Intro to human origins exam #3

What time period was upper Paleolithic?

40-10k years ago

What era did humans adopt regular tool traditions/ technological improvements that reduced selective pressures for more robust bodies?

The Upper Paleolithic Era

Pressure utilized for making tools allowed for

more control over final product

What hunting tools arise in the upper Paleolithic era?

• Nets made from wild plant fibers

• bow and arrows

• Spear-throwers

What and where is the “paint factory“

Large collection of cave art in South Africa

What’s the traditional theory for how people first got into the Americas?

Land bridge from Siberia to Alaska around 13-15k years ago

Subsistence patterns in North America

• Collected plants and berries

• Clovis people hunted large game

• Made “flunted” pear points out of flint (13,200-12,900 years ago)

What’s The Mesolithic?

The period between the Paleolithic and the Neolithic (a.k.a. the Middle Stone Age 12,000- 10,000 y.a.)

Climate of the mesolithic

warmer climate resulted in rising sea level and replacement of tundra forests

Megafauna

Uprise in mammoths, mastodon, ground sloths, and other big animals in the Mesolithic

Mesolithic trends- Megafauna

• Pleistocene megafauna began to migrate north, while others went extinct

• People turned to hunting smaller animals, gathering, and fishing

In the Mesolithic, what kind of tools replaced chipped stone of the Paleolithic?

Ground stone tools/bone tools

Tools of North America in Mesolithic

• Awls and Adez developed through grinding

In which era did small blades become widespread?

Mesolithic

Which era shifted to people relying on starchy, high caloric foods of high productivity and storability?

Neolithic

When was the Neolithic era?

10,000-3,000 years ago

Effects of permanent settlements

• Increased population densities

• Increased value in material possessions

• Decline/shift in general health

Vegaculture

The cultivation of domesticated root crops, such as yams and taro

Horticulture

Cultivation of crops carried out with simple hand tools such as digging sticks or hoes

Agriculture

Intensive crop cultivation, employing plows, fertilizers, and/or irrigation

Pastoralism

Breeding and managing migratory herds of domesticated grazing animals

Effects of domesticating plants

• Edible parts grow larger

• Biological defense mechanisms are reduced

• Simultaneous ripening of fruit

• Loss of natural means of seed dispersal

Pros of cultivation

• Results in higher crop yields than foraging

• More people can be fed

• Sedentary lifestyle + food = higher fertility

• Population Increase

Cons of cultivation

• Food production is hard work.

• Not necessarily a more secure means of subsistence

• Drought, disease = starvation

• Thus, many groups have remained foragers

Effects of Domestication on Animals

• Reduction in defensive parts

• Increase in musculature and milk-production

• Age and sex imbalances in herd animals

Traits that make animals sutible for domestication

• Efficient diet

• Quick growth rate

• Ability to breed in captivity

• Pleasant disposition

• Tendency not to panic

• Social structure

Negative impacts of food domestication

• Increased population densities required more food

• Crops were selected for higher productivity and storability, not nutrition

• Sanitation was problematic (garbage and human waste)

• Close contact between humans and their domesticated animals