The Origins of Culture and the Emergence of Homo

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The Origins of Culture and the Emergence of Homo
Stacy Crain Arly Bratman
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Hominid (Homo)

• First members of our own genus
• Early Homo had a brain capacity almost 1/3 larger
  than the australopithecines
• The paleoanthropology term for the third
  chimpanzee tribe since the common ancestor 5-6
  million years ago
• Covers all the apes, including hominids and
  humans, back to the common ancestor with Old
  World monkeys

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Early Hominid Life-Styles

• Many early tools were made of wood and bone
• Tool making hominids were hunting or defending
  themselves with weapons, they used wooden spears,
  clubs or unmodified stones as missiles

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Tools

• Oldowan Tools
• The flakes appear to be very versatile
• Can be used for slitting the hides of animals,
  dismembering animals and whittling wood
• Early stone tools
• Choppers
• Used to hack off branches or cut and chop tough
  animal joints
• Cores that have been partially flaked and have a
  side that might have been used for chopping

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Hominid

• The presence of patterned stone tools made from
  hominids means that early hominids had developed
  a culture
• Archaeologist consider a pattern of behavior (a
  way of making tools) to be a sign of cultural
  behavior

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Culture

• Culture is learned and shared
• Culture is not a set of innate behaviors, a set
  of learned ones
• Culture is something individuals acquire during
  their lifetimes as they mature and interact with
  others
• Interaction is key to having a culture

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Culture

• Culture is generally adaptive
• Cultural behaviors may be favored by natural
  selection
• Most of the learned and shared behaviors that
  make up a culture are developed and spread
  through a group of people to help them surive

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Culture

• Culture is always changing
• When new behaviors are developed they tend to
  become integrated with existing behaviors
• New behaviors that conflict with established ones
  lead to one or the other changing

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Hominids

• Early hominids like primates are social beings
• Hominids were making and using stone tools on a
  regular basis
• The ancient locations of early hominid social
  activity may be evidence of family groups
  (closely related hominids would share there food)

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One Model for the Evolution of Culture

• When the hominids began to scavenge for food they
  would travel long distances
• The demands of childbirth and caring for a
  newborn was difficult for early hominid mothers
  to travel for long periods of time
• Young children and mothers would share food with
  each other

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Expansion of the Brain

• Australopithecines had small cranial capacities
• Around 2.3 million years ago hominids showed
  evidence of enlarged brain capacity (about 50 of
  the brains capacity of modern humans)
• About 1.8 million years ago, had about 70 of the
  brain capacity of modern humans

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Australopithecus Africanus 440 cc
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Homo Erectus
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Homo Sapiens
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Brains

• From about 2-4 million years ago brain sized
  remained about the same
• Only in the last 2 million years has the hominid
  brain double in relative size and tripled in
  absolute size
• Early Homo developed 2 separate system to drain
  blood from the brain

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Brains

• The increase is linked to emergence of stone tool
  making about
• This is because stone tool making was important
  for survival of our ancestors and therefore
  natural selection would have favored
  bigger-brained individuals for their motor and
  conceptual skills
• Also, warfare, hunting, longer life, and language
  are factors

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Reduction of the Face, Teeth, and Jaws

• All did not appear until after about 2 million
  years ago
• Homos have reduction in the size of the face,
  cheek teeth and jaws from australopithecines
• Homo genes changed their diet to include easier
  food to chew, which changed the formation of
  their face, teeth and jaw

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Two Species of Homo

• Homo habilis
• 2.3 million years ago
• Significantly larger brains and reduce molars and
  premolars
• Homo Rudolfensis
• Flatter and broader face
• Modern like limb proportions
• It has larger teeth and broader face

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The End