The Lifestyle of Early Man

1
The Lifestyle of Early Man

• Mr. Oberholtzer
• K-212
• The Guru of Primitive Cool

2
Early Man Hunter-Gatherer

• Early Man was a hunter-gatherer
• Hunter gatherers-
• Work 1-2 hours per day
• Hunt and gather what is on the land
• Are nomads-they move around in search of food
• Are physically fit, well nourished and have much
  free time to enjoy life.
• Superior Quality of life is costly!

3
The Caveman Early Fallacy about Early Man

• Generalizations
• Early man was primitive, animalistic, brutal
  killer
• Unsophisticated inferior to Modern Man
• Harsh, brutal, short life
• Reality
• Early man was human just like us!
• Sophisticated survivor master of his
  environment!
• High quality of life better than ours!

Mr. O in class 1975
4
Early Man was a toolmaker

• The ability to make and use tools has powered
  human development.
• The use of tools has enabled man to conquer the
  Earth and outer space.
• Stone tools provided the edge that fueled the
  evolution of man

5
Higher Quality of Life

• Early Man had a higher quality of life than
  Modern Man
• Superior diet high in animal proteins, fruits and
  vegetables pure!
• Physically fit, disease free
• Unpolluted environment
• Little expenditure of effort on work
  hunter-gatherer lifestyle

6
Hunter-Gatherer v. Civilization

• Physical Health was better for Hunter-Gatherers
• Diet was mostly animal protein, low fat
  civilized died comes primarily from cereal grains
• Pure food, water and air
• Avg. tooth loss at time of death was 2.2 during
  the Roman era it was 6.6
• Physically fit, much exercise
• Work
• Hunter-Gatherer works 1-2 hours per day the rest
  is free time. Civilized man works 8 hours per
  day!
• Quality of Life
• Civilized man works harder and enjoys none of the
  lifestyle benefits of early man. Quality of life
  for Early man was higher!

7
Key to High Standard of Living

• Thomas Malthus-
• Human population always rises until nature
  intervenes and reduces population through famine,
  disease, war man is unable to control his
  population
• Marvin Harris-
• Intensification of Production
• More rapid production leads to resource depletion
• Never permanent always concelled out by
  population increase.
• Ultimately destroys environment
• Reaction to overpopulation always bad!
• Key to High Standard of Living Population
  Control!

8
Population Control

• Early Man controlled his population in order to
  preserve his hunter-gatherer lifestyle.
• Used specific techniques
• Infanticidekilling of children
• Geronticidekilling of old people
• Warfarekilling of rival humans
• Lactationnursed infants until age of 6

9
Cost/Benefits of Population Control

• Benefits-
• Preservation of the Environment
• No intensification of the Environment
• Plentiful resources for all
• High quality of life
• Cost-
• Wastage of Human Life
• Abortion
• Infanticide
• Geronticide
• warfare

10
Stone Age Technology

• Flaked points were fashioned to a thinness of
  4/10 of an inch sharp, lethal, they allowed
  Early Man working cooperatively in small groups
  to be successful in hunting large animals
• Early man fashioned tools for cutting, scraping,
  butchering, burrowing complete technology for
  survival!

11
Handaxes in Early Mans Life

• Hand Axes were used to butcher meat, dig up roots
  in the earth and cut down roots and small trees.

12
Fire was important technology!

• Fire provided heat and light
• Fire provided protection from larger predators
• Fire tenderized meat and made it possible to eat
  large quantities of animal protein!

13
Early Man as Scavenger

• Australopithecus and Homo Erectus were primarily
  scavengers.
• Used tools to scavenge meat and bone marrow from
  carcasses.
• High Protein diet enabled mans brain to grow in
  size and intelligence.

14
Early Man was Successful

• Early Man was successful in his environment
• He kept population stable, gathered food without
  destroying the environment.
• Enjoyed pure food, air water, exercise healthier
  than Modern Man.

15
Early Man was Sophisticated

• Early Man was a sophisticated survivor who
• Maintained a superior diet
• Kept is population under control for thousands of
  years
• Created complex tools and sophisticated art
• Achieved what civilized man has not been able to
  achieve, even with advanced technology!