Human Origins

Question 1

What is culture?

Answer 1

Learned behavior, passed down from others rather than based on instinct

Question 2

Culture in Animals

Answer 2

• Monkeys can make tools and teach their young to use them
• Clans/gangs
• Animal societies adapt to new situations
• Emotions

Question 3

Before Darwin, how did people in Europe understand human origins?

Answer 3

The Bible. God created humans separate from animals, different “kinds.”

Question 4

Charles Darwin

Answer 4

19th century (d. April 19, 1882)
England
A naturalist, geologist, and biologist known for contributions to evolutionary biology

1859 book “On the Origin of Species”

Question 5

Bipedalism

Answer 5

5 - 7 million years ago
Southern and Eastern Africa
Ability to walk upright on two legs.
Because of climate change, trees growing farther apart, and saving energy

Question 6

The Stone Age

Answer 6

2.5 million years ago - 3,300 B.C.
Paleolithic (old stone), Neolithic (new stone)
First use of stone tools
Homo sapiens first emerged

Question 7

Paleolithic Age

Answer 7

2.5 million years ago - 10,000 B.C.
“Old Stone Age”
Hunter-Gatherers
Includes the Ice Age
Domesticated dogs

Question 8

Neolithic Age

Answer 8

10,000 B.C. - 4000/2000 B.C.
First structures built
Agriculture begins after Ice Age
Homo Sapiens are only Hominids left

Question 9

Ice Age

Answer 9

150,000 - 11,000 years ago
Mass migrations from Africa to other continents (Bering Land Bridge)
Hunting and foraging
Neanderthals go extinct

Earth tilts on its axis and Northern Hemisphere moves away from sun (every 100,000 years)

Question 10

Cave Paintings

Answer 10

30,000 - 20,000 years ago
Most found in Europe and Australia
Two categories: Stationary and Portable
Animal/Hunting scenes, human hands, fertility/women
Colors: Reds, browns, charcoal black

Question 11

Australopithecus

Answer 11

4 million - 1 million years ago
Eastern and Southern Africa
Short stature, small brain size, walked upright on trees then on the ground, Omnivore

Question 12

Lucy

Answer 12

3.2 million years old, discovered in 1974 by Donald Johanson in Ethiopia
Australopithecus Afarensis

Question 13

Homo Erectus

Answer 13

1 million years ago
“Upright human”

Question 14

Homo Habilis

Answer 14

2.5 - 1.6 million years ago
“able man”
First hominid to make and use tools
Wider thumb, larger brain than Australopithecus, decreased snout (more human-like face)

Question 15

Evidence of early tools

Answer 15

Cut marks on bones of turtles, hippos, and other animals

Question 16

Homo Sapiens

Answer 16

200,000 to present
(ours from around 100,000 years ago)
first in Africa
“wise man” or Modern Human
Migrated across the globe, only ones to survive the Ice Age

Question 17

Homo Neanderthalensis

Answer 17

130,000 to 40,000 years ago
“Neanderthals”
lived in Europe after leaving Africa
First to survive in a glacial, cold climate
Did not survive the Ice Age
Buried their dead with flowers

Question 18

Why did hominids split from apes?

Answer 18

Adaptation to new environment, result of climate change, diverse and rapidly changing environments like the African savanna

Question 19

Çatal Höyük

Answer 19

7,000 B.C.
Höyük means “mound”
Eurasia, now Turkiye
Neolithic Civilization/settlement,
Combined hunter/gatherers and agriculture practice,
Buried their dead (most babies) in floors of house, then rebuilt new layer of houses on top.
Obsidian mirrors and blades
Goddess (giving birth, leopards)
Decapitated painting/remains/vultures

Question 20

Agricultural Revolution

Answer 20

End of Ice Age (11,000 years ago)
Climate stabilized and cold eased up over time allowing plant growth to become more stable and observable.

Impacts: Population boom, inventions, labor specialization, animal domestication, villages/towns, patriarchy, social distinctions

Question 21

First animal to be domesticated

Answer 21

Dogs!
26,000 - 19,700 years ago
North Eurasia
Dogs