over millions of
years, of the universal and defining traits of our species. However, some people find the concept of
human evolution troubling because it can seem not to fit with religious and other traditional beliefs about
how people, other living things, and the world came to be. Nevertheless, many people have come to
reconcile their beliefs with the scientific evidence.

Early human fossils and archeological remains offer the most important clues about this ancient
past. These remains include bones, tools and any other evidence (such as footprints, evidence of hearths,
or butchery marks on animal bones) left by earlier people. Usually, the remains were buried and
preserved naturally. They are then found either on the surface (exposed by rain, rivers, and wind erosion)
or by digging in the ground. By studying fossilized bones, scientists learn about the physical appearance of
earlier humans and how it changed. Bone size, shape, and markings left by muscles tell us how those
predecessors moved around, held tools, and how the size of their brains changed over a long time.
Archeological evidence refers to the things earlier people made and the places where scientists find
them. By studying this type of evidence, archeologists can understand how early humans made and used
tools and lived in their environments.

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How did humans evolve?

Primates, like humans, are mammals. Around ten to twelve million years ago, the ancestral
primate lineage split through speciation from one common ancestor into two major groups. These two
lineages evolved separately to become the variety of species we see today. Members of one group were
the early version of what we know today as the great apes (gorillas, chimpanzees, and bonobos in Africa,
orangutans in Asia) (Figures 6.1 and 6.2); that is, the modern great apes evolved from this ancestral group.
They mostly remained in forest with an arboreal lifestyle, meaning they live in trees. Great apes are also
quadrupeds which means they move around with four legs on the ground (see Figure 2). The other group
evolved in a different way. They became terrestrial, meaning they live on land and not in trees. From
being quadrupeds they evolved to bipeds, meaning they move around on their two back legs. In addition
the size of their brain increased. This is the group that, through evolution, gave rise to the modern current
humans. Many fossils found in Africa are from the genus named Australopithecus (which means
southern ape). This genus is extinct, but fossil studies revealed interesting features about their adaptation

Speciation: The formation of new and distinct species in the course of evolution.

Genus: In the classification of biology, a genus is a subdivision of a family. This subdivision is a grouping of
living organisms having one or more related similarities. In the binomial nomenclature, the universally used
scientific name of each organism is composed of its genus (capitalized) and a species identifier (lower case),
for example Australopithecus afarensis, Homo sapiens.

toward a terrestrial lifestyle.

Figure 6.1. Evolutionary

scheme, showing that
Chimpanzees (or other
apes) didn’t evolve into
humans. Both lineages
descended from a common
ancestor and went their
separate ways.

Figure 6.2. Great Apes in

nature. (right) Arboreal (in
trees) locomotion of
orangutans and (left) the
quadrupedal (four-foot)
locomotion of gorillas and
chimpanzees. Figure 6.1

Figure 6.2

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In Ethiopia (East Africa) there is a site called Hadar, where several fossils of different animal
species were found. Among those fossils was Australopithecus afarensis. In 1974, paleoanthropologists
found an almost complete skeleton of one specimen of this species and named it Lucy, from The Beatles
song “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.” The whole world found out about Lucy and she was in every
newspaper: she became a global celebrity. This small female—only about 1.1 m tall—lived 3.2 million
years ago. Analysis of her femurs (thigh bones) showed that she used terrestrial locomotion. Lucy could
have used arboreal and bipedal locomotion as well, as foot bones of another A. afarensis individual had a
curve similar to that found in the feet of modern humans. Authors of this finding suggested accordingly
that A. afarensis was exclusively bipedal and could have been a hunter-gatherer.

Homo habilis, Homo erectus, and Homo neanderthalensis

Homo is the genus (group of species) that includes modern humans, like us, and our most closely
related extinct ancestors. Organisms that belong to the same species produce viable offspring. The
famous paleoanthropologist named Louis Leakey, along with his team, discovered Homo habilis (meaning
handy man) in 1964. Homo habilis was the most ancient species of Homo ever found. Homo habilis
appeared in Tanzania (East Africa) over 2.8 million years ago, and 1.5 million years ago became exinct.
They were estimated to be about 1.40 meter tall and were terrestrial. They were different from
Australopithecus because of the form of the skull. The shape was not piriform (pear-shaped), but spheroid
(round), like the head of a modern human. Homo habilis made stone tools, a sign of creativity.

In Asia, in 1891, Eugene Dubois (also a paleoanthropologist) discovered the first fossil of Homo
erectus (meaning upright man), which appeared 1.8 million years ago. This fossil received several names.
The best known are Pithecanthropus (ape-man) and Sinanthropus (Chinese-man). Homo erectus
appeared in East Africa and migrated to Asia, where they carved refined tools from stone. Dubois also
brought some shells of the time of H erectus from Java to Europe. Contemporary scientists studied these
shells and found engravings that dated from 430,000 and 540,000 years ago. They concluded that H.
erectus individuals were able to express themselves using symbols.

Several Homo species emerged following H. erectus and quite a few coexisted for some time. The
best known one is Homo neanderthalensis (Figure 6.3), usually called Neanderthals and they were known
as the European branch originating from two lineages that diverged around 400,000 years ago, with the
second branch (lineage) Homo sapiens known as the African branch. The first Neanderthal fossil, dated
from around 430,000 years ago, was found in La Sima de los Huesos in Spain and is considered to
originate from the common ancestor called Homo heidelbergensis. Neanderthals used many of the
natural resources in their environment: animals, plants, and minerals. Homo neanderthalensis hunted
terrestrial and marine (ocean) animals, requiring a variety of weapons. Tens of thousands of stone tools
from Neanderthal sites are exhibited in many museums. Neanderthals created paintings in the La Pasiega
cave in the South of Spain and decorated their bodies with jewels and colored paint. Graves were found,
which meant they held burial ceremonies.

Figure 6.3 A comparison of the skulls of

Homo sapiens (Human) (left) vs. Homo
neanderthalensis (Neanderthal) (right).

Figure 6.4 A trio of other Homo species, all first appearing in the fossil record around two million years ago.

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Denisovans are a recent addition to the human tree. In 2010, the first specimen was discovered in
the Denisova cave in south-western Siberia. Very little information is known on their behavior. They
deserve further studies due to their interactions with Neandertals and other Homo species.

Homo sapiens

Fossils recently discovered in Morocco (North Africa) have added to the intense debate on the
spread of H. sapiens after they originated 315,000 years ago. The location of these fossils could mean that
Homo sapiens had visited the whole of Africa. In the same way, the scattering of fossils out of Africa
indicated their migrations to various continents. While intensely debated, hypotheses focus on either a
single dispersal or multiple dispersals out of the African continent. Nevertheless, even if the origin of the
migration to Europe is still a matter of debate, it appears that H. sapiens was present in Israel 180,000
years ago. Therefore, it could be that migration to Europe was not directly from Africa but indirectly
through a stay in Israel-Asia. They arrived about 45,000 years ago into Europe where the Neanderthals
were already present. Studies of ancient DNA show that H. sapiens had babies with Neanderthals and
Denisovans. Nowadays people living in Europe and Asia share between 1 and 4% of their DNA with either
Neanderthals or Denisovans.

Several thousand years ago H. sapiens already made art, like for example the wall painting in the
Chauvet cave (36,000 years ago) and the Lascaux cave (19,000 years ago), both in France. The quality of
the paintings shows great artistic ability and intellectual development. Homo sapiens continued to
prospect the Earth. They crossed the Bering Land Bridge, connecting Siberia and Alaska and moved south
12,500 years ago, to what is now called Chile. Homo sapiens gradually colonized our entire planet.

6.2 HOMO SAPIENS AND EARLY HUMAN MIGRATION

Homo sapiens is part of a group called hominids, which were the earliest humanlike creatures.
Based on archaeological and anthropological evidence, we think that hominids diverged from other
primates somewhere between 2.5 and 4 million years ago in eastern and southern Africa. Though there
was a degree of diversity among the hominid family, they all shared the trait of bipedalism, or the ability
to walk upright on two legs.

Evolution

Scientists have several theories about why early hominids evolved. One, the aridity hypothesis,
suggests that early hominids were more suited to dry climates and evolved as the Africa’s dry savannah
regions expanded.

According to the savannah hypothesis, early tree-dwelling hominids may have been pushed out
of their homes as environmental changes caused the forest regions to shrink and the size of the savannah
expand. These changes, according to the savannah hypothesis, may have caused them to adapt to living
on the ground and walking upright instead of climbing.

Hominids continued to evolve and develop unique characteristics. Their brain capacities
increased, and approximately 2.3 million years ago, a hominid known as Homo habilis began to make and
use simple tools. By a million years ago, some hominid species, particularly Homo erectus, began to
migrate out of Africa and into Eurasia, where they began to make other advances like controlling fire.

Though there were once many kinds of hominids, only one remains: Homo sapiens. Extinction is a
normal part of evolution, and scientists continue to theorize why other hominid species didn’t survive. We
do have some clues as to why some species were less successful at surviving than others, such as an
inability to cope with competition for food, changes in climate, and volcanic eruptions.

Neanderthal Extinction

Neanderthals went extinct in Europe around 40,000 years ago, roughly 5,000 to 10,000 years after
first meeting Homo sapiens. There are several theories for their extinction. Around 40,000 years ago, the
climate grew colder, transforming much of Europe and Asia into a vast, treeless steppe. Fossil evidence
shows that Neanderthal prey, including wooly mammoths, may have shifted their range further south,
leaving Neanderthals without their preferred foods.
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Humans, who had a more diverse diet than Neanderthals and long-distance trade networks, may
have been better suited to find food and survive the harsh, new climate. Some scientists believe that
Neanderthals gradually disappeared through interbreeding with humans. Over many generations of
interbreeding, Neanderthals—and small amounts of their DNA—may have been absorbed into the human
race.

Other theories suggest that modern humans brought some kind of disease with them from Africa
for which Neanderthals had no immunity—or, modern humans violently exterminated Neanderthals
when they crossed paths, though there’s no archeological evidence that humans killed off Neanderthals.

Migration and the Peopling of the Earth

Between 70,000 and 100,000 years ago, Homo sapiens began migrating from the African
continent and populating parts of Europe and Asia. They reached the Australian continent in canoes
sometime between 35,000 and 65,000 years ago. Scientists studying land masses and climate know that
the Pleistocene Ice Age created a land bridge that connected Asia and North America (Alaska) over 13,000
years ago. A widely accepted migration theory is that people crossed this land bridge and eventually
migrated into North and South America.

How were our ancestors able to achieve this feat, and why did they make the decision to leave
their homes? The development of language around 50,000 years ago allowed people to make plans, solve
problems, and organize effectively. We can’t be sure of the exact reasons humans first migrated off of the
African continent, but it was likely correlated with a depletion of resources (like food) in their regions and
competition for those resources. Once humans were able to communicate these concerns and make
plans, they could assess together whether the pressures in their current home outweighed the risk of
leaving to find a new one.

Figure 6.5 Spread of Homo sapiens

Adaptation and effects on nature

When humans migrated from Africa to colder climates, they made clothing out of animal skins
and constructed fires to keep themselves warm; often, they burned fires continuously through the winter.
Sophisticated weapons, such as spears and bows and arrows, allowed them to kill large mammals
efficiently. Along with changing climates, these hunting methods contributed to the extinction of giant
land mammals such as mammoths, giant kangaroos, and mastodons. Fewer giant mammals, in turn,
limited hunters’ available prey. In addition to hunting animals and killing them out of self-defense,
humans began to use the earth’s resources in new ways when they constructed semi-permanent
settlements. Humans started shifting from nomadic lifestyles to fixed homes, using the natural resources
there. Semi-permanent settlements would be the building-blocks of established communities and the
development of agricultural practices.

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Figure 6.6 Hominin Family Tree

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Suggested Videos

Human Origins 101 | National Geographic

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ehV-MmuvVMU

The Humans That Lived Before Us

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ANNQKKwWGk

Neanderthals 101 | National Geographic

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMc81qpCQ3g

Denisovans: Our Mysterious Cousins That Made Us Better

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytktpNIN3OM

When We Took Over the World

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xmboVmtqNJc

Human Prehistory 101 (Part 1 of 3): Out of (Eastern) Africa

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8183HPmA2_I

Human Prehistory 101 (Part 2 of 3): Weathering The Storm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9Nw66RCMhg

Human Prehistory 101 (Part 3 of 3): Agriculture Rocks Our World

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IVHD9wGlbho

6.3 THE PREHISTORIC AGES: HOW HUMANS LIVED BEFORE WRITTEN RECORDS

Earth’s beginnings can be traced back 4.5 billion years, but human evolution only counts for a tiny
speck of its history. The Prehistoric Period—or when there was human life before records documented
human activity—roughly dates from 2.5 million years ago to 1,200 B.C. It is generally categorized in three
archaeological periods: the Stone Age, Bronze Age and Iron Age.

From the invention of tools made for hunting to advances in food production and agriculture to
early examples of art and religion, this enormous time span—ending roughly 3,200 years ago (dates vary
upon region)—was a period of great transformation.

The Stone Age

Divided into three periods: Paleolithic (or Old Stone Age), Mesolithic (or Middle Stone Age), and
Neolithic (or New Stone Age), this era is marked by the use of tools by our early human ancestors (who
evolved around 300,000 B.C.) and the eventual transformation from a culture of hunting and gathering to
farming and food production. During this era, early humans shared the planet with a number of now-
extinct hominin relatives, including Neanderthals and Denisovans.

In the Paleolithic period (roughly 2.5 million years ago to 10,000 B.C.), early humans lived in caves
or simple huts or tepees and were hunters and gatherers. They used basic stone and bone tools, as well as
crude stone axes, for hunting birds and wild animals. They cooked their prey, including woolly mammoths,
deer and bison, using controlled fire. They also fished and collected berries, fruit and nuts.

Ancient humans in the Paleolithic period were also the first to leave behind art. They used
combinations of minerals, ochres, burnt bone meal and charcoal mixed into water, blood, animal fats and
tree saps to etch humans, animals and signs. They also carved small figurines from stones, clay, bones and
antlers.

The end of this period marked the end of the last Ice Age, which resulted in the extinction of
many large mammals and rising sea levels and climate change that eventually caused man to migrate.

During the Mesolithic period (about 10,000 B.C. to 8,000 B.C.), humans used small stone tools,
now also polished and sometimes crafted with points and attached to antlers, bone or wood to serve as
spears and arrows. They often lived nomadically in camps near rivers and other bodies of water.
Agriculture was introduced during this time, which led to more permanent settlements in villages

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Finally, during the Neolithic period (roughly 8,000 B.C. to 3,000 B.C.), ancient humans switched
from hunter/gatherer mode to agriculture and food production. They domesticated animals and
cultivated cereal grains. They used polished hand axes, adzes for ploughing and tilling the land and started
to settle in the plains. Advancements were made not only in tools but also in farming, home construction
and art, including pottery, sewing and weaving.

The Bronze Age

During the Bronze Age (about 3,000 B.C. to 1,300 B.C.), metalworking advances were made, as
bronze, a copper and tin alloy, was discovered. Now used for weapons and tools, the harder metal
replaced its stone predecessors, and helped spark innovations including the ox-drawn plow and the
wheel.

This time period also brought advances in architecture and art, including the invention of the
potter’s wheel, and textiles—clothing consisted of mostly wool items such as skirts, kilts, tunics and
cloaks. Home dwellings morphed to so-called roundhouses, consisting of a circular stone wall with a
thatched or turf roof, complete with a fireplace or hearth, and more villages and cities began to form.

Organized government, law and warfare, as well as beginnings of religion, also came into play
during the Bronze Age, perhaps most notably relating to the ancient Egyptians who built the pyramids
during this time. The earliest written accounts, including Egyptian hieroglyphs and petroglyphs (rock
engravings), are also dated to this era.

The Iron Age

The discovery of ways to heat and forge iron kicked off the Iron Age (roughly 1,300 B.C. to 900
B.C.). At the time, the metal was seen as more precious than gold, and wrought iron (which would be
replaced by steel with the advent of smelting iron) was easier to manufacture than bronze.

Along with mass production of steel tools and weapons, the age saw even further advances in
architecture, with four-room homes, some complete with stables for animals, joining more rudimentary
hill forts, as well as royal palaces, temples and other religious structures. Early city planning also took
place, with blocks of homes being erected along paved or cobblestone streets and water systems put into
place.

Agriculture, art and religion all became more sophisticated, and writing systems and written
documentation, including alphabets, began to emerge, ushering in the Early Historical Period.

6.3 PALEOLITHIC SOCIETIES

Sociocultural evolution

Paleolithic literally means “Old Stone [Age],” but the Paleolithic era more generally refers to a
time in human history when foraging, hunting, and fishing were the primary means of obtaining food.
Humans had yet to experiment with domesticating animals and growing plants. Since hunter-gatherers
could not rely on agricultural methods to produce food intentionally, their diets were dependent on the
fluctuations of natural ecosystems. They had to worry about whether overfishing a lake would deplete a
crucial food source or whether a drought would wither up important plants. In order to ensure enough
food production for their communities, they worked to manipulate those systems in certain ways, such as
rotational hunting and gathering.

This was the case for much of human history; it was not until about 11,000 years ago that these
hunter-gatherer systems began to transform. As humans began migrating and adapting to new
environments, they began developing tools and methods that equipped them to make the best of their
respective environmental constraints.

The study of early humans often focuses on biological evolution and natural selection. However, it
is also equally important to focus on sociocultural evolution, or the ways in which early human societies
created culture. Paleolithic humans were not simply cavemen who were concerned only with conquering
their next meal. Archaeological evidence shows that the Neanderthals in Europe and Southwest Asia had

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a system of religious beliefs and performed rituals such as funerals. A burial site in Shanidar Cave in
modern-day northeastern Iraq suggests that a Neanderthal’s family covered his body with flowers, which
indicates a belief in something beyond death and a deep sense of spirituality. They also constructed
shelter and tools.

Cultures evolved and developed in specific environmental contexts, enabling their communities to
not only survive but to flourish in unique and dynamic ways. But what exactly is culture? Culture is a
broad term which encompasses the full range of learned human behavior patterns, behaviors which are
often linked to survival.

Homo sapiens has not changed much anatomically over the last 120,000 years, but it has
undergone a massive cultural evolution. Accordingly, cultural creativity rather than physical
transformation became the central way humans coped with the demands of nature.

Nevertheless cultural evolution cannot be divorced from biological evolution, as the evolution of a
more highly developed and advanced human brain, more highly attuned to social structures, enabled
cultural growth. In fact, the very large size of a human brain itself necessitated certain cultural
adaptations: many scientists have theorized that more difficult births, due to larger skulls, longer
gestation periods, and longer periods of infant dependency, required more advanced social organization
and communication, which played a big role in the cultural evolution of humans.

Homo sapiens’ unique aptitude for creativity allowed for symbolic expression, particularly in
cultural and spiritual contexts, such as artwork and burial rituals. This creative activity is the hallmark of
the subspecies Homo sapiens sapiens (wise, wise human), which is what we are today, a subspecies that is
distinctive for its intellectual abilities.

Small communities

Eventually, with the expansion of the human population, the density of human groups also
increased. This often resulted in conflict and competition over the best land and resources, but it also
necessitated cooperation. Due to the constraints of available natural resources, these early communities
were not very large, but they included enough members to facilitate some degree of division of labor,
security, and exogamous reproduction patterns, which means marrying or reproducing outside of one’s
group.

Anthropologists were able to draw these conclusions about Paleolithic people by extrapolating
from the experiences of modern hunter-gatherer communities, such as the Khoisan of the African Kalahari
Desert. Based on the experiences of modern hunter-gatherer societies, who typically have around 500
members, and based on theoretical mathematical models of group process, Paleolithic bands of people
were likely around twenty-five members each, and typically about twenty bands constituted a tribe.

How much land did these bands of people need to provide the necessary food and water to
support life? Anthropologists have estimated that the technology available to Paleolithic humans who
lived between 150,000 and 12,000 years ago would have required over seventy miles of relatively
unproductive land, with a low density of resources, or over seven miles of fertile land to meet the basic
needs of each small community. However, considering how limited these communities were, this land
requirement is extremely inefficient compared to modern productivity levels. At such densities, the area
of the modern-day United States could sustain no more than 600,000 people, and the entire planet only
10 million. For comparison, the current population of the United States is well over 300 million, and there
are 7 billion people on the planet!

Division of labor

Before the advent of agriculture, Paleolithic humans had little control of the environment, so they
focused on staking out territory and negotiating relationships with nearby communities. Eventually,
groups created small, temporary settlements, often near bodies of water. These settlements allowed for
division of labor, and labor was often divided along gender lines, with women doing much of the
gathering, cooking, and child-rearing and men doing much of the hunting, though this was certainly not
the case across all Paleolithic societies. For example, some archaeological evidence suggests that Middle
Paleolithic cultures in Eurasia split work fairly equally between men and women.

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However, it is important to note that gender dynamics in Paleolithic times were likely drastically
different from our own, and as such, the division of labor between men and women does not necessarily
indicate differences in equality or power. There are competing theories about whether hunting or
gathering contributed more to group nutrition, but both seemed to have played an important role.

6.3 FORAGING

Life as a Hunter-Gatherer

For 95 percent of their time on Earth, humans have sustained themselves by foraging, that is, by
hunting and gathering food from their natural environment.

The Evolution of Foraging

Living as we do with mass-produced food, markets, and restaurants in every town, and giant
supermarket complexes that are often just down the road, it takes some imagination to think of finding
food every day in the natural environment. Yet that is just what humans (Homo sapiens) have done for
most of their time on Earth — from their appearance about 200,000 years ago until about 11,000 years
ago when they began to develop agriculture. Before Homo sapiens evolved, our hominine ancestors
foraged for millions of years.

Foraging means relying on food provided by nature through the gathering of plants and small
animals, birds, and insects; scavenging animals killed by other predators; and hunting. The word foraging
can be used interchangeably with “hunting and gathering.”

Humans are not the only creatures who forage; many animals do too. What is different about
human foraging? Answers may vary, but the common idea would be that humans, by means of our ability
to communicate verbally, accumulated knowledge, passed it on to younger generations, and worked
together cooperatively. These skills enabled humans to gradually refine their foraging methods, further
distinguishing us from some of our competitors in the animal kingdom.

In fact, one could say that foraging made us human. As fruit trees in the rain forest became less
abundant in the cooling, drying climate, the hominines who survived had to find other food sources. As
they did, many traits evolved: walking on two feet (bipedalism), loss of most hair, smaller intestines,
larger brains, and better communication. These are essentially the hallmarks of being human.

One of the most significant steps that hominines ever took was to learn to control fire. They
probably did this by tending fires started by lightning. No one knows exactly when this occurred, but
hominines may have been using fire to cook meat and roots more than a million years ago. The
systematic, controlled use of fire may have begun before Homo sapiens or it may be one of the species’
distinguishing features.

Cooked food provided more nutrition, required less chewing, and allowed intestines to shorten,
all of which contributed to brain development. The social scene of eating together around a fire may have
promoted language development, further contributing to awareness and collective learning. These
changes in food consumption were an important step in increasing the flow of energy through human
systems.

Humans gradually developed their skill in hunting. At first hominines probably scavenged meat that had
been killed by other animals. They could drag a carcass to a safe place and use their stone tools to butcher
the flesh and crack the bones for marrow. As they developed better weapons and learned to hunt
together, they were able to take down larger animals and to devise innovative ways for defeating multiple
prey. Herding groups of animals over a cliff and retrieving the carcasses later is one example of this.

The Economics of Foraging

Climate and environment determined what life was like for any specific group of humans, but
some generalizations apply to any group of foragers. They must have possessed a detailed knowledge of
their environment. They must have had a large territory in which to forage, larger if they lived in harsh
environmental conditions that provided fewer food resources and smaller if they had abundance. Most
foragers lived by moving frequently and making temporary encampments. They might have repeated
seasonal movements based on animal migrations or the ripening of different plant food sources. Foragers
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usually lived in small groups of 15 to 30, and split up further when food became scarce or when conflicts
arose. Populations grew extremely slowly, if at all. Mothers’ milk provided the only sustenance for infants
and nursing extended for three to four years, often preventing a new pregnancy. In any case, mothers
could not carry more than one infant at a time. In these close-knit groups, foragers usually shared the
food they accumulated, especially prizes of fresh meat. Apparently, foraging societies were the most
egalitarian in human history.

The Bushmen of Southern Africa

Until relatively recently, five different groups of people had been living as foragers in the same
place for 30,000 years. And it’s a semidesert — the Kalahari Desert of Botswana, Namibia, and South
Africa. The groups each have a name, but collectively they are known as San, Bushmen, or the First
People. Most call themselves Bushmen when referring to themselves collectively.

How did the Bushmen survive as foragers in such harsh environmental conditions for so many
years? Their survival has given the human community a valuable example of the skills of foragers in
extremely challenging surroundings.

The Bushmen moved every day during the rainy season in search of budding edible greens. They
constructed simple shelters against the rain at night. During the dry season, however, they built more
stable huts of branches and grass around water sources. Finding water was their essential activity.
Sometimes they had to dig deep holes wherever the sand was damp and sip up water through hollow
grass straws, often storing it in ostrich eggshells, which held about five cups, more than a day’s supply.

The tools of the Bushmen were simple. Men used a bow with poison-tipped arrows and spears for
hunting deer, antelope, kudu (another species of antelope), and buffalo. For gathering, the women used a
blanket, a sling made of hide, a cloak to carry wood and food, smaller carrying bags, and a digging stick
about three feet long and about an inch in diameter. Nuts and roots provided the staple foods. Women
also collected fruit, berries, bush onions, and ostrich eggs. Insects — grasshoppers, beetles, caterpillars,
moths, butterflies, and termites — supplied a portion of the Bushmen’s protein. Hunting contributed
about 20 percent of the total diet, while gathering provided 80 percent.

The Bushmen spent a large portion of their time in “leisure” activities — conversation, joking,
singing, and dancing. Decisions were reached by consensus, with women having relative equality with
men. Chiefs were designated, but they had little additional power.

Studies of the Bushmen began in the 1950s when they still lived in the traditional way. By the
1990s most had been forced to adopt subsistence farming as African governments had created game
preserves out of some of their former hunting territories.

Suggested Videos

Prehistory | Educational Video for Kids

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLFGra2TiTE

The Paleolithic Age - Tools & Characteristics

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SaHGpOoBt0k

Paleolithic | Educational Video for Kids

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFE3t7qNJSs

Neanderthals 101 | National Geographic

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMc81qpCQ3g

How Did The First Humans Live? | Big History Project

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3XymgBX-R2c

Early Evidence of Collective Learning | Big History Project

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pFNwgwqSWDo

From Foraging to Food Shopping | Big History Project

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TKI1DaquKnI

BIG HISTORY (NGEC1223) BPSU SCIENCE CLUSTER

 HUMANS AND COLLECTIVE LEARNING 13

How Did Our Ancestors Evolve? | Big History Project

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_JGdeRfJJ2U
NAME: ________________________________________________ SCORE: ______________
YR & SEC: _______________ GROUP NO. _______ DATE: _______________

ACTIVITY NO. ____

THRESHOLD 6 – EARLY HUMANS
A. Encircle the letter of the term or phrase that best completes each statement or best answers each
question.

1. Homo sapiens first appeared approximately

A. 50,000 years ago
B. 200,000 years ago
C. 800,000 years ago

2. Archaeologists have confirmed that the birthplace of humankind was in

A. Africa
B. Asia
C. the Middle East

3. What is the most widely accepted theory about human migration to the Americas?
A. They traveled by sea, from East Asia
B. They traveled by land, crossing the Bering land bridge
C. They traveled by sea, from West Africa

4. What is one feature that distinguishes Homo sapiens from its predecessors?
A. complex spoken language
B. ability to control complex tools
C. bipedalism

5. Which evolutionary theory suggests that early hominids adapted more easily to dry climates?
A. the savannah hypothesis
B. the aridity hypothesis
C. the oasis theory

6. What is one piece of evidence that supports the theory that humans crossed to the Americas via the
Bering land bridge?
A. Spear points similar to those found near Beringia were found in New Mexico
B. Ruins of former settlements were unearthed near Beringia
C. Human fossils in the Americas were carbon-dated prior to 13,000 years ago

7. Which early hominid species was one of the first to control fire and migrate to new regions?
A. Homo habilis
B. Homo sapiens
C. Homo erectus

8. Homo sapiens first appeared approximately

A. 50,000 years ago
B. 200,000 years ago
C. 800,000 years ago

9. Paleolithic (“Stone Age”) refers to the fact that during this period humans:
A. Began using stone tools to manipulate their environments
B. Painted on the stone walls of caves
C. Used stone exclusively as a building material

10. Evidence for the widespread use of language by humans during the Paleolithic includes:
A. Various written inscriptions found at Paleolithic sites
B. The ability to hunt animals for food
C. Long-distance travel and trade, and the organization of complex social and cultural structures

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 HUMANS AND COLLECTIVE LEARNING 14

NAME: ________________________________________________ SCORE: ______________

YR & SEC: _______________ GROUP NO. _______ DATE: _______________

ACTIVITY NO. ____

THRESHOLD 6 – EARLY HUMANS
B. Complete the table below.

Scientific name of Time period in which

Description Key features/ capabilities
Hominid this hominid lived

Upright man

Earliest
human-like
creature

Southern ape

Neanderthals

Upright man

C. Use the map in Figure 6.5 to answer the following questions. Write the answers in complete
sentences.

1. On which continent did modern humans first appeared?

___________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________

2. About how long ago did the modern humans migrate to Australia?
___________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________

3. About how long ago did the modern humans migrate from Asia to North America?
___________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________
BIG HISTORY (NGEC1223) BPSU SCIENCE CLUSTER