The Breakthrough to History

The Themes involved in this lecture were the importance of language, learning and culture as key factors that distinguish humans from their hominid ancestors, and the fact that humans are everywhere. This involved the dicussion of the human evolution - from hominid to human: The emergence of homo sapiens and the characteristics that distinguish humans from earlier hominids, as well as the peopling of the planet: The human colonisation of the planet.

Hominid to Human:

• Southern Apes (Australopithecines)
• homo habilus
• homo erectus (1.7m to 0.5 m years ago)
• homo sapiens (around 100,000 years ago).

There are two different theories about the nature of this evolutionary process. these include the candalebra model, which argues that there mulitple sites of independent evolution, and the Noah's Ark model, which argues that modern humans evolved only once and in only one place, before then spreading out across the globe. The Noah's Ark Model is supported by Molecular Biology and Archeology. The genetic uniformity amongst humans could not be produced by independent evolution.

Key factors in human evolution:

1. Living on the ground: there were more food sources, but less security. Meant that the open savanah was negotiable.
2. Bipedalism - transmission in posture from hunched to upright.
3. Growth in brain size: Southern Apes 400-500 cc, modern humans 1100-1400 cc
4. Development of culture and its transmission through language

Language gave homo sapiens an enormous advantage over other species. The increasingly sophisticated social interaction within groups that came with language facilitated a more coordinated response toward such crucial activities as hunting, as well as resulting in the benefits we know of as culture. For example:

· The technological benefits of better tools

· The revolution that came with cooking

• The refinement of learning through art

The Peopling of the World

Increased brain size, language and culture were crucial in enabling the first humans to move beyond Africa and exploit much more difficult environments. Homo sapiens evolved in Africa around 150,000 years ago, reached south-west Asia about 100,000 years ago and then spread eastwards across Eurasia to reach southeast Asia about 70,000 to 60,000 years ago. Australia was reached about 60,000 years ago. The crossing of the land bridge (due to low sea levels) linking Siberia and Alaska had occurred by about 20,000 years ago, bringing humans to the last major continent, the Americas. The last areas of the world settled by humans were the islands of the Pacific and Indian Oceans.