ARCH 100 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Homo Ergaster, Periglaciation, Archaic Humans

• School: Simon Fraser University
• Department: Archaeology
• Course: ARCH 100
• Professor: Ernest Bumann

Document Summary

Origins of culture & palaeolithic cultures of the old world. Culture is our non-biological means of adapting to and making sense of our physical and social environments. Tool use= ability to manipulate tools is relate to bipedalism and complex brain. Language= language allows us to convey detailed and elaborated knowledge when passing on cultural practices. Biological + cultural adaptations: morphology, evolution by natural selection. Evolution of hominids over 4 million yrs ago. Cc= cubic cms, a normal humans brain is about 1359 cc(used to be 1500 cc) The human fossil record and the origins of culture: earliest human ancestors. Hominids great apes (chimps, gorillas, bonobos, organ-utans, humans) Hominins= humans and their human ancestors (cut off: chronology. Paleolithic: lower paleolithic 2. 5 mya- 150 kya. Homo erectus (300,000 years ago: lower palaeolithic 2. 5 mya- 150 mya, neanderthals and contemporaries (100,000 yrs ago, homo sapiens sapiens (30,000 yrs ago) A. afarensis was probably ancestral to the genus homo.