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The Biological And Cultural Patterns Of The Ancient And Medieval World

2140 Words9 Pages

Antara Ragini Dev Sarmah
Mr. Sudhakar Singh
9 August 2014

The Biological & Cultural Evolution of Man
Social Formation and Cultural Patterns of the Ancient and Medieval World

Evolution is termed as the process by which various kinds of organisms are believed to have developed from their earlier forms, through the course of many millennia. It explains what we see today as different from what existed in the past. Over millions of years, biological processes like natural selection gave rise to new species. This process was termed as ‘Descent with Modifications’ by Charles Darwin. Biological and cultural changes and modifications are what gave rise to modern humans as we know them today. This essay will trace the biological and cultural evolution …show more content…

It is divided into two categories, Prosimii and Anthropoidea. Hominoids are a sub category of Anthropoidea, which today comprises of the great apes, humans and the gibbons. Hominids evolved from Hominoids and have many similarities, but also have striking differences. These include a larger brain size, upright posture, bipedal locomotion and differences in the hand that enable the making and use of tools. Man is a tool making animal, tool making was the first culture of man. Thus, this is a very important difference. Hominids are divided into categories called Genus, of which Australopithecus and Homo will be focused on in this essay. Each of these genera includes several …show more content…

The H. Habilis moved in search of food and probably ate smaller animals. There is no evidence of their usage of fire.

Homo Erectus This species is named Homo Erectus, because its legs and pelvis show evidence of bipedalism. They lived around 1.5 million years ago to about 250,000 years ago and lived in Africa besides A. Robustus and A. Boisei for thousands of years. The H. Erectus were the first to leave Africa, the cradle of mankind. The climatic changes of the Pleistocene epoch accelerated the pace of both cultural and biological changes in humans and also the spread of hunting and gathering groups to all corners of the world by the late Pleistocene epoch.
The first H. Erectus Fossil was found in Java and was nicknamed Java Man. Another was found near Peking, China and nicknamed Peking Man. Also, a near perfect skull of a 12 year old boy was found near Lake Turkana in Kenya and nicknamed Turkana Boy. Important characteristics of the H. Erectus include:
It was much bigger than the previous hominids.
Evidence from bones suggest that they were much stronger than modern humans.
It had a large brain with a well developed Broca’s area, the zone associated with the ability to

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