Words for Board: Fossil, Zinjanthropus, Java, Peking, Neanderthal, Cro-Magnon, Ethnocentric, Taboo

In the Beginning—actually evidence supports evolution. The Big Bang Theory supposedly explains the creation of the universe and is supported by new evidence. It (in short) says there was a big explosion and the universe is moving farther out away from the center. The earth was formed about 5 billion years ago at the best guess of geologists.

The history of humans is in 2 parts: Prehistory, about the time when humans didn't know how to write, and History when there were writers around. How do we know what Prehistorical people were like? We have information based on Fossils. A Fossil is the remains or evidence of a life form, i.e. a leaf form or bone, etc. impressed on rocks. How do you know when the fossil was alive? There are lots of ways: 1. See where the fossil was buried in the rock strata (layer) of the earth. The farther down in the layers, the older the fossil. Geologists estimated the time it takes to make a layer and can guess how old the fossil is. 2. Radiation tests with Carbon 14. It works cuz the sun is radioactive and gives its rays to the plants on earth which are eaten by the animals as food (which are eaten by men, etc.). When the animals die, they stop eating (just happens to work out that way) and stop the radiation intake and the radiation starts draining away. Scientists know the rate Carbon becomes non-radioactive so they know how much is left in the fossil and therefore when it was alive. But this test is only good for 40,000 years ago (with the newest equipment up to 60,000 years). 3. There's a new potassium argon dating test for older stuff.

What was early man like? Man first appears cuz of evolution (per evidence–if you're religious, just don't believe the lecture at this point). Man appeared 4 million to 1 ½ million years ago depending on what you call early man. Man evolved in the same method as other animals so why is he different? Or is he just a super animal? Religions says we're different cuz we have a soul (there's no scientific evidence to support or prove). How could you tell if we're different per testing? The nearest thing to man in evolution is the chimpanzee so we tested it. The theory used to be that man was different cuz he was the only creature that could reason. Other animals lived by instinct. But 50-60 years ago we found out that chimps could reason. There was a chimp named Sultan who had to figure out how to get bananas from the top of its cage by stacking boxes. So reasoning was not the difference. Then the theory was that man was the only animal that made tools. But Jane Goodall lived with some wild chimpanzees (what a trip) and found that they made a tool for fishing for termites with a stripped branch. They would stick the branch in the termite hole and come up with a termite popsicle (yummy).

Science can't prove anything other than we're Super Animals. But we're superior. We've wiped out almost all the others. Actually we're superior cuz of some neat stuff: 1. We have a superior brain. It is the largest and most complex. The best part is up front in the forehead. We can learn faster and remember longer than other animals. Therefore we can imagine the future and prepare for it. 2. We have a more advanced vocal mechanism than others. We have a tongue, teeth, larynx, soft palate, etc. to make more complicated sounds. We can pass on our culture to future generations. They're working on chimps with computers and sign language to get speech for them. But they're limited to 150-180 word vocabularies. 3. We have 3D vision (so do chimps). Fish and birds have eyes on both sides of their heads. Our eyes are taking 2 different pictures (kind of a cross reference) but our brain is combining them to give depth perception. Depth was very important to early man to figure out how far away the tiger was. 4. We have upright stature which makes us taller to see over other animals, but it also frees up our front feet to carry things. 5. We have an opposable thumb. It is the strongest finger and works against the other fingers so we hold things better. Ancient civilizations understood the value of the thumb. They used to cut off the thumbs of POW's and turn them loose, thereby rendering them harmless as enemies cuz they couldn't hold weapons.

The earliest time of man is the Stone Age (named after the chief material of tools at the time). It was 1 ½ million to 9,000 years ago. The Old Stone Age was the earliest. The first man was Zinjanthropus ("East African man") found in East Africa. He was stupid, didn't have fire, had crude tools. Apparently he lived by strangling turtles and catfish. He was eaten by animals and died out. At this point in time there were all kinds of different strains of man popping up in different places–some made it, some didn't. The next man was Java found in an island in the Pacific (now part of Indonesia). He was about 1 million years ago with a thick skull and dumb. Next was Peking found in Peking, China about 1 million years ago. He used fire and tools.

The biggie of early man was the Neanderthal. He came about 300,000 years ago. When you think of a Caveman, that's him. He was about 5 feet tall, stocky, thick bones with a smaller brain. He was a skilled flint worker who had fire. He buried his dead and believed in life after death. How do we know, you ask? He tied up his dead before burying to make sure the spirits didn't come back to haunt him in his dreams. He was cannibalistic. He may not have stood fairly erect. He gathered woodsy things to eat also. His major weapon was a fist ax. It's a piece of rock with a point on one end and round on the other. You run up and hit people on the head with it. He killed lots of cave bears (presumably the bears were hibernating and not too with it when he ran in) to get caves for housing. There was an ice age outside and caves were lots warmer than trees. Mammoths and saber tooth tigers were alive at this time but dinosaurs had been dead for 70 million years.

The next man was Cro-Magnon, who came about 30,000 years ago. He was the last of the cavemen. He came during the New Stone Age. He had better equipment and tools. He stood 6 feet tall and had a brain maybe larger than ours. He may have thrown the Neanderthal out of the caves cuz of the housing shortage or maybe he intermarried with them. Anyway, Neanderthal faded out. Cro-Magnon is our direct ancestor. He was very bright. He was the cave artist–not cuz of love of beauty or cuz he had a deep soul. He painted animals in the guts of caves where people didn't live. He also painted big meaty animals not fuzzy lil bunnies. The paintings were sometimes chipped in vital organ places. It was art for magic sake. He had a religion of sympathy. He would attack the paintings to weaken the animals before hunting. Actually it strengthens the hunter in his mind. He invented knots, handles on points to make spears, a handle on the fist ax which made it a better weapon, and the bow and arrow.

About 7,000 BC (notice the dating system. To figure out how long ago it was add about 2,000 years.) Man domesticated animals. The first one was the dog. It may have happened by accident. Dogs have great noses for game but lousy claws and teeth. Men have lousy noses but were great killers. Somehow they got together. Next was sheep and cows. The horse was domesticated early cuz he ran too fast. Cows were slow and easier to catch. The horse wasn't needed until organized warfare. Tame animals were better than wild ones cuz they were easier to catch and kill.

Next man domesticated plants for growing food. It was the greatest revolution of man. Man used to gather wheat close to the river but it was too far away. Planting crops where you want them is much easier. Now man didn't have to constantly move in search of a food supply. Man could live in larger groups. Therefore they could defend the land against other people and animals, etc.

Specialization of labor started.. (Rotten wheat growers were allowed to catch fish instead, etc.) Man began needing rules to prevent excess murders, etc. People began living better and longer and the population expanded.

Cavemen were just as bright as us–they just didn't have the store of knowledge we have. They practiced brain surgery. Cousin Clyde would fall down and hit his head and come back to the cave with Excedrin headache #439 and pass out. Pretty soon they noticed his head was kind of fat and he hadn't awakened in 3 days, but he was still breathing. They figured out there was too much pressure and drilled a small hole in the skull to let out the pressure. (If they got too eager, it was too bad for Cousin Clyde.) People survived the operation, (called trephination–it's still done today) and we know they survived cuz we have found skulls where a hole had been drilled and grew back together when it healed.

We'd like to know the social processes of primitive man but that kind of information isn't found in fossils. The closest we can get to understanding primitives is to study the primitive cultures that can still be found today in far away places like some islands in the Philippines and Africa. Primitives are Ethnocentric ("group-centered"). They believe their group (culture) is better than everyone else's. "We're the good guys." The American Indian tribes often gave the name of their tribe as "the People." They're the people and everyone else is nothing.

Primitives live by Taboos. These are prohibitive rules. Primitives are conservative. They are just barely hanging on the edge of starvation all the time and can't afford to try anything new, exciting, and different. They know the old system works and they're staying alive so they can't experiment.

About 5,000 BC the 1st metal (copper) was discovered. This begins the Age of Metal that we're still in. Copper melts out at a low temperature which is why it was discovered 1st. It's too soft to make weapons–it was used for decoration, jewelry, etc. (you know–copper bracelets to cure arthritis). About 3,000 BC someone bright figured out how to add tin to the copper. The mix is called bronze and is stronger than either copper or tin by themselves. It was the start of the Bronze Age. Bronze makes great weapons and tools so war and civilization can progress much faster.