HUMAN

EVOLUTION AND
CULTURE
Cultural Beginnings

 culture – defined as “that 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 a society.” (Tylor, 2019)
To understand culture, you need
to know the following:

1. Biological capacity of humans

for culture
2. Place of humans in the animal
kingdom
3. How humans came to develop
early forms of culture
Biological Capacity for Culture
the need to scrutinize human
anatomy to understand culture is
indispensable. Physical and
cultural anthropologist argue
that we could trace how culture
become possible by
understanding our biological
makeup.
1. Our thinking capacity
The primary biological
component of humans that
allowed for culture is the
developed brain. It has the
necessary parts for facilitating
pertinent skills such as
speaking, touching, feeling,
seeing and smelling.
 Frontal lobe and motor cortex –
function for cognition and motor
abilities.
 Parietal lobe – allows for touch and
taste abilities
 Temporal lobe – allows for hearing
skills.
 Occipital lobe – allows for visual
skills
 Compare with other primates,
humans have a larger brain,
weighing 1.4 kg. Chimpanzees have
420 g, gorillas weigh 500 g.
2. Our speaking capacity
as the brain is the primary
source of humans capacity to
comprehend sound and provide
meaning to it, the vocal tract
acts as the mechanism by which
sounds are produced and
reproduces to transmit ideas
and values.
 Dan Dediu – from the Max
Planek Institute for
Psycholinguistics in the
Netherlands argued that the
origin of language may be
rooted as far back as 500 000
years ago based on the
discovered bone fragment from
an ancestor known as homo
heidelbergensis.
 Homo Heidelbergensis – this fossil is
a hyoid bone which is “crucial for
speaking as it supports the root of
tongue”.
 Homo neanderthalensis – our nearest
relative, was also found to have the
same bone, which functions similarly
as ours. Current arguments include
that the Neadethals were a truly
human species.
3. Our gripping capacity
 Power grip – enables humans to
wrap the thumb and fingers on an
objects; it became the cornerstone
of our capacity to hold tools
firmly for hunting and other
activities.
 Precision grip – enables humans

to hold and pick objects steadily

using their fingers.
4. Our walking/standing capacity
Two form of locomotion
1. Bipedalism – is the capacity to walk
and stand on two feet
2. Quadropedalism – uses all four
liimbs.
Human Origins and the Capacity
for Culture
Our evolution toward humanity as
we know it has been a long journey
of survival against the elements of
the environment and against
competing species. As the ancestors
evolves biologically in response to
their environment, they have also
developed cultural technologies that
aided them to efficiently obtain food
and deter predators.
 Crudest methods of
toolmaking may have been
practices by the earlier
Austalopithecines (A. afarensis
and A. africanus). This method
may have involved the use of
wood as digging sticks or even
crude spears.
The Oldowan Industry
a stone tool industry, is characterized
by the use of “hard water-worn creek
cobbles made out of volcanic
rock”(O’Neil, 2012).
Supporting the existence of this
industry is the evidence found by Mary
and Louis Leakey at Olduvai Gorge,
Tanzania. This industry is known to
have been used by Homo Habilis.
 From Africa, this industry spread
put to Europe and Asia during the
migration of Homo Erectus, who
acquired it from Homo Habilis
within 1.9 – 1.8 million years ago.
By 1.8 – 1.6 million years ago, the
Oldowan industry has already
reached Java, Indonesia and
Northern China.
The Acheulian Industry

Homo erectus developed a more complex

industry from what they inherited from Homo
Habilis. Using the same process of percussion
flaking, homo erectus created hand axes that
were bifacial, shaped in both sides and with
straighter and sharper edges. They also made
other tools such a “choppers, cleavers and
hammers as well a flakes used as knives and
scrapers.
This industry was named
after Saint Acheul, a
patron saint in southwest
France, as these artifacts
were discovered in the
area.
The Mousterian Industry

this industry was developed by

Homo Neaderthalensis (Neaderthals)
in Europe and West Asia between
300 000 and 30 000 years ago. This
industry was named after a site in
France called Le Moustier, where
evidence was uncovered in 1860.
 the tools from this industry combined
Acheulian industry techniques with the
Levalloisian technique, which involved
the use of a premade core tool and the
extraction of a flake tool that has
sharpened edges. This type of tools is
very efficient as all the sided of the
flake tool are sharpened and due to the
reduction in size, more handy.
The Aurignacian Industry
it was mainly present in Europe and
southeast Asia from 45 000 to 35 000 years
ago. The term Aurignacian was derived
from Aurignac, an area in France where
the evidence for this industry was found.
Users in this industry used raw materials
such as flint, animal bones, and antlers.
The method in creating tools such as fine
blades was similar to Mousterian
industry.
• Cave paintings
• Fabrication of accessories
• Figurines
• Bracelets
• Beads
The Magdalenian Industry
this industry saw the end of the Paleolithic
period as it transformed to the Neolithic
period. It was named after the La Madeleine
site in Dordogne, France. Defined by
several revolutionary advancements in
technology such as the creation of:
• microliths from flint
• Bone
• Antler
• Ivory
• Creating figures
• Personal adornments
• Other forms of mobiliary art

A defining method used in toolmaking

during this period was the application
of heat on the materials prior to the
flaking process. This was done by
casting the raw materials on fire, which
allowed for a more precise cut upon
flaking.
Processes of Cultural and Sociopolitical
Evolution

• Paleolithic stage – provided the bases

for the development of complex
human groups through the
establishment of culture