Introducing Anthropology. Laura Pountney

      Picture of a bison from 16,500 years ago in Altamira Cave, Spain, showing sophisticated use of three dimensions to represent the animal’s legs and stomach. (Rameessos / Wikimedia Commons)

Ultimately, words and symbols led to the elaborate language structures and the complex human societies that exist today. With materials such as ochre, our human ancestors marked objects and possibly also their own skin. Colours were probably used as symbols by which they identified themselves and their group. Symbols can be complex and mean several different things at the same time for humans. By 40,000 years ago, they were creating two- and three-dimensional images of the world around them. By 17,000 years ago, they had developed complex artistic techniques.

Recording information: The origins of written language

      Around 70,000–80,000 years ago, there is evidence of markings that indicate information was being recorded. Their meanings are not easy to understand, and anthropologists do not always agree over what this early recorded material signifies. However, it is generally agreed that, by around 8,000 years ago, humans were using symbols to represent words and concepts. Specific forms of writing developed over the next few thousand years. But it should be clear that written language is a purely cultural construct and that its origin required no changes in cognition. People living in pre-literate societies, such as hunter-gatherer groups, are as cognitively competent as the agriculturalists who invented written language.

Social life

      Another feature of human beings that distinguishes them from all other primates is their much more complex social lives. However, in the long evolution of human beings, it is only in the past 10,000 years that farming, herding, cities, trade and warfare emerged.

      On a more basic level, sharing food, caring for infants and building social networks helped early humans meet the daily challenges of survival. The concern for the well-being of others and a willingness to help them is key to what makes us humans; this is sometimes known as altruism. Over time, early humans began to gather near fires and shelters to eat and socialize. As human brains became larger and more complex, growing up took longer, requiring skilled care and attention and the protective environment of a home. Expanding social networks led, eventually, to the complex social lives of modern humans. Interestingly, another feature of humans is that they usually maintain lifelong ties with their children. The systems of kinship and marriage that preserve the links between parents and their offspring and across generations are further major differences between humans and other primates.

      altruism The ability to put the needs of others before your own

Sharing resources, exchange

There is evidence which indicates that, around 2.6 to 2.8 million years ago, some groups of early humans began collecting tools and food from a variety of places and bringing them to favoured resting and eating spots. Sharing vital resources with other members of the group led to stronger social bonds and enhanced the group’s chances of survival. About 2 million years ago, early humans transported materials such as stone over several miles, from which they made tools for killing animals. Evidence has shown that, around 40,000 years ago, materials such as shells were being transported a long way from their original location, which suggests that humans were sharing resources and communicating with others from a range of different places. This sharing of goods led to the development of exchange systems, which are fundamental to the success of the human species and are a universal feature of all human societies.

Rituals

      By 100,000 years ago, early modern humans buried the dead together with beads and other symbolic objects. Burial rituals heightened the group’s memory of the deceased person. These rituals may imply that such groups shared the belief that a person’s identity extends beyond death. By 24,000 years ago, there is evidence of child burials, with children being buried covered in ochre markings and with mammoth tusks.

Expressing identity

      Our ancestors used jewellery and other personal adornments to reflect their identity. These adornments may have represented membership in a particular group or someone’s age, sex and social status.

       ACTIVITY

      List as many advantages as you can of the specific ways in which humans evolved culturally.

      Evolution in humans has selected for:

       very big brains – we can deal with complex and abstract concepts;

       language – we are able to store and transmit knowledge;

       narrow hips – we can run, but giving birth is difficult and our babies are immature;

       sweaty/hairless skin – to help regulate temperature, e.g., to keep cool when running;

       longevity – humans are among the only primates that live beyond the menopause;

       altruism – we have empathy for other humans.

       ACTIVITY

      How might the characteristics below be linked? Draw arrows between the boxes and explain the connections.

How Do Humans Vary? The Concept of Race and a Critique of the Concept

      Biological differences between humans

      It is now agreed that Homo sapiens evolved from one of many types of early human and then spread around the world, interacting with other forms such as Neanderthals and gradually displacing these other types, though continuing to carry the genetic material from other early humans.

      From research into the DNA of modern humans, there is increasing evidence that early humans mixed and had sex, and that this tended to be more likely between neighbouring groups. Using genetic information, it is now possible to investigate people’s ancestry as well as trace their movements. For example, it has been found that 95 per cent of Icelandic men have Norse ancestry, whereas 85 per cent of Icelandic women have Celtic ancestry, which indicates that they had relations with Celtic men on their way to Iceland. This kind of information tells us a lot about the kinds of social relationships occurring between groups.

      It is clear that there are some physical differences between human groups. These are based on minor genetic differences and the variations that have arisen further from these lineages. For example, we know that Inuit are different from Australians, and no one confuses the !Kung San hunter-gatherers from the Kalahari desert with the Bantu farmers. Therefore ancestry, in biological terms, refers simply to specific genetic lineage.

In wider society, the concept of race has been interpreted in a number of ways. During the nineteenth century there were several attempts to create stratified categories of race along the lines of perceived (or given) physical and intellectual differences between various social groups. Often, these categories were created to reflect power differences.

       ACTIVITY

      Are the statements below correct or incorrect? Give reasons for your responses.