70,000- 13,000 years ago
- 300,000 years ago- daily usage of fire
- 200,000 years ago- Homo sapiens evolve in East Africa
- 70,000 years ago- Emergence of fictive language
- 45,000 years ago- Sapiens settle in Australia
- 16,000 years ago- Sapiens settle in America
- 13,000 years ago- Extinction of other Homo species
Spring 2020 Entries
The Homo Floresiensis Development
Time period—50 000 years ago
50 000 years ago, Humans underwent a process of dwarfing on an island in Indonesia thanks to extreme climate conditions of low sea level. Then, they were stuck on the island when the level of the sea went back to normal, so their bodies had to adapt to the resources available and a new species of humans emerged: Homo Floresiensis.
Indeed, because if the poor resources on the isolated Flores island, such as not a lot of animals to hunt, or agricultural resources (soil, threes,…), the biggest humans died, and only the smallest remained. Therefore, they developed another species of human with genetic and anatomical differences*; measuring no more than a meter and weighing on average 25kg.
Moreover, even their biggest prey, the Stegodon florensis insularis elephant, was dwarf as well and its genome has adapted to the poor environmental conditions of the island.
Unfortunately, the research I have done on the internet didn’t give me a proper type of governance established by the Homo Floresiensis. Nevertheless, scientist suggests* that because they created sophisticated stone tools and hunted collectively, they might have developed some kind of language, habits, and process of constructions of these tools, so that a small political order might have developed.
Besides that, they developed a demographic trend to travel by sea when the level was at it’s lowest to reach other surrounding islands, but they were not inhabited as well, which let them be isolated from other human species of that period.
Moreover, it seems like they had a hard time feeding themselves so they might have had a lot of restrictions regarding their food consumptions, and because they were few to leave on the island, they didn’t have the much choice in term of who does what, like quasi everyone had to hunt…
However, it seems like their extinction was due to their encounter with other latter human species, which prove that they were fewer and weaker than the sapiens.
To sum up, from this case study, we can say that the environment shaped the species and their living condition more than they impacted it because it affected their genome, their survival habits, and the socio-cultural practices. Still, now, we couldn’t find that much of their impact over the environment expects few stone tools, and few skeletons, but not such things as mural art, pottery, scribes, language, a civilization,…
Citations:
*Reference from Wikipedia, Homo Floresiensis, December 24, 2004, free Encyclopedia
Homo Floresiensis
Russell Pettaway
The Homo Floresiensis was a species of once Homo Erectus in Indonesia on the island of Flores. Due to a phenomenon called Foster Rule, this group of once Homo Erectus turned into hobbit-like humans, which stood about 3.28 feet tall with a maximum height of 3.5 feet. They weighed no more than 55 pounds. Foster’s rule is a phenomenon that states that big mammals on islands often get smaller and small mammals to tend to get bigger as they adapted to an environment with limited resources and a lack of predators. (Tyson, P. 2000, November 1). This phenomenon was estimated to occur between 70,000 and 100,000 years ago.
The reason for this dwarfing is due to environmental and human interaction as well as the characteristics of the resource, or the lack of resources. When the Homo Erectus reached the island of Flores in Indonesia it was during a time when the sea level was low making it accessible from the mainland. When the sea levels eventually rose the people were trapped on the island with poor resources and so they had to adapt. The Bigger humans, who needed lots of food on an island with a lack of just that, we’re unable to sustain themselves and died first. The smaller Homo Erectus had a much higher survival rate due to them needed less food and other resources. Over generations stuck on the island, the people of Flores evolved into dwarves (Harari, Y. N., Purcell, J., & Watzman, H. 2015). The evolutionary pressures put on their bodies made them much smaller over time. Due to the lack of resource units provided by the environment had a direct impact on the actors involved. There was no evidence of a governance system put in place during this time on the island of Flores as most likely the human’s focus was mainly on survival rather than putting a system of laws in place. Although this dwarfing phenomenon follows Foster’s rule there is some scientist believed that the Homo Erectus turned into hobbit-like humans due to some pathological condition, due to the evidence that other kinds of species of humans lived on this island, adapted, but did not have tiny brains and odd limb proportions (Eons, P. B. S. (2019, October 22). Because of this the resource system, resource units, as well as the actors, Homo Erectus, involved played a role in the outcome or dwarfing phenomenon that occurred during this time period.
Citations:
Eons, P. B. S. (2019, October 22). Retrieved February 12, 2020, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hp123flyH8I
Harari, Y. N., Purcell, J., & Watzman, H. (2015). Sapiens: a brief history of mankind. London: Vintage Books.
Tyson, P. (2000, November 1). Gigantism & Dwarfism on Islands. Retrieved from https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/article/gigantism-and-dwarfism-islands/
Ancient Commune Foraging
Joe Ivancic
Ancient humans spent tens of thousands of years as wandering hunter-gatherers before the Agricultural Revolution brought food security and allowed for the construction of larger, more permanent settlements (Bocquet-Appel, 2011). In his book Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, Yuval Noah Harari suggests that the foraging techniques and community dynamics adopted by these “Sapiens” appeared much like those of our closest animal relatives, the chimpanzees and bonobos (Harari, 2018, p. 36). Agriculture did not exist for these tens of thousands of years, so cultured plants and ordered farms did not exist. If one happened upon a rare tree full of ripe fruit, then survival necessitates the gorging of oneself on the calorific food before it is consumed by some other animal. The location of this fruiting tree, how to craft a flint-headed spear, and how to light fires allowed for the survival of our species, thus making it valuable to band together in familial communes that shared knowledge. These ancient communes shared the tasks of childrearing, foraging, hunting, and crafting, and were forced to move across the landscape “every month, every week, and sometimes even every day” (Harari, 2018, p. 37).
Ancient Sapiens made use of all that they could to survive, crafting tools from wood and stone, moving wherever there were resources, and banding together to share resources, knowledge, and stories. By the turn of the Agricultural Revolution, Harari indicates that the five to eight million foragers who populated the world were divided into thousands of separate tribes with thousands of different languages and cultures (Harari, 2018, p. 38). These communal bands consisted of dozens or hundreds of individuals who knew each other intimately and would interact with neighboring groups of Sapiens. Although competition for resources would lead to conflict, communication and shared beliefs and cultures could result in unification. This formation of a tribe allowed for trade in valuables but did not operate as a “permanent political framework” (Harari, 2018, p. 39) largely due to the infeasibility of large settlements.
Ecological flows in and out of the ancient commune foraging social-ecological system played a huge role in the survival of early Sapiens. Foragers depended entirely on the availability of resources at their disposal, never settling in one place for longer than it took to deplete the location of food and water. Even if one band of 50 individuals were part of a much larger tribe, most of the year was spent apart from the tribe. There was no institution in place to provide support, and there is even evidence that tribes traded only for valuables and not staple goods like food (Harari, 2018). Thus, climate and the ebb and flow of resource availability could mean life and death for a band of ancient Sapiens.
Citation
Bocquet-Appel, J.-P. (2011). When the World’s Population Took Off: The Springboard of the Neolithic Demographic Transition. Science, 333(6042), 560–561. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1208880
Harari, Y. N. (2018). Sapiens: a brief history of humankind. New York: Harper Perennial.
Fall 2019 Entries
Change by Fire
The discovery and harnessing of fire was a pivotal point in the development of the Genus Homo’s species. This discovery occurred approximately 800,000 years ago but was not fully utilized until around 300,000 years in the past and is hypothesized to be the catalyst for great leaps in our species’ position in the food chain. Previously, Genus Homo was relegated to tip toeing out of sight and out of mind of large predators that could easily devour them. They made their way as scavengers and gatherers of edible plants, insects, and the occasional small animal. The newfound control of fire awarded them the ability to protect them themselves against larger animals, shape the environment, and consume new foods. The human-environment interactions that stem from this event are numerous and far reaching.
Sapiens used fire as a tool to shape the resources around them. “A carefully managed fire could turn impassable barren thickets into prime grasslands teeming with game” (Harari, 2015). At the time the Sapiens were learning to use this tool, the resource systems at their disposal were plentiful and unregulated. Forests, brush land, jungle, and any other highly vegetated area can be considered a resource system while the individual plants and animals in those systems would be classified as resource units. Once they saw the potential benefits of using fire in this way Sapiens likely would have used it often to reap the benefits. There were so few of the Homo species around Sapiens could have exhausted an area and moved on to the next suitable location. There was little need to stay in one place although they very well may have cycled back through an area once the vegetation had returned. The need for developing sustainable practices within a community was relatively low.
As the use of fire became a more finely tuned practice food became more plentiful and easier to absorb, quickening population growth. This would have put pressure on the community to organize to feed its growing number of hungry mouths. The increased options of where Sapiens could acquire food along with the reduced time needed to consume said food due to the ability to cook it would have allowed for more time to build social and organization skills. “Evolution thus favored those capable of forming strong social ties” (Harari, 2015). It is likely that there would have been communication within the community on where to seek out food next and where to move as a group. The increased number of people and the increased amount of opportunity would have lead to some sort of social structure, possibly with a group of elders at the head of the community. This would have been a rudimentary form of what Ostrom calls a governance system. “When some users of any type of resource system have entrepreneurial skills and are respected as local leaders as a result of prior organization for other purposes, self-organization is more likely” (Ostrom, 2009).
As acquiring and consuming food became easier there would have been more time for community members to explore other aspects of thought, cultivate art, and develop a more advanced society. A class system might have developed that included community leaders, food gatherers, artists and others. This would have been the beginnings of what we might call a market today. Basic trade within the community as well with others could very well have taken place at this time as there was more opportunity to produce goods at a higher rate and higher quality.
The Sapiens new relationship with their resource systems would have had impacts on their governance system that would compound and change the structure of their society and lives as a whole. More food, more calories and more free time were all consequences of the use of fire that lead to an increased hierarchical and governance structure.
Citations:
Harari, Noah Y. (2015). Sapiens: A Brief History of Mankind. Toronto, Ontario: Signal
Ostrom, E. (2009). A General Framework for Analyzing Sustainability of Social-Ecological Systems. Science. 325(5939), 419-422. DOI: 10.1126/science.1172133
Early humans, Fire, and contact between species
The rise of stories
Humans perform the greatest environmental destruction in history
Around this time, according to Yuval Harari, humans began to migrate from the Afro-Asian landmass to lands across the seas such as Australia and America (Harari, 51). This migration caused the most extensive and destructive human impact on the environment there has ever been. All the species living in lands humans had never visited had evolved in isolation. They had not had to adapt to humans living alongside them, and as a result were not prepared to face the humans who arrived on their shores. Within a few short millennia of the humans’ arrival, most of the large animal species, and many smaller animals and also plants, had gone extinct. This happened all across Australia, Madagascar, Pacific Islands, America, and other such areas of land that humans had not previously been able to reach across the ocean (52). The extinction happened for several reasons. The large animals bred and grew up slowly. They were able to get away with it because there was no species that took advantage of this. Once humans arrived and the two began to interact for the first time, all it took was for humans to kill one of the large animals every few months, and within a few thousand years the species would go extinct. In addition, the humans’ use of fire to clear large areas of vegetation completely changed the ecology of entire regions. Animals that could only live in forest, for example, went extinct when the forest disappeared (54). Humans and many animal species competed for the same land and resources, and just as in the forest example, the humans won out, leaving the animals to die off. At this early time in human history, there were no governments or organizations to set standards, regulations, or oversight to facilitate cooperation between the humans and animals. Neither did humans see a need to coexist. Their goal was simply to survive in their new land and thrive as much as they could. This meant adapting their new environment to what they saw as their best interests. Now, climate change may have played a role in these extinctions. Around this time the planet was experiencing climate change. However, the climate change simply played a side role alongside the human depredations. Evidence shows that the primary reason for the extinctions was the arrival of humans. Climate change only worked alongside them (54-55). The outcome of these never-occurred-before interactions between humans and large animals outside of the Afro-Asian landmass was, the extinction of many species and the transformation of the landscape of large parts of the planet.
Citation
Harari, Y. N. (2015). Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind. 51-55.
Disrupting Isolation
In the novel “Sapiens” by Yuval Noah Harari; the author examines how humans have altered and shifted the natural environment through several different revolutions. The three revolutions he examines throughout the novel are the cognitive, agricultural, and scientific revolutions which all played a part in shaping the society and culture we have today. The cognitive revolution, which began about 70,000 years ago, marked a significant transition in how homo sapiens interacted with their environment, animals, and each other. The event that seemed to inhabit many traits of this revolution and was very interesting was the homo sapiens discovery and colonization of the Australian land mass. According to Harari, this event happened about 45,000 years ago when the homo sapiens living in the Indonesian archipelago crossed over into what was then known as the outer world and began settling there (Harari, p. 51). This was a huge moment in mankind’s history because not only did it mark an incredible technological advance with the introduction of seafaring technology, but it also marked the moment where mankind became the deadliest predators in the newfoundland of what is now known as Australia (Harari, p.52). As described in the book, the animals living there all evolved in isolation from humans and this played a major part in how this interaction took place. The animals inhabiting this land, thought nothing of us because they never had to experience living with a fear of being hunted by with evolved tools and fire agriculture. A quote by Harari presented this notion well when he said, “These animals had to evolve a fear of humankind, but before they could do so they were gone.” This quote presents how humans, when unregulated with a system of governance or policy, will damage or destroy most environments they are put in service of themselves. They saw this new land as a blank canvas to make their own. An abundance of resources to harvest, new animals to hunt, and new a whole new world to settle upon.
According to Harari, homo sapiens began effecting the resources available and the natural order of things with the introduction of fire agriculture to the land. In order to adjust the land for our personal gain, we began burning forests and thickets to better suit the land for hunting (Harari, p. 54) This effected the ecology and the natural food chain of Australia drastically. Weaker animals that depended on the vegetation suffered greatly and the animals that depended upon on those weak animals suffered as well, thus creating a chain reaction of negative ecological effects across the land (Harari, p. 54). Thus, without any governance or regulation, the unsustainable habits of these homo sapiens had irreversible damaging effects on the resources and animals that inhabited these lands for thousands of years before us. Furthermore, when climate patterns were considered; animals had to deal with two substantial forces working against them. Making their old ways of life very hard to sustain.
The outcome of human settlement across many bare lands that were once isolated brought upon many negative ecological and environmental impacts including the disruption of food chains, destruction of habitat, and the extinction of animals that were around for millions of years before us arriving. We as humans might not have been the sole cause of all these problems when climate change and patterns were still in full swing, but we had a very large part in it.
References
Harari, Y. N. (2014). Sapiens: A brief history of humankind. Toronto, Ontario: Signal.
Gossip Theory and Cognitive Revolution
Caitlin Miller
Gossip Theory was referred to in Sapiens written by Harari in 2011. It’s a distinguishing factor that led to the superior expansion and long term survival of Homo sapiens from the Neanderthals. The ability to communicate in terms of gossip facilitated sapiens to further form co-operation and build deeper trust when strategizing, planning, and organizing for a task(s). What separates us from our Neanderthal sisters and brothers is Sapiens’ linguistics and social aspects. Neanderthals indeed, were able to communicate with a language but their level of complexity within their form of communicating lacked something that led to them vanishing in the end. They were able to communicate about the whereabouts of physical and tangible things, e.g. a lion or a body of water. Gossip has its roots in discussion of wrong-doing and wrong doers, allowing Sapiens to learn who and who not to trust. Then they would be able to put forth the most trustable community members to get done what needs to be done.
In order for any group of a species, social cooperation is required. The larger a group becomes, more social cooperation is required. Sapiens are the largest species on earth cooperating together on many levels. In terms of human-environment interaction, the use of gossip can help when hunting. For example, when hunting a bison one of the hunters following a herd and observing a lion doing the same as the hunter (Harari, 2011). The hunter can go back to the rest of the hunters, describe the location, paths, bring up different plans of how to attack, when, etc. (Harari, 2011). They can bounce ideas off of each other, eliminate ones that could easily fail, and choose the stronger idea. Then, implement it and hunt an animal for food, skin, tools, and jewelry.
The resource unit(s) is the bison. The resource system is the entire herd and their path of travel. A hunter following the herd and observing the lion follow the herd as well, is the interaction. Once a hunter(s) goes back to the rest of the decision makers, (the group of hunters) they plan their attack. They’ll decide whether to steer away the lion, when, how they will attack the bison, which one(s), e.g. hunting one of the larger bison or a few smaller and younger bison. That is a social ecological system. The interaction is, of Sapiens hunting bison, when, how, and which ones.
Gossip theory and the governance system of hunting bison(s), comes into play when the community decides who they can trust to be the hunters and who will lead. Word may get out and spread, that a hunter chickens out during the implementation of an action plan and that could be part of the reason why they came back empty handed. Another example, a hunter not following through on the action plan and during the implementation he or she changed last minute without consoling anyone and did it in real time. Thus, resulting in a loss of a hunt. The group of hunters may have not been discussed this among themselves. When outside of the group, some may gossip, it spreads, and community members pressure the group to firer and replace the so called dead weight hunters in the team.
The social cooperation of who are the hunters and how to go about hunting affects a group’s political stability, resource policies, economic development, and market incentives. Hunters are seen as the leaders and survival is largely dependent upon the abundance of hunts. Who decides the hunters and are those decision makers choosing hunters that continue to bring successful hunts back. Resource policies are affected because the community may need a certain number of bison to be hunted to sustain them at a healthy level, how much time hunters need, and when the hunt’s deadline of return is. Economic development and market incentives come into play because the skins and bones (created into clothing, blankets, tools and jewelry) could be used for trade with nearby communities.
Those who bestow the position of hunter, hunters’ strategy, the success or failure of a hunt, distribution of food, skins, bones, and trade are the components that create the full circle of interaction. Also, how they train hunters and update the techniques is a part of the equation. Without this basic level of a community’s survival, they will or will not live. This is the most essential standard for a community to live before agriculture was created and widely used. The outcome is food, clothing, tools, and trade.
Human Find Australia
Dogs & Humans
Time period: “…. this occurred before the Agricultural Revolution. Experts disagree about the exact date, but we have incontrovertible evidence of domesticated dogs from about 15,000 years ago.” (Harari, 2014, p. 39).
Erin Quitto-Graham
Our current society has a large focus on pets. So it was very interesting to see that it has some what always been this way with “man’s best friend, the dog. Today, we experience a large help from the creatures we long ago decided to domesticate. Dogs have improved and helped build up our therapeutic and security fields.
In the book it goes on to explain that, ” Dogs were used for hunting and fighting, and as an alarm system against wild beasts and human intruders.” (Harari, 2014, p. 39) This is not far from what we see today. And although we are increasing the demand for technologies that can perform that tasks listed. It is important to see the biological value of the services that occur some what naturally in the biomes.
Although the information on the impact of the connection with Dogs and Human governance is limited. There were clear signs of communication between the two. Harari states that, “With the passing of generations, the two species coevolved to communicate well with each other. Dogs that were most attentive to the needs and feelings of their human companions got extra care and food, and were more likely to survive. Simultaneously, dogs learned to manipulate people for their own needs.” (p.39)
Socially, then and even now humans took the connection seriously even to the point of making dogs part of their families. Economically, dogs eventually helped stimulate sapien market through aiding them in hunt and herding agricultural stocks of animal.The outcome is quite clear. Homo sapiens managed to build a strong long lasting relationship that has no been broken for thousands and thousands of years.
Citation:
Harari, Y. N. (2014). Sapiens: A brief history of humankind. Toronto, Ontario: Signal.
Arrival to the Americas
About 16,000 years ago Homo Sapiens arrived at the land masses that are in the western hemisphere, perhaps driven north by war and or natural disasters. This was during the time of the cognitive revolution and humans were spreading beyond the reaches of just the Afro-Asian lands. To first reach the Americas a long journey was required through the cold conditions of northern Serbia. The development of technology brought with it advanced hunting techniques and thermal clothing, the cold temperatures were no problem to the humans during the time. “As the findings from Sungir testify, mammoth-hunters did not just survive in the frozen north – they thrived” (Harari, p.55). Around 14,000 years ago the melting of the Alaskan glaciers opened the way to the rest of the Americas allowing homo sapiens to quickly spread around the rest of the western land masses. With the arrival of Homo Sapiens it took a big toll on biodiversity. “Within 2,000 years of the Sapiens arrival, most of these unique species were gone” (Harari, p.56). Many animals were drove to extinction such as horses, camels, mammoths, mastodons, rodents, and the sabre-tooth cats, a species line 30 million years old. Such great numbers of extinction are also a result of a chain reaction of events started by Sapiens. When a species is driven to extinction, it isn’t just that specific species that dies out. Other species that are dependent on them for survival also follow them into extinction. With such a resounding number of species disappearing with the arrival of Homo Sapiens the blame cannot alone be on climate change. “Even if climate change abetted us, the human contribution was decisive” (Harari, p.57). The end result after this first wave of extinction for the western land masses. North America lost thirty-four out of its forty seven genera of large mammals. South America lost fifty out of sixty” (Harari, p.56). For the 1st and 2nd waves of extinction it’s hard to notice or prevent these casualties while advancing and growing as a species. Homo Sapiens had never experienced or seen animals going extinct because of them. Animals on the Afro-Asian continent had adapted to homo sapiens. Species of animals had learned to avoid them over a course of a few million years. The animals in the western hemisphere were never given the chance to learn to run away. We are a part of the 3rd wave of extinction. With pollution, overuse of resources, overharvesting, overfishing, and exploiting non renewables sources; we show no signs of slowing down this wave. At this current pace maybe this 3rd wave will be our finals lesson before we are willing to prevent a 4th wave if the 3rd wave leaves anything behind.
References:
Harari, Y. N. (2014). Sapiens: A brief history of humankind. Toronto, Ontario: Signal.
Ostrom, E. (2009). A general framework for analyzing sustainability of social-ecological systems. Science, 325(5939), 419–422. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1172133
The Cognitive Revolution and the Direct Impact on Ecosystems
Anna Wood
The book “Sapiens” by Yuval Noah Harari, examines the Cognitive, Agricultural, and Scientific revolution. Around 70,000 – 30,000 year ago Homo Sapiens began advancing their intelligence through the Cognitive Revolution. In this we will be examining the changes in human interactions in response to shifts in ecological systems. Starting around 16,000 B.C, due to the advancements of Homo Sapiens social networks, humans began to utilize ecological systems that were not equipped for that capacity. As mankind dove into new territory such as East Asia, the Americas, and Island’s (Cuba and Madagascar) resources began to be exploited. The equilibrium of each of earths sectors (water, forest, plains, deserts) was disrupted. Examples of this can include hunting and the use of fire agricultural methods; “A (third) explanation agree that hunting and fire agriculture played a significant role in extinction” (Harari, p.54). The growth/replacement rate was under pressure by the increased populations. As humans arrived to these new territories and used the natural resources, a large majority of its species began to disappear. Estimates show thirty four out of forty-seven of Americas large mammals were lost in addition to thousands of smaller species such as parasites and insects (Harari, p.56). Throughout this time period cultures began to develop thus ecological systems were affected by the influx in population, which were previously undisrupted. Loss of biodiversity from the first extinction and new cultivation of land were a key component to this chain of events. The third and final was the spread of demographics. The new communities and populations required sufficient amounts of food and resources to remain stable. For example, when man settled in Solomon Islands, Fiji and New Caledonia it was estimated they were responsible for the direct and indirect death of hundreds of native species (Harari, p.58). The relationship between man and their resources throughout the cognitive revolution were unstable due to the lack of a governance system or overseeing authority, it was at their own discretion to utilize them. The growth and replacement rate were thrown out of order. As time passed new and old species became endangered. Because of the shift to new areas of the earth and exploitations of resources it influenced the first wave of mass extinction in past ecosystems. Although great strides were made morphologically and cognitively through this time, humans were lacking the self-control and awareness to understand their direct impact on the environment around them. It was their instinctual goal to fend for themselves and continue through life regardless of the state of the ecosystem.