UNDERSTANDING CULTURE, SOCIETY AND POLITICS
Human Biocultural and Social Evolution
OBJECTIVES
➢ Explain the biological and cultural
evolution of early to modern human
Essential Question
Does evolutionary theory give us a total
explanation to the mystery of our existence?
Macroevolution and the Formation of New
Species
Macroevolution
focuses on the formation of new species
(speciation) and on the evolutionary
relationship between groups of species.
Species
is often defined as a population capable of
interbreeding, of producing viable, fertile
offspring.
Natural Selection
is a process through which certain
environmentally adapted biological features
are perpetuated at the expense of less
adaptive features.
BIOCULTURAL EVOLUTION
The mutual, interactive evolution of human
biology and culture; the concept that biology
makes culture possible and that developing
culture further influences the direction of
biological evolution; a basic concept in
understanding the unique components of
human evolution
SOCIAL EVOLUTION
Social evolution is the area of evolutionary
biology that studies how social interactions,
especially between individuals of the same
species, arise, change and are maintained.
UNDERSTANDING CULTURE, SOCIETY AND POLITICS
Human Biocultural and Social Evolution
PALEOLITHIC PERIOD (OLD STONE AGE)
A. The Lower Paleolithic Period marked the
existence of the Homo Erectus. The Homo
Erectus sought efficiency and made tools for
specific tasks.
During this period, the hand ax and other
stone tools were created. Tools during this
period were made by chipping off flakes from
a core of rock, from different angles
B. The Homo Sapiens lived during the
Middle Paleolithic Period. The Homo
Sapiens made more efficient tools, allowing
them to do anatomical labor much easier,
such as prying, lifting, holding, and pulling.
Further specialization of tools was also done
by creating uniform flakes of rock and
detailing each one for a particular task
C. Lastly, the Homo Sapiens sapiens lived
during the Upper Paleolithic Period. The
blade, loner than a flake of rock, was the
most distinct tool developed during this
period. A further increase in specialized tools
was also created during this period. The
expansion of specialized tools reflected an
increase in the population of the Homo
Sapiens sapiens and their exploration of new
economic activities
NEOLITHIC REVOLUTION (New Stone
Age)
It is a time of fundamental change; it was the
period when food production started. The
invention of food production occurred in
several independent parts of the world under
different periods.
Food-producing habits began to change
about 10, 000 years ago. At first, our
ancestors had supplemented the food they
produced with food they obtained from
hunting and gathering. However, one
agriculture was developed, substantial
changes in the lifestyle of humans took
place.
It is a time when people had also started to
settle in specific areas they called villages so
they can grow crops and raise animals,
which, in turn, lessened nomadic practices.
It also resulted to a change in human attitude
toward the natural environment. People
started wilfully changing their environment.
Since they are now capable of producing
food, they have also started to create tools
using the available resources round them,
such as wood, bamboo, and stone.