HUMAN BIOCULTURAL AND

SOCIAL EVOLUTION
Cultural Beginning

 Culture is defined as “ that complex whole

which encompasses beliefs, practices, values,
attitudes, laws, norms, artifacts, symbols,
knowledge, and everything that a person learns
and shares as a member of society “
(Tylor,2010).
Biological Capacity for Culture:
Our thinking capacity
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Our Walking and Standing Capacity

Primates forms of locomotion:

Bipedalism Quadropedalism

By being bipedal, humans gained more capacity to

move while carrying objects with their free hands. It
gave humans more productivity with their hands.
Homo habilis

 Species name means "Handy Man".

 Species with a brain of Broca's are which is
associated with speech in modern humans and
was the first to make stone tools. The ability to
make and use tools is a unique quality to
humans such that the species is recognized to
be the first true human.
 Lived about 2.4 - 1.4 million years ago
scavenging for food.
Homo rudolfensis

 Species characterized by a longer

face, larger molar and premolar teeth,
and having a large braincase
compared to habilis particularly larger
frontal lobes, areas of the brain that
processes information.
 Lived about 1.9 - 1.8 million years ago.
Homo erectus

 Species name means "Upright Man" with body

proportions similar to that of modern humans.
 Lived 1.89 - 143,000 years ago; adapted to
hot climates and mostly spread in africa and
asia.
 They were the first hunters with improvised
tools such as axes and knives, and were the
first to produce fire.
Homo heidelbergenesis

 Species with large brow ridge and short wide

bodies that lived about 700,000 to 200,000
years ago in Europe and Africa.
 First of early human species to live in colder
climates, first to hunt large animals on routine
basis using spears, and first to construct
human shelters.
Homo florensiensis

 Species nicknamed "Hobbit" due to

their small stand with a height of
more or less 3 ft and lived 95,000 to
170,000 years ago in the Island of
Flores, Indonesia along with other
dwarfed animal species.
Homo sapiens

 Species name
means "Wise Man"
that appeared from
200,000 years ago.
The present human
race belongs to this
species.
Homo sapiens neanderthalensis

 Subspecies with short yet stocky in body build

and adapted to winter climates especially in
icy cold places in Europe and Asia.
 Also known as "Neanderthal Man" -The
closest relative of modern humans.
 The first to practice human burials, hunting
and gathering food, and sewing clothes from
animal skin and using bone needles.
 Lived about 200,000 - 28,000 years ago.
Homo sapiens sapiens

 Subspecies also known as "Cro-Magnon"

characterized to be anatomically modern
humans and lived in the last Ice Age of
Europe for 40,000 to 10,000 years ago.
 First to produce art in cave paintings and
crafting decorated tools and accessories
• The physical as well as the mental development of early
human beings helped them understand and adapt to their
existing environment.

• Thus, their adjustment served as the onset of their culture.

Culture enables the members of society to develop ways of
coping with the exigencies of nature as well as ways of
harnessing their environment (Panopio, et al. 1994 p. 37)
 The Oldowan Industry

 The Oldowan is the earliest widespread stone tool archeological

industry in prehistory.
 Oldowan tools were used during the Lower Paleolithic period, 2.6 million
years ago up, by ancient hominids across much of Africa, South Asia,
the Middle East and Europe.
 This industry is known to have been used by homo habilis.
 The Oldowan industry is named after discoveries made in
the Oldovai George of Tanzania in east Africa at 2.6 m.y.a. by the
Leaky family, primarily Mary Leaky but also her husband Louis and
their son, Richard.
The Acheulean Industry

 Homo erectus developed a more complex industry and

created hand axes that were bifacial.
 Choppers, cleavers, hammers, knives & scrapers were also
made.
 This industry originated in Africa

 Named after St. Acheul, a patron saint in

Southwest France, where artifacts were artifacts
were discovered
The Mousterian Industry

 developed by Homo neanderthalensis

(Neanderthals) in Europe & West Asia (300 000
&30 000 yrs ago).
 Evidence was uncovered in 1860, in Le Mouster
a spot in France.
 Evidence were also found in Northern Africa &
West Asia.
Aurignacian Industry

 Europe & Southwest Asia (45 000 to 35 000 y.a. )

 More advance tools
 Evidence of Cave paintings (El Castillo cave in
Cantabaria , Spain) & figurines
The Magdalenian Industry

 The Magdalenian cultures are later cultures of the Upper

Paleolithic in western Europe, dating from around 17,000 to
12,000 years ago.
 It is named after the type site of La Madeleine, a rock shelter
located in the Vézère valley, commune of Tursac, in the
Dordogne department of France.
 the Magdalenians are best known for their elaborate worked
bone, antler, and ivory that served both functional and
aesthetic purposes, including perforated batons.
 MANS CULTURAL EVOLUTION

CULTURAL PERIOD TIME FRAME CULTURAL DEVELOPMENT

- traditionally - Use of simple pebble tools

Paleolithic coincided with - Learned to live in caves -
Age (Old the first evidence Discovered use of fires. - Developed
Stone Age) of tool small sculptures and monumental
construction and painting, incised designs, and reliefs
use by on the walls of caves.
Homosome 2.5 -Food collecting cultures.
million years ago.
 MANS CULTURAL EVOLUTION

CULTURAL TIME FRAME CULTURAL DEVELOPMENT

PERIOD

Neolithic - Occured -Stone tools were shaped by

Age sometime polishing and grinding.-
(New about 10,000 Settlement in permanent villages.
-Dependence on domesticated
Stone BCE
plants or animals.
Age) -Appearance of such crafts as
pottery and weaving.
- Food producing cultures.
SIMPLE DIFFERENTIATION OF THE CULTURAL
EVOLUTION
PALEOLITHIC NEOLITHIC
AGE AGE

Unpolished Polished stone

Stone tools tools

Hunting and Domestication of

gathering plants and animals

Nomadic Way Living in

of living permanent places
• The evidence of change in economic aspect have
resulted in the transformation of man's way of life.

• Early societies started to emerge as a result of man's

interaction with his environment.

• Every society is organized in such a way that there will

be rules of conduct, customs, traditions, folkways and
more, and expectations that ensure appropriate
behavior among members (Palispis, 2007 p. 254)
Early Civilization and the Rise of the
State

 Early civilizations rose by the end of the Neolithic period

 Complexities due to the shift in food production
called for a more rigid social structures .
 Conflicts between groups developed and intensified..

 Early civilizations were characterized by the presence

of city-states.
Theories

 Divine right theory. The right to rule derive

from the will of god. Monarchs were
perceived by the people as direct descendants
of their gods.
( God-King concept-Sumer)
 Force theory. The state arose by force.
(group of Mayans-conflict over access to rivers)
Theories

 Social Contract Theory. The creation of the state is

mutual agreement between the ruler and the ruled.

Natural Theory. It is inherent in humans to be part of the

community. It is their nature too indulge in politics.

Evolutionary theory. Developed out of early family

Characteristics of Human Society

 1. It is a social system.
 2. A society is relatively large.
 3. A society recruits most of its member form within.
 4. A society sustains itself across generations.
 5. A society’s members share a culture.
 6. A society occupies a territory.
 PERIOD OF
TYPE EXISTENCE CHARACTERISTICS

HUNTING • 50,000 B.C.E. to • Consist of small numbers of people gaining

the present. their livelihood from hunting, fishing, and the
AND • Now on the gathering of edible plants.
GATHERING verge of • Few inequalities
SOCIETIES complete • Differences of rank limited by age and
disappearance. gender.

AGRARIAN • 12,000 B.C.E. to

the present.
• Based on small rural communities, without
towns or cities.
SOCIETIES • Most are now • Livelihood gained through agriculture, often
part of larger supplemented by hunting and gathering.
political entities • Stronger inequalities than among hunters
and are losing and gatherers.
their distinct • Ruled by chiefs.
identity.
 • 12,000 B.C.E. to
PASTORAL the present.
• Size ranges from a few hundred people to
many thousands.
SOCIETIES • Today mostly • Dependent on the tending of
part of larger domesticated animals or their substance.
states; their • Marked by distinct inequalities.
traditional ways • Ruled by chiefs or warrior kings.
of life are being
undermined.

• 6000 B.C.E. to
• Very large in size, some numbering
TRADITIONAL the nineteenth
millions of people(though small compared
century.
SOCIETIES OR • All traditional
with larger industrialized societies).
• Some cities exist, in which trade and
CIVILIZATIONS states have
manufacture are concentrated.
disappeared.
• Based largely on agriculture.
• Major inequalities exist among different
classes.
• Distinct apparatus of government headed
by a king or emperor.
 • It is characterized by more than just the use of
INDUSTRIAL mechanical means of production
• Creates a highly organized systems of exchange
SOCIETIES • 1700- between suppliers of raw materials and industrial
1930s manufacturers.
• Industrial societies are divided along class lines.
• Industrialism brought about a tremendous shift of
populations.
• Industrial societies are highly secularized.
• The predominant form of social and political
organization in industrial societies is the
bureaucracy

• It depends on specialized knowledge to bring

• 1930s- about continuing progress in technology
POST- Present • It is characterized by the spread of computer
INDUSTRIAL industries.
SOCIETIES • Knowledge and information are the hallmarks of
this society.
• It resulted in the homogenization of social
relations among individuals and the
interactions between humans and the natural
environment.