HUMAN EVOLUTION AND CULTURE

Objectives
At the end of the session, the learners are expected to:
 Distinguish the different stages of human evolution and its significance in the society
 Describe the characteristics of each stage of human evolution
 Illustrate the evolution of man based on the discussion

Motivation:
What are the stories you know about the origin of man?
Do you know Charles Darwin? Are you familiar of his Evolution of Man?
Do you believe in his study of the origin of Man
Can you site evidences to prove his theory about the evolution of man?
What is your opinion on the study of Charles Darwin?
Culture

The complex whole which encompasses belief, practices, values, attitudes, laws, norms, artifacts, symbols,
knowledge and everything that the person learns and shares as a member of society

It is a by-product of the attempt of humans to survive their environment and to compensate for their biological
characteristics and limitations

To understand culture, you need to know the following:

Biological capacity of humans for culture

Place of humans in animal kingdom

How humans came to develop early forms of culture

BIOLOGICAL CAPACITY
HUMAN EVOLUTION

1.Australopithecus
The undisputed members of our lineage to regularly walk upright are the Australopithecus afarensis
The most famous is Lucy’s species. She live in Ethiopia 3.2 million years ago and discovered in 1974, by
Donald Johanson. When Lucy is found, she is 40% intact (her skeleton). Her name came from the song of the
Beatles, “Lucy in the Sky with Diamond
2.Homo Habilis
Species name “Handy Man” or “Man of Skills”
They used stones (from cooled lava) for activities like to cut meat
Lived about 2.4 to 1.4 million years ago scavenging for food
3.Homo Erectus
Species name means “Upright Man” with nody proportions similar to that of modern humans
First to use axe and knives and produce fire
Lived 1.89 to 143,000 years ago; adapted to hot climates and mostly spread in Africa and Asia

4.Homo Sapien
Species means “Wise Man”
Appeared from 200, 000 years ago
The present human race belongs to this species
5.Homo Neanderthalensis
also known as “Neanderthal Man”
Subspecies with short yet stocky in body build adapted to winter climates specially Europe and Asia
The first to practice burial of their dead, hunting, gathering food and sewing clothes from animal skin using
bone needles
6.Homo Sapien sapien
Subspecies known as Cro-Magnon
Characterized to be anatomically modern humans
Lived in the last Ice Age of Europe from 40, 000 to 10, 000 years ago
First to produce art in cave paintings and crafting tools and accessories

Stone Tool Industries

Humanity’s earliest tradition or technology

Material product of these period merely display the methods used by early humans in creating tools
The crudest methods of tool making may been practiced by earlier Australopithecines
Methods involved the use of wood as digging sticks or even crude spears
Oldowan Industry
Characterized by the use of “hard water-worn creek cobbles made out of volcanic rock”
Raw materials made into tools through percussion flaking-a process involving systematic collision of hammer
stone with a core stone, the impact of the collision produces a core tool (used for general purposes) and a
flake tool (used as a knife)
Used during Lower Paleolithic period 2.6 up to 1.7 million years ago
Evidence found by Mary and Louis Leakey at Olduvai, George, Tanzania used by homo habilis

Acheulian Industry
A more complex industry inherited from Homo Habilis developed by Homo Erectus 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
Named after Saint Achuel, a patron saint in southwest France
Mousterian Industry
Developed by Homo Neanderthalensis in Europe and Asia between 300 to 30 thousand years ago
Named after a site in France called Le Moustier where evidence was uncovered in 1860
Involved the used of a premade core tool and the extraction of a flake tool that has sharped edges
Aurignacian Industry
Derive from the Aurignac, an area in France
Used raw materials such as flint, animals bones and antlers
Methods they employed in creating tools such as fine blades
Development of self awareness made this industry a cultural milestone for the modern humans in Europe-
projected through cave paintings and the fabrication of accessories such as figurines, bracelets and beads

Magdalenian Industry
End of Paleolithic period
Named after the La Madeleine site in Dordogne, France
Proto-culture used by humans
Was defined by several revolutionary advancement in technology such as the creation of microliths from flint
bone, antler and ivory.
Beautified by artistic engraving done by casting the material on fire

Man’s Cultural Evolution

Cultural Period Time Frame Cultural Development
Paleolithic Age (Old Stone Age) Traditionally coincided with the first
evidence of tool construction and
use by Homosome 2.5 million years
ago.
- Use of simple pebble tool
- Learned to live in caves
- Discovered the use of fire
Neolithic Age (New Stone Age) Occurred sometime about 10,000
BC
- Stone tools were shaped by
polishing or grinding.
- Settlement in permanent
villages
- Dependence on domesticated
plants or animals
- Crafts (pottery and weaving)
- Food producing cultures

THEORIES ON THE EVOLUTON OF SOCIETY

Objectives:

 Identify the different types of societies

 Create a time line regarding the evolution of society
 Explain the theories on the origin of society

Characteristics of Human Society

It is a social system
A society is relatively large
A society recruits most of members from within
A society sustains itself across generations
A society’s members share culture
A society occupies a territory

Types of Society
1.Hunting and gathering societies
The earliest form of human society
People survive by foraging for vegetable foods, hunting larger wild animals and collecting shellfish
Subsisted from day to day on whatever was available
Used tools made of stones, woods and bones

2.Horticulture societies
It is the first type of society to actually grow their own food as a result to a more complex division of labor, more
substantial dwellings and a small amount of trade
 horticulture-defined as a means of food production in which vegetation is cultivated using very basic tools
(sticks and weeds) and without permanently cultivated fields

3.Pastoral societies
It relied on herding and domestication of animals for food and clothing to satisfy the greater needs of the group
Pastoralism-is an economic activity involving the care of domestic livestock

4.Agricultural societies
Societies that depend on farming as way of life
Rely on the use of technology in order to cultivate crops in large areas
Technology advances led to an increase of food supplies, an increase in population and the development of
trade and centers

5.Industrial Societies
The objective of this society is mass production of goods, which is fast and efficient manufacturing of
standardized products
Societies characterized by a reliance on mechanized labor to create material goods

6. Post industrial Societies

Marked by a transition from a manufacturing-based economy to service based economy
Also known as information or digital societies
Based on the production of information and services
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Different Types of Societies and Their Major Characteristics

1.   Foraging Societies
When human beings did not know how to dominate land and domesticate the animals, they had to
live together, share work, use fresh water carefully and also migrate gregariously if anything went
wrong, for example, if rivers dried up or they run out of animals. Usually men were hunters and
women were gatherers in those societies and this caused matriarchy because men were always in
danger during hunting and generally hunter members returned home -cave- with limited numbers.
Labour in hunting and gathering societies was divided equally among the members because they
were so small and mobile. There was not any political organization compared to understanding of
today´s diplomacy but their decision making body included every person who live in the society and
equality conducted it. Certainly some foraging societies have their own tribal leaders but even the
leader could not decide anything about tribe, everything in those societies was decided by all
members. Their technologies were almost nothing in comparison with today but they could do what
they needed, hunting big and small animals and using their hides in order to make cloths and
gathering plants. Somehow they learned cultivation and they did not need to relocate anymore and
they were divided into two parts as animal domesticators and plant cultivators. Both of them started
to live in a certain domain.'

2.    Pastoral Societies
In this type of societies, approximately 12,000 years ago, people lived in a certain place and started
to pasture animals for transportation and permanent food. Those types of societies still exist in
Somalia, Ethiopia and North Africa countries where horticulture and manufacturing are not
possible (Samatar, 1989: 35), hunter-gatherer society did domesticate animals because they
realized that using animals´ wool, milk, and fertility was more beneficial than hunting and wasting
them. Consequently, not only trade had started, but also non-survival class had aroused such as
the spiritual leaders, healers, traders, craftspeople. This new formation held society together in a
certain domain and nomadic did not migrate so far, circulate around the pasture –primitive version
of urban- and also difference of people came out for the first time; the nomadic and settled people.
These are the first forms of people who live in rural and urban areas. Moreover, as they had to
domesticate animals and use them, people need some tools and they invented what they needed.
By this means technology developed rapidly. Trade improved easily and differences between
nomadic and settled people grew up, consequently concept of social inequality started to appear
compared to hunter-gatherer societies.

3.   Horticultural Societies
Similar to pastoral societies, horticultural societies first appeared 10,000 to 12,000 years ago but
these societies cultivated vegetables, fruits and plants. Depletion of the land’s resources or
dwindling water supplies, for instance, forced the people to leave. Since, they were mobile and
small like hunter-gatherer societies; there was not a non-survival class and not trade as well.
Division of labour continued, social structures did not develop and because of this, horticultural
societies did not differ from foraging societies. They could not develop because agricultural
materials invented about 8,000 years ago and they could not relocate rivers and water sources,
their plants dried up. It is easily realized that why development of technology is so important and
how it affects to shape societies, at the same time in the other parts of the world, people could
invent and develop what they needed but for agriculture, technology was not enough.

4.   Agricultural Societies
What cause horticultural societies to extinguish, were the late agricultural inventions around the
8,000’s. With the new inventions, food supplies increased and people settled together. Population
grew up rapidly, villages came up and farmers, land owners and also warriors who protect farms in
exchange for food against enemies aroused firstly. In these societies, social inequality solidly
showed itself. A rigid caste system developed; slavery and ownership started to be too different
concepts in those lives. Caste system developed the differentiation between the elite and
agricultural labourers including slaves. Lands started to be so important, especially from ninth to
fifteenth centuries, after the understanding of feudalism developed, every small land owners saw
themselves as kings and owners of people who live for them as well. Concept of social classes
spread through the Europe and not only land owners, but also religious leaders did not have to try
to survive because workers had to give them everything that they had. Art, literature and
philosophy were in religious leaders´ hands because of this, time of feudalism is known as the dark
ages. Due to existing monarchy, owners set up their own rules in their lands and each lord led the
society with different rules and all of them depended on the King. This stratification prevented
slaves from rebellion, workers were sweated and classes and inequalities in Europe continued
until the industrial revolution.

5.   Industrial Societies
With usage of the steam power, human beings started to use machines and advanced
technologies to produce and distribute goods and services.  Industrial revolution process began in
Britain and then spread through Europe and to the rest of the world, industrial societies started to
develop. The growth of technologies led to advances in farming techniques, so slavery lost its
significance, economy developed quickly and understanding of social charity and governments’
aids grew up. Feudal social classes removed but then societies divided into two parts as workers
and non-workers. Karl Marx explained that non-workers are composing capitalist class and they
hold all money and also set up rules. Considering this explanation, it is easily understood that non-
workers are the same with non-survivors like lords and religious leaders in preindustrial societies.
Thus, the industrial revolution brought only the slavery extinction and there is only worker class.
Learning from previous mistakes rulers gave more opportunities for social mobility and also gave
more rights than they gave to the slaves. With changes in social inequalities people started to want
their rights and freedom as citizens and then kingdoms and autocracy lost their power on citizens.
Democracy seemed more beneficial and necessary with French and American Revolutions,
nationality became more important and so, citizens won their rights and classes existed as just
economic differences. Politically everyone seemed equal but, of course, inequalities between
money owners and sellers of their own labours to survive, unstoppably increased. Villages lost their
significance and towns became places where occupation opportunities were supplied. 

6.   Postindustrial Societies
The countries that the industrial revolution began, -Britain, France, the USA and Japan- now
became the postindustrial countries. These countries are users of advance technologies like
developed computers, satellites, microchips. In short, those societies are affected by the
technologies at first hand. In comparison with horticultural societies, it can be easily understood
that how technology is important to shape and characterize a society. “If you want to build new
sociology, read about technology. If you want to build new technology, read about sociology.“ If you
want to Since they are trailblazers of technologies, they are now holding all world´s economy in
their hands. There is not rural and urban areas difference as well as people who are economically
at the top and middle. According to common view, in those societies, there is neither social
inequality nor classification. People won their own freedom by working hard, if there are any
differences or discrimination, this is caused by capitalist and global world, not the governments´
mistakes.  That is, rather than being driven by the factory production of goods, society is being
shaped by the human mind, aided by computer technology. Although factories will always exist, the
key to wealth and power seems to lie in the ability to generate, store, manipulate, and sell
information. Sociologists speculate about the characteristics of postindustrial society in the near
future. They predict increased levels of education and training, consumerism, availability of goods,
and social mobility. While they hope for a decline in inequality as technical skills and “know-how”
begins to determine class rather than the ownership of property, sociologists are also concerned
about potential social divisions based on those who have appropriate education and those who do
not. Sociologists believe society will become more concerned with the welfare of all members of
society. They hope postindustrial society will be less characterized by social conflict, as everyone
works together to solve society’s problems through science. (Andersen & Taylor, 2006: 118)

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