Experiments  

What are the first things that come to mind when thinking about pre-history?

(Question very open - anyone could answer - is it too open?) Does this exercise work well as an introduction?

With me asking the question and typing:

• rocks
• what is it?
• stone tools
• no writing
• grunting
• ages ago

What are the main points we need to remember when thinking about early man?

With me asking the question and a student typing - is having student use technology too distracting? too difficult? Does this exercise work well as a conclusion rathyer than a beginning

• tool makers
• death rituals
• bacon
• parrots

1. What are the different ways in which paleoanthropologists attempt to define what a human being is?
2. Why did human migrate out of Africa? What are the different possible explanations for this movment of peoples?
3. What was life like for people living during the Ice Age?
4. What may the art produced by Ice-Age cultures tell us about their societies?
5. What different survivla strategies did hunting/foraging societies devlop in order to survive in hostile environments?
6. In Perspective: How have migration and social change affected the devlopment of foraging cultures around the world?

Today's Question: Who Counts as Human? How Unique are we really?

Consider the following

• Homo floresiensis: the "hobbit people" tool users with small brians and small bodies who lived about 11,000 years ago in Flores.
• Burial of the dead and tool use are not unique to humans.
• What about the argument sof animal rights ethicists such as Peter Singer?

How far are we willing to extend the notion of being human -- how far back into our own evolutionary part, and how broadly among our priate relatives and other species such as dolphins?

What rights might such recognition convey?

Different scientist have diferent answer to the question "What makes a human a human" - however, each is in its own way problematic

• Human being as tool makers (Homo habilis 2.3 to 1.44 millions years ago and later hominids). Problem - Some simians also make and use tools.

 The New York Times reported in 1995 that the earliest tools had been found in Ethiopia, which were 2.517 million years old, datable by the layer of volcanic ash in which they were found. Most were pebbles of lava which had been struck with another rock to create a crude scraper.

Some scientists focus on burial of the dead (Homo Ergaster - 1.8-1.2 million years ago), but some simians, bonobos are the best example also appear to engage in ritual activity withe their dead.

Footprint of a Homo Ergaster, 1.5 million years old, from Ileret, Kenya.

Are human's the only species that can grieve? Elephants have been observed to stay by their dead relatives for days nudging them with their tusk, but this recent photo of a 40 year old female chimp, a veteran of the Sanaga-Yong Chimpanzee Rescue Center in Cameroon, West Africa, seems to show the grief of both her human and chimp friends (see article).

Why do you think people first became famers and tillers?

(Question require more particular thought and analysis - will answer be too wordy? process take too long)

With me asking the question and one of the writing fellows typing

• gnomes
• aliens
• parrots
• emus
• survival
• need for flourishing
• overpopulation
• chance/accident
• trade
• need for food
• famine
• curiosity
• conservatism

Maraget Mead famously argued that war was "an invention, not a biological necessity." What do you think?

Read an Except from Margaret Mead, "Warfare is only an invention - not a biological necessity," ASIA, 40 (1940).

Males dominate in most human societies. Why is this the case? What reasons can be offered for male dominance in politics and war? What does this say about the role of women?

Which of these reasons do you believe?

• competition in mating amkes males physically larger and stronger
• the role of "aplha males' in leadership and reproduction
• the tendency of male to bond or create alliances
• the greater value of women (kept out of war, "liberated' for maximum reproduction.

What ways did people devise to exist in the harsh climates of the Artic and the desert? Why do you think that people would persevere in extremely histile environments rather than simply move?

• invention of a lamp by the Inuit to track game during the Arctic winter
• development of incredible endurance running by the San of the Kalahari to enable them to track and take prey
• deep conservatism within a community
• real fear that life may be worse elsewhere

Human Evolution an excellent resource constructed by The Institute for Human Origins and Arizona Styate Univeristy that provides an enormous amount of up-to-date unformation about human evolaution and recent discoveries in the field.

"Out of Africa" presents an argument for the "Out of Africa" theory with an outline of the leading alternative theory and reference to further reading by leading researchers in the field.

Ice Age Take a panoramic tour of the Smithsonian's Ice Age mammals exhibit.

Peopling of the Americas - interesting articles about the site at Monte Verde and the Meadowcroft Rock Shelter

Lascaux Cave Painting - an amazing virtual tour and provides background on the excavation and a tour of the cave and its paintings.

This 24minutes video from www.archaeologychannel.com is an archaeological adventure at the Topper Site in Allendale County, South Carolina, famous for Clovis and possibly pre-Clovis artifacts. Here, early humans were coming to ancient chert quarries, making rudimentary knives and other tools. Recent evidence found by the team lead by Dr. Al Goodyear may support the idea that a comet suddenly wiped out the Clovis Culture 13,000 years ago. World-renowned scientists offer their opinions about these significant first Americans—where they came from, how they lived, and what may have been their fate.

R. G. Klein, The Dawn of Human Culture (2002) is an excellent examination of the evolution of Homo sapiens with a fascinating exploartion of the reasons for the failure of Neanderthals.

F.B. M. de Waal, ed. Tree of Origin: What Primate Behavior Can Tells Us about Human Socila Evolution (2002).

S. Mithen, After the Ice: A Global Human History 20,000-5,000 B.C.E. (2004) - a sweeping overview that utilizes arcaheology, genetic studiesm and environmental science to reconstruct the end of the last Ice Age.

B. Fagan, Ancient North America: The Archaeology of a Continent Third Edition (2001) is an excellent, well-written overview by a leading scholar.

B. Fagan, People of the Earth: An Introduction to the World Prehistory (2004) - comprehensive overview.

N. Ajoulat, Lascaux: Movement, Space and Time (2005), written by a geologist and prehistorian, examines the paintings in full context of the cave and presents a remarkable new interpretation of these famous paintings.

S. Oppenheimer, The Real Eve: Modern Man's Journey Out of Africa (2004) a powerful argument for the single migration out of Africa thesis.

A. Ferril, The Origins of War (1985)begins with a useful overview of the various arguments about the evidence for prehistoric warfare.