Human+Origins+and+Human+Culture


 * OVERVIEW:**

This chapter is important in setting the stage in two ways: 1) by examining the development of the human species and 2) by examining how scholars have approached the question of human origins. It presents the linked concepts of **scientific method** and **paradigm shift**, which together inform the question of "how we know" throughout the book. The chapter presents scientific accumulation of knowledge about early hominids in an approach that emphasizes //excavation// - digging ever deeper and uncovering earlier evidence that expands the pattern that palaeoanthropologists have created to explain the evolution of human life. While this chapter is not designed to in any way challenge your religious beliefs, it does present an important (and difficult to deal with) issue of creationism versus evolutionary theory. Beyond that, the fundamental questions are:
 * 1) How were the stages of human evolution discovered and pieced together?
 * 2) What were the stages of human evolution?
 * 3) What makes homo sapiens different?

Chapter 1 Slideshow

I. Explanations of Human Origins (pp. 5-10) Creation Myths A. __Mythic__ Explanations
 * OUTLINE:**
 * 1) The //Enuma Elish//
 * 2) Indian myths of origin
 * 3) Genesis

B. __Evolution__ a. __Charles Darwin__ (1809 - 82) b. __Alfred Russel Wallace__ (1823 - 1913)
 * 1) Role of scientific method
 * 2) Theory of the evolution of species

C. Conflict between "creationism" and "evolutionism"

1.Threat to the idea of a divine plan 2.The challenge to the idea that humans may not be God's last word

II. Search for the "missing link" (pp.10 - 15) A. Discovery of __Neanderthal__ 1856
 * 1) Radical change over time in artistic reconstructions

B. __Homo sapiens sapiens:__ product of hominid interbreeding

C. Discovery of __Homo Erectus__ (upright hominid)
 * 1) Java Man discovered 1891
 * 2) Peking Man discovered 1929
 * 3) Evidence of wide migration

D. Spread of the search to Africa a. Evidence of tool-use 2. __Australopithecus__ a. "Lucy" b. "Toumai"
 * 1) __Homo habilis__

III. Out of Africa A. General agreement that __homo erectus__ first evolved in Africa B. "Multiregional" and "out of Africa" theories of further evolution C. DNA studies as an aid to uncovering the pattern of hominid migration