Essay about What Can Be Learned From the Study of The Prehistoric Era?

The emergence of agriculture was a major stepping stone in human history. During this birth of agriculture, also known as the Neolithic revolution, humans began inhabiting permanent settlements, grow their own crops, and domesticate both plants and animals for food (Weisdorf, 2005). Considering humans have been hunter-gatherers for the majority of their approximately 7 million years of existence, the emergence of agriculture in the Old World only occurring 10,000-5,000 years ago, marks a significant transformation in food sustenance techniques (Weisdorf, 2005). However, this turning point in history is associated with both positive and negative implications. There is much controversy over whether or not the introduction of

Double pieces that have lasted over thousands of ages to offer scholars with references to human existence during the Paleolithic period are the Woman of Willendorf figure and the Lion Man of Hohlenstein-Stadel. Each figure is condensed with amazing features, even though they are not thorough to the level of realism. The Woman of Willendorf is one of the best instances of the small ‘Venuses’ that have been uncovered meaning that her persistence was a part of a ethnic set of views about women and fertility. The Lion Man, is a more exclusive artifact that recounts to the complex figures that are recognized from other cultures within which the related mythologies that have been revealed. The Lion Man has no known mythology that is obtainable in known written history to this day. The two pieces propose the unknown about the Paleolithic era, recognizing a sagacity of religion and rituals that were part of the lives of those who lived during that era and enlightening recent scholars on some aspects of the people during that time.

This article from “The Real Truth about the Female” by Barbara Ehrenreich targets many beliefs that women were underestimated. The main theory suggested in this document is that, women had to follow the traditional duties. Early theories are being questioned as a result to women proving many things over the years that were often overlooked. Ehrenreich states in his article, “it does strongly suggest that in the Stone Age family, Dad-the-hunter was not the only provider.” There is a great amount of evidence that suggest the theory that women worked as hard as men. Adrienne Zihlman and Nancy Tanner stated “among surviving “hunting” peoples, most of the community’s calories—up to 70%—come from plant food patiently gathered by women.” This fact

The economic, social, and religious roles of women changed between the Paleolithic and Neolithic time periods. During the Paleolithic Age, women and men had equal position in society. They both helped in the raising of children and the act of obtaining food for their families. The role of women would soon change for the worse in the Neolithic time period. They were left with little social, economic, and religious status, and the large burden of raising children almost singlehandedly.

Human existence has lasted over several million years and in that time there has been countless advances in the way we live. Human history has had many diverse periods of time, one being the Stone Age. During the Stone Age there were two major subdivisions, the Paleolithic and Neolithic periods. The Paleolithic, which lasted until about 10,000 years ago, had a significant separating factor from the Neolithic, ending in 2000 B.C.E. This factor was the way in which the people in these periods acquired food. The Paleolithic people hunted and gathered their food while the Neolithic people produced their own food by agriculture. These two different styles of obtaining food greatly affected the lifestyles of each period’s people. The

Human evolution was one of the most believed theories that explained how humans were created. As time progressed, so did the humans. However, there were many differences between modern humans and the prehistoric man which includes the capacity to think, larger brains, and a longer life expectancy. The prehistoric man had to survive on their own for the most part like finding food and shelter. Life for prehistoric man was not easy due to the harsh environments they had to live through by creating weapons, tools and communities.

According to Garbacik (2013), in Ancient Egypt, Ancient Japan, American Indians and Ancient Sumerian women were held in high regard, taking up “leadership posts” and were not considered “inferior” by their male counterparts. In fact, the terms “misogyny” and “Patriarchy” became more prominent in Victorian Britain, where the concept of “gender roles” were closely linked, which advocated female subordination and male dominance. In particular, through his ground-breaking theory of natural selection, Darwin (1859) depicted women as being inferior to men. Darwin theorised about “natural selection” and he suggested that men were “more courageous, pugnacious and energetic” (Darwin, 1859) than women. Darwin also never included species such as “hyenas, anglerfish, ring-tailed lemurs, black widow spiders, meerkat and praying mantis” (Garbacik, 2013) in his research that never shared dominant male and passive female characteristics, proving that his evidence was flawed, advocating a confirmation bias . What’s more, Darwin’s views of the female and male species, were bolstered in the 19th century, by the Victorian viewpoints that men were more “competitive” and “aggressive” compared to women who were more “altruistic” and “nurturing”. Not only was inequality amongst the sexes

dy of plant fossils and the understanding the evolution of plant life and ecology of earlier eras is known as paleobotany. Paleobotanists concern with fossil records of plants and their geologic history greatly describes the main concept of paleobotany. Only a small percentage of the plants that ever lived left evidence of existence. The major plant fossils that have been discovered are mineralized wood, flowers in amber, leaf imprints in coal, or other plant life many years ago. Paleobotanists document fossil records and use this evidence to find the past evolution of plants.

This article shows how Paleoanthropologist David Lordkipanidze and his group of archeologist discovered a 1.8 million-year-old skull fossil that could lead to knowing more about the earliest known ancestors of humans that ventured outside of Africa. Lordkipanidze’s excavation in the Georgia site known as Dmanisi. With this archeology find, it has been concluded that all early fossil humans belong to the same species known as Homo erectus. The article explains that the Dmanisi hominins had brains less than half the size of a modern human’s, and are key to understand the evolution and expansion these ancestors experienced from Africa to Eurasia. Genetic studies indicate that their expansion began from Africa about 1.9 million years ago. The article also mentions that with these new findings there can be a better ground from where to start to understand these ancestors as how they lived and socialized. Lordkipanidze does mention that the Dmanisi “were very primitive, we think there were social groups that connected with each other and learned from each other”.

The author Wiesner- Hanks claims in the third chapter ‘Economic Life’ that in different parts of the world and though different time periods, the family structure and genders were influenced by changes in economic structure such as means of production, pattern of work, and ownership practices. In case of pre-historic humans, author explains that the most important element of early human success was flexibility and adaptability (Wiesner- Hanks 12). This point is logical because early humans did not have means of mass crops or animal production and therefore their survival depended upon everyone working together daily for food and for protection. the example of Agta in Philippines, tells us that women did big game hunting, which in turn proves that hunting and gathering activities depended upon environmental factors and decisions of the group and not so much on gender role (Wiesner- Hanks 57).

Civilizations of the Stone Age were known for their use of stone implements, while the Bronze Age is signified by the use of bronze tools and technology. The Bronze Age is part of the three-tiered classification system of ancient civilizations described by Christian Jürgensen Thomsen: the Stone Age, Bronze Age, and Iron Age. The Bronze Age occurred at overlapping and slightly different times in various parts of the world. This is due in part to the limited availability of copper-tin ores. Certain places, like western Asia, did not see Bronze until trade brought this metal to the region. Notable civilizations during the Bronze Age were the Minoans, Mycenaeans, Hittites, and Egyptians. The Bronze Age dates from 3200-600 BC in Europe and 3300-1200 BC in the Middle East. The Bronze Age collapse occurred around 1200 B.C.E. What followed was a dark age of decreased literacy and technology and a significant reduction in population.

Unfortunately, the sharp instincts and intelligences of these early women in a way became their downfall, for many historians and archeologists accredit women with the discovery of farming. It is their belief that, while gathering foods for their tribes, women realized the connection between leaving seeds in the ground and the growth of plants. For a while these simple methods of farming were carried out by women, however, as more advancements were made in agriculture it was realized that farming could no longer be performed solely by women, as it demanded large amounts of strength that a woman wasn’t physically capable of. In addition, farming demanded large amounts of time so it began to become an expectation that a woman would remain home and take care of the house and children while her husband worked out in the fields. (Ellis 9) In his article “The Worst Mistake Made in History,” Jared Diamond discusses how women were no longer able to work as effectively, as it was expected of them to have more children, so their bodies as well as health became weakened. (Diamond 65) John R. Lukacs makes comparable discussions to Diamond, in his article, “Fertility and Agriculture Accentuate Sex Differences in Dental Caries Rates,” saying that women suffered from even greater health problems than their male counterparts and as a result the numbers of women in society were reduced. (Lukacs 901) It was

Humans have always had to find a way to survive in the changing environment of our world. Humans have had to find many ways to adapt and find different practices to feed their communities. Humans were able to keep their communities alive due to their ways of hunting and gathering. Gender played a role in this way of finding food source. Men were set to be the hunters and the women were responsible for gathering any crops they could find. There was a transition that occurred and a new way of cultivating food emerged. Agriculture became a way of survival for human beings. Agriculture played an intricate role in providing a food source and it had a major impact on the Neolithic societies in the Near East. It provided a new way for society to be permanently transformed from what they once were, hunter gatherers to becoming something more stable and stronger.

The first scholars that existed named the whole period of human devolvement the “Stone Age.” The stone age is divided into three periods which are Paleolithic which means the old Greek age, Mesolithic and Neolithic which is the new Greek age. The Paleolithic and Neolithic stone ages have many great differences and has changed greatly between the two periods.

Human evolution links with the history of psychology through Thomas Wynn’s cognitive archaeology. Thomas Wynn (1979) wanted to find the link between archaeology and psychology. He used Piaget’s theory of development to argue that old humans had functional operational intelligence which requires for