HUMAN EVOLUTION AND CULTURE

CULTURE DEFINED
■ A 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, 2010)
■ By-product of the attempt of humans to survive their environment and to compensate for their biological
characteristics and limitations.
■ The sum of symbols, ideas, forms of expressions and material products associated with a social system – Allan
G. Johnson
Derived from the Latin word “cultus” which means “care” – a care and attention provided to a human person as
he grows into a mature person.
■ An organized body of conventional understandings manifest in art and artifacts, which persisting through
tradition – Robert Redfield
■ A powerful force that affects the lives of the members of a society.
■ It shapes and guide people’s perception of reality, determines the food they eat, clothing they wear, music they
listen to, or the games they play.

Kinds of Culture
1. Material Culture – the concrete and tangible things that man creates and uses. This includes dwelling units,
tools, weapons, clothing, books, machines, artefact relics, fossils etc – things that man creates by altering the
natural environment. This is the area of anthropological study.
2. Non-material Culture – the intangible objects which the person uses, follows, professes or strives to conform. It
includes knowledge, laws, lifestyles, techniques, ideas, customs behaviors, among others. The area of sociological
study.
In order to understand CULTURE, we need to know the following:
A. BIOLOGICAL CAPACITY FOR CULTURE – understanding the biological makeup of mankind.
1. Our Thinking Capacity – the developed brain is necessary in facilitating pertinent skills such as speaking,
touching, feeling, seeing and smelling.
Brain – the primary biological component of humans that allowed culture.
The Human Brain

1. Frontal Lobe and the Motor Cortex – function for cognition and motor abilities.

2. Parietal lobe – allows for touch and taste abilities.

3. Temporal Lobe – allows for hearing skills.

4. Occipital Lobe – allows for visual skills.

• Compared with other primates, humans have a larger brain weighing 1.4 Kg, Chimpanzees have a
brain weighing 420 g only, and those of gorillas weigh 500 g. Due to the size of their brain and the
complexity of its parts, humans were able to create survival skills that helped them adapt to their
environment and outlive their less adaptive biological relatives.
• Hyoid Bone – crucial for speaking as it supports the root of the tongue (Hogenboom, 2013).

2. Our Speaking Capacity – while the brain is the primary source of human capacity to comprehend sound and
provide meaning to it, the VOCAL TRACT acts as the mechanism by which sounds are produced and reproduced
to transmit ideas and values. A longer vocal tract means that there is a longer vibration surface, allowing humans
to produce a wider array of sounds.
DAN DEDIU from the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics in Netherlands argued that the origin of
language may be rooted as far as 500 000 years ago based on the discovered bone fragment from an ancestor
known as Homo heidelbergensis.

3. Our Gripping Capacity – the capacity to directly oppose a thumb with the other fingers. It is an exclusive trait
of humans. It allowed us to have a finer grip. Thus, we have the capability to create materials with precision.
■ The hand of a human has digits (fingers) that are straight, as compared with the curved ones of the other
primates.
■ The thumb of a human is proportionately longer than those of the other primates. These characteristics of
human hand allowed for 2 types of grip:
Power Grip – enabled human to wrap the thumb and fingers on an object.
Precision Grip – enabled humans to hold and pick objects steadily using their fingers.
4. Our Walking or Standing Capacity – an important trait that gave humans more productivity with their hands.
Through this, humans gained more efficient form of locomotion suitable for hunting and foraging. Primates have
two forms of locomotion:

a. Bipedalism – the capacity to walk and stand on two feet.

b. Quadropedalism – uses all four limbs (both two hands and two feet).

HUMAN ORIGINS AND THE CAPACITY FOR CULTURE

The Oldowan Industry

■ Stone tool industry characterized by the use of “hard waterworn creek cobbles made out of volcanic rock”
(O’Neil, 2012).
■ Evidence found by Mary and Louis Leakey at Olduvai Gorge; Tanzania in Africa (around 2.6 million years
ago) supports this industry.
■ Industry known to have been used by Homo habilis.
Percussion Flaking – process involving the systematic collision of a 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).
■ Form of technology used in this industry allowed for the species to butcher large animals and it improved food
gathering skills using the ‘hammering, digging, and chopping implements’ (O’Neil, 2012).
■ From Africa, this industry spread out 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.

Scavenging

- was a way of finding foods during times of shortage

- Following other scavengers made it easy to find carcasses. Using stone tools made it easy to break open
bones for marrow.
The Acheulian Industry
■ A more complex industry developed by the Homo erectus 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.
■ Homo erectus made other tools such as, “choppers, cleavers and hammers as well as flakes used as knives and
scrapers”.
HAND AXES – stone implements used in multiple activities such as light chopping of wood, digging up roots
and bulbs, butchering animals, and cracking nuts and small bones.
■ This industry was named after Saint Acheul, a patron saint in southwest France, as these artifacts were
discovered in the area
■ Believed to have originated in East Africa.
■ Scholars argue that its extensive use may have been out of Africa as Homo erectus invented this industry and
brought it to Europe 500 000 – 900 000 years ago and to China 800 000 years ago.
• H. erectus learned how to use and control fire.
• Fire was useful for preserving food, making it taste better and killing parasites.
• Also useful as a deterrent against predators, enabled activity at night and reinforced social bonding.

The Mousterian Industry

■ Developed by Homo neanderthalensis (Neanderthals) in Europe and West Asia between 300 000 and 30 000
years ago.
■ Named after a site in France called Le Moustier, where evidence was uncovered in 1860.
■ Tools from this industry were a combination of Acheulian techniques with the Levalloisian technique, which
involved the use of premade core tool that has sharpened edges
MOUSTERIAN TOOL – efficient stone tool as all the sides of the flake are sharpened and are more handy due
to the reduction in size.
■ Evidence of this industry dating back 100 000 years was also found in Northern Africa and West Asia, where
modern humans such as that of Qafze migrated.
■ Most archaeologists hypothesize that this industry could be an evidence of acculturation of modern humans
with their Neanderthal relatives.
■ 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.

The Aurignacian Industry

■ 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.
■ The method employed in creating tools such as fine blades was similar to the one used in the Mousterian
industry.
■ A more advanced tool making industry that made it a cultural milestone for modern humans in Europe due to
the development of self-awareness.
■ This development was projected through cave paintings and the fabrication of accessories such as figurines,
bracelets and beads.
■ The cave paintings found in the El Castillo Cave in Cantabaria, Spain provide us with a glimpse of the
environment that the early humans lived in. Most of the paintings are that of the animals that existed at that time.
Venus of Schelklingen (Venus of Hohle Fels) – figurine sculpted from a woolly mammoth tusk. Emphasis was
made on several parts of the body such as the breasts and the hips. Scholars theorize that this emphasis may be
due to the importance of these parts in childbearing or child rearing.
Bone flute in Hohle Fels, Germany – earliest evidence of music appreciation.
• People lived in caves and shelters, made clothes, painted on cave walls and made statues from bone and clay.

The Magdalenian Industry

■ Saw the end of the Paleolithic period as it transformed to the Neolithic period.
■ Named after the La Madeleine site in Dordogne, France.
■ Also a proto-culture used by the early humans and was defined by several revolutionary advancements in
technology such as the creation of microliths from flint, bone, antler and ivory.
■ Humans during this period were engrossed in creating figurines, personal adornments and other forms of
mobiliary art.
■ A defining method used in tool making was through the application of heat on the material prior to the flaking
process. This was done by casting the raw material on fire, which allowed for a more precise cut upon flaking.
■ Cro-Magnon man-made Upper Paleolithic tools including fish hooks, harpoons and needles.
■ The creation of specialized weapons such as barbed harpoons is evidence of the growing sophistication of the
hunting skills and technology of the early humans.
■ Use of temporary man-made shelters such as tents made of animal skin are evident.
■ Use of rock shelters and caves were still predominant during this period. The creation of tents allowed early
humans to be more mobile.
■ Humans have more leisure time as evidenced by their preoccupation with decorative materials.
■ By 10 000 BCE, this industry has spread to parts of Europe including contemporary territories such as Great
Britain, Germany, Spain and Poland.

Characteristics Paleolithic Neolithic

Tools Small and handy for mobile Included a wider array of small
lifestyle and bigger tools
due to sedentary lifestyle

Personal Properties Limited to personal Included structures (e.g., house),

accessories and small tools that decorative
 could easily be carried around ornaments, large containers

Art Small and limited to personal Included the creation of

ornaments, artworks that
bigger artworks were done but required a longer
not within a long time frame (e.g. length of time
cave paintings) and a greater number of
people (e.g.,
Stonehenge)

Subsistence Foraging Agriculture

Leadership Not rigid; based on age and Semirigid; based on legitimacy

knowledge (religious beliefs, social status)

Social Divisions None; communal lifestyles Elite vs. working class

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

CHARACTERISTICS OF PALEOLITHIC AND NEOLITHIC SOCIETY