History 114 W4

The Original Human Condition

• 95% of human existence h-g

• Agriculture is relatively recent

Low & widely dispersed population b4 Neolithic Rev

• Nomadic bands have natural birth control (1st menstrual cycle at 16) + women have babies infrequently (1st birth 19-20; average birthing interval of 4 yrs)

How do we know about the hunter-gatherer lifestyle?

Archaeology, palaeoenvironmental science, genetics & ethnography

What do we know about h-g?

• Small bands + seasonal movements (tied to ecology, mobility limits accumulation)

• Diet & division of labour (broad diets, hierarchies + slavery)

Gossip

• Grooming: way to maintain social bonds in large groups

• Governance: reputation matters in small groups, language = humans can discuss absent 3rd parties

Dunbar’s number

150 is the proposed cognitive limit for the no. of individuals w/ whom a human can maintain stable, meaningful social relationships

Debate: What was life really like as a hunter-gatherer Homo Sapiens?

• Steven Pinker - Violent + insecure: Pre-state societies had high homicide rates, & centralized states had far lower rates

• Yuval Noah Harari - Healthy + relatively egalitarian: Hunter-gatherers’ varied diets, few diseases, more autonomy & equality than early farmers

Key Question

Is hierarchy inevitable or is it historically contingent?

The first to leave Africa

Homo erectus, 2 mil y.a

Why did Homo erectus leave Africa?

• Pushed to leave

• Dev of intellect (social learning curiosity)

• Dev of hunting abilities

• Tech dev,

• Envro change (expansion of grasslands, range expansion of African carnivores)

What allowed Homo erectus to leave Africa?

• Modern body shape - cover long distances

• Intelligence to cope w/ unfamiliar environments

• Improved tech to aid subsistence

• New subsistence strategies (diets rich in meat)

Out-of-Africa Theory

Homo erectus leaves Africa, but 1 pop stays = modern h dev 200 000 BP

Evidence: Mitochondrial Eve + Y-Chromosome Adam

Mitochondrial Eve

• Matrilineal most recent common ancestor

• mtDNA: passed unmixed from mother to child = trace female lineage

Y-Chromosome Adam

• Patrilineal most recent common ancestor

• Passed on to male descendents w/ recombination = trace male lineage

Multiregional (Separate Development Theory)

Homo erectus, after leaving Africa, began to independently evolve into modern Homo sapiens

• Geographically separate & variable pops w/ occasional interbreeding = still one species

Implication of Separate Development Theory

Sep pop = distinct physical features = multiple origins & deep genetic divisions btwn ‘races’