LOOKING BACK AT HUMAN

BIOLOGICAL AND SOCIAL EVOLUTION

Without memory, there is no culture, without memory , there would be no civilization,

no society, no future.
- Bill Clinton
GUIDE QUESTION
What are the key features of the interrelationships of
biological, cultural and socio-political processes in
human evolution that can be used and developed?

TOPICS TO BE COVERED
- Biological and cultural evolution
- Cultural and socio-political evolution
MAJORITE OPPRIMEE
(MAJORITY OPPRESED)
• What are the norms in this particular society?
• How are norms and social control enforced in this
type of society?
• What are the punishments for deviant behavior?
• What type of compliance does the protagonist
exhibit? Did he exhibit deviant behavior?
KEY CONCEPTS
• Homo habilis • Artifact
• Homo sapiens • Biological evolution
• Neolithic revolution • Cultural evolution
• State • Agricultural society
• Civilization • Post-industrial society
• Democratization
• Archaeology
ANSWER THE EXERCISE BELOW
• In this lesson, the interaction of biological and
cultural evolution will be examined. Given this,
write your understanding of the terms: biological
evolution against cultural evolution.

Biological Evolution Cultural Evolution

REINFORCER
• What are the significant roles of culture in human
adaptation?

1. 2. 3.
BIOLOGICAL AND CULTURAL EVOLUTION
• Human evolution is the evolutionary process leading
to the appearance of modern day humans.
• It is characterized by a number of morphological,
developmental, physiological, and behavioural
changes that have taken place since the split
between the last common ancestor of human and
apes.
• In human evolution, the term Homo is used to
determine the species of human beings. According to
Anthropologist, the direct ancestors of the Homo
species are Hominid.
BIOLOGICAL AND CULTURAL EVOLUTION
• According to Ember (2011), the first definite hominids are
Australopithecus.
• They were fully bipedal which means that they could walk
using their two legs.
• The Australopithecus is divided into two groups, the Gracile
Australopithecines and the robust Australopithecines.
• The Gracile Australopithecines includes A. Anamensis, A.
afarensis, and A. africanus. These species have smaller
definition and facial muscles than the robust
Australopithecines. Robust Australopithecines includes A.
aethiopicus, A.robustus, and A. bosei.
HUMAN EVOLUTION
GRACILE AUSTRALOPITHECINES
• Australopithecines anamensis was the earliest
australopithecine species.
• They were found in some locations in northern Kenya.
• It is small in built with teeth similar to the later
A.afarensis.
• The most represented australopithecine species.
• It remains were seen at Tanzania and Ethiopia
• It is a small hominid
• Its teeth were somewhat large compared to its body
size. It has a small brain, about 400 cubic centimeter
• its arms and legs were both about the same length.
GRACILE AUSTRALOPITHECINES
GRACILE AUSTRALOPITHECINES
• It is the most model used in the Australopithecine
species but it was not the first one discovered. It is the
A.africanus
• Australopithecus africanus was the first discovered in
the species of Gracile australopithecines.
Australopithecus Africanus was coined by Professor
Raymond Dart which means southern ape of Africa.
• Like A.afarensis, It has a small built.
• The adult A. africanus were three and a half to four and
half feet tall. It lived between 3 million and 2 million
years ago.
ROBUST AUSTRALOPITHECINES
• Australopithecus Aethiopicus were the earliest
and somewhat the least known of the robust
australopithecines.
• Some of its fossils were found at northern Kenya
and Ethiopia dating between 2.3 million and 2.7
million years ago.
• It is different from the other Australopithecus
species because of its larger definition, and huge
genus. Homo.
ROBUST AUSTRALOPITHECINES
• Australopithecus boisei was discovered by a
paleoanthropologist named Louis Leakey in
western Tanzania.
• It is named after a benefactor named Charles
Boise.
• It has enormous molar teeth and expanded
premolars, a thick and deep jaw, and thick cheek
bones. It lived between about 2.3 and 1.3 million
years ago. Also it is not ancestral to human genus
or Homo.
HOMO SPECIES
• Hominids have a brain larger compared to the
Australopithecus species which appeared about
2.3 million years ago.
• It is classified to our genus, Homo.
• It is divided into two species, the Homo habilis and
the Homo rudolfensis. These two species were
found at parts of Kenya and Tanzania.
• Both have lived at the same time as the
Australopithecus boisei.
HOMO SPECIES
• The Homo habilis appeared around 2.3 million years
ago. It has a larger brain and reduced the size of
molars and premolars compared to the
Australopithecus. It has the presence of long arms just
like the Australopithecus.
• The Homo rudolfensis is somehow the same as the
features of Homo habilis. Many paleoanthropologists
make no distinctions between the two species.
• Some say the difference lies on their cheek teeth and
face. For Homo rudofensis, it has a broader face
compared to the Homo rudofensis.
HOMO SPECIES
• The Homo erectus was the first hominid species that was
distributed in the ‘Old world”.
• It was seen in parts of Africa and in Asia
• It was discovered by Eugene Dubois which he called
Pithecanthropus erectus at firs which means erect ape man.
• Homo erectus had smaller teeth than the other homo genus.
• The brain averages 895-1040 cc in size larger than the fossils
found of Australopithecines.
• It is known the Homo erectus have a capacity to control fire.
With their discovery, they survived the cold. Lower
Paleolithic tools and other artifacts were probably produced
by Homo erectus.
HOMO SPECIES
• Paleoanthropologists agree that Homo erectus evolved
into Homo sapiens but somehow have different says
about the transition occurred.
• They have been found in may parts of the Old world.
• Homo sapiens may have lived earlier than the
neanderthals.
• They have live 100,000 years ago
• The Homo sapiens appeared 50,000 years ago.
• It was characterized as the modern human
• They have a domed skull, chin, small eyebrows, and a
rather puny skeleton.
CULTURAL AND SOCIOPOLITICAL
EVOLUTION – NEOLITHIC REVOLUTION
• About 10,000 BCE, humans began to cultivate
crops and domesticate certain animals like sheep,
cows, and goats.
• This was change from the system of hunting and
gathering that have sustained and make humans
survive from earliest times.
• In this time period permanent settlements were
established.
• It sometimes called as the agricultural revolution
TIMELINE OF AGRICULTURAL
INNOVATION
YEAR INNOVATION
10,000 B.C.E Neolithic Revolution begins in Southwest Asia and other areas.
Climate change resulted in longer dry seasons an the end of a
100,000 year ice age. Abundance of wild grains enabled hunter
gatherers to settle in villages. Domestication of dogs begins in
Asia and North America
9500 B.C. E The “founder crops” of agriculture appear: wheat, barley,
peas, lentils, bitter vetch, chickpeas, and flax.

8000-6000 B.C.E Nomadic hunter – gatherers begin to grow food and

domesticate animals: Rice in China, 7500 B.C.E. Squash in
Mexico, 7000 B.C.E. Wheat in Mesopotamia, 8500 B.C.E. cattle
in SW Asia and India, 7000 B.C.E. Domestication of sheep,
goats and pigs begins in SW Asia. Irrigation systems
introduced.
TIMELINE OF AGRICULTURAL
INNOVATION
YEAR INNOVATION
7000-6000 B.C.E Domestication of cattle begins in SW Asia, Pakistan, and India

6000-3000 B.C. E A wooden plow, the wheels, used in Mesopotamia and Egypt.
Permanent villages established in the Fertile Crescent. Farming
established on the banks of the Nile River
5000-3000 B.C.E Domestication begins of horses in Ukraine, donkeys in Egypt,
and water buffalo in China. Corn (maize) production in Mexico.

3000 B.C.E Irrigation systems and dams built on the Nile River. Crop
production increases trade and spread of agriculture. Potatoes
domesticated in Peru.
2000 B.C.E Iron plow developed in China
TIMELINE OF AGRICULTURAL
INNOVATION
YEAR INNOVATION
1000 B.C.E Manure used as fertilizer, iron plows widely used in China and
Southwest Asia.

500 B.C. E Mouldboard plow with a V-shaped iron cutting edge

developed in China.

Focus: Middle School World History (N.D) The Neolithic Agricultural Revolution
EARLY CIVILIZATIONS AND THE RISE OF
THE STATE
• The early civilization started at the Indus valley at South
Asia.
• A lot are thinking at it started at Egypt but most
archaeologist declare that the early civilization at Indus
Valley.
• The people of this Indus Valley civilization did not build
massive monuments like others.
• The Indus valley have two or twin cities called Harappa and
Mohenjo-Daro and the remnants of many other
settlements, have revealed great clues to this mystery.
• Harappa was, in fact, such discovery that the Indus Valley
Civilization is also called the Harappan civilization.
EARLY CIVILIZATIONS AND THE RISE OF
THE STATE
• Archaeological records provide no immediate
answers for a centre of power or for depictions of
people in power in Harappan society. But, there
are indications of complex decisions being taken
and implemented.
• For instance, the extraordinary uniformity of
Harappan artefacts as evident in pottery, seals,
weights and bricks.
EARLY CIVILIZATIONS AND THE RISE OF
THE STATE
• These are the major theories:
– There was a single state, given the similarity in artifacts,
the evidence for planned settlements, the standardised
ratio of brick size, and the establishment of settlements
near sources of raw material.
– There was no single ruler but several: Mohenjo-daro
had separate ruler, Harappa another, and so forth.
– Harappan society had no rulers, and everybody enjoyed
equal status.
EARLY CIVILIZATIONS AND THE RISE OF
THE STATE
• States were formed during early civilizations. Each civilization have first or
primary states.
• For Egypt, Abydos; Mesopotamia, Uruk; Indus Valley, Harappa; North China,
Shang; Peru, Moche; Mosoamerica, Monte Alban.
• These first states tend to focus on processes that create and institutionalize a
state in a situation where a state did not exist before.
• In the medieval period (500-1400 CE) in Europe there were a variety of
authority forms throughout the region.
• These included feudal lords, empires, religious authorities, free cities, and
other authorities.
• According to Barkley (1991), “Political scientists, sociologists and
anthropologists began studying the state formation processes in Europe and
elsewhere in the 1600s – beginning significantly with Marx Weber. However,
state formation became a primary interest in the 1970s. The question was often
framed as a contest between state forces and society forces and the study of how
the state became prominent over particular societies.“
EARLY CIVILIZATIONS AND THE RISE
OF THE STATE
DEMOCRATIZATION
It is the transition to a more democratic political
regime. Democracy means “a system of government
in which all the people of a state or polity that are
involved in making decisions about its affairs,
typically by voting to elect representatives to a
parliament or similar assembly,”
- Its main aim is to change the political view of the
country from an authoritarian or other regimes into
a democratic political system.
EARLY CIVILIZATIONS AND THE RISE
OF THE STATE
DEMOCRATIZATION
It became very popular and many countries now
have transitions into a democratic political system
because of four causes:
1. Wealth or Money
2. Social Equality
3. Culture
4. Foreign Interventions
REFLECTION
• After looking back at human bio-cultural and
social evolution of man, in 2-3 sentences, write in a
½ crosswise yellow pad paper the learning that
you gained, and how this help you see the relations
of the past and the present.
GLOSSARY
• Agricultural society – also known as agrarian
societies. These are societies that have developed
enough technology for large-scale farming.
• Archaeology – the study of previous cultures of
humans by analyzing various artifacts and fossils.
• Artifact - it is something that is not present in nature
but is formed through a process done by man.
Essentially it is a man-made object.
• Biological evolution – a process of genetic change
over numerous generations in a certain population.
GLOSSARY
• Civilization – a process wherein a society has attained a high level
of development.
• Cultural evolution – it is a process wherein there are notable
changes made to the culture of a society over several generations.
• Democratization – the process of making an undemocratic regime
into a democratic one.
• Homo habilis – a species of hominid that are said to be the first
ones to use tools. They lived in Africa between 1.9 and 1.8 million
years ago.
• Homo sapiens – a species of hominid. They are the modern
humans.
• Industrial society – a type of society that is already technologically
capable of mass production.
GLOSSARY
• Neolithic revolution - a term that is used to refer to
the impact and development of farming to the lives
of people.
• Post-industrial society – the term was popularized
by Daniel Bell in his “The Coming of Post-
Industrial Society”. It is a society wherein
knowledge and skills are more valued
commodities compared to property.
• State – it s a group of institutions that has
sovereignty within a certain territory.