According to scientific data, primitive people appeared about 4 million years ago. Over the course of many millennia, they have evolved, that is, they have improved not only in terms of development, but also externally. Historical anthropology divides primitive people into several types, which successively replaced each other. What are the anatomical features of each type of primitive people, and in what period of time did they exist? Read about all this below.
Primitive people - who are they?
The most ancient people lived in Africa more than 2 million years ago. This is confirmed by numerous archaeological finds. However, it is known for certain that for the first time humanoid creatures, confidently moving on their hind limbs (namely, this feature is the most important in determining primitive man), appeared much earlier - 4 million years ago. Such a characteristic of ancient people as upright walking was first identified in creatures to which scientists gave the name "Australopithecines".
As a result of centuries of evolution, they were replaced by a more advanced Homo habls, also known as "handy man." He was replaced by humanoid creatures, whose representatives were called Homo erectus, which in Latin means "upright man." And only after almost a million and a half years did a more perfect type of primitive man appear, which most of all resembled the modern intelligent population of the Earth - Homo sapiens or “reasonable man”. As can be seen from all of the above, primitive people slowly, but at the same time very effectively developed, mastering new opportunities. Let us consider in more detail what all these human ancestors were, what their activities were and how they looked.
Australopithecus: external features and lifestyle
Historical anthropology refers Australopithecus to the very first monkeys moving on their hind limbs. The origin of this kind of primitive people began in East Africa more than 4 million years ago. For almost 2 million years, these creatures spread across the continent. The oldest man, whose average height was 135 cm, had a weight of no more than 55 kg. Unlike monkeys, australopithecines had more pronounced sexual dimorphism, but the structure of fangs in males and females was almost the same. The cranium of this species was relatively small and had a volume of no more than 600 cm3. The main activity of Australopithecus was practically no different from that of modern monkeys, and was reduced to the extraction of food and protection from natural enemies.
A skilled man: features of anatomy and lifestyle
(translated from Latin as “handy man”) as a separate independent species of anthropoids appeared 2 million years ago on the African continent. This ancient man, whose height often reached 160 cm, had a brain more developed than that of Australopithecus - about 700 cm 3. The teeth and fingers of the upper limbs of Homo habilis were almost identical to those of humans, but the large brow ridges and jaws made it look like apes. In addition to gathering, a skilled person was engaged in hunting using stone blocks, and for cutting animal carcasses he knew how to use processed tracing paper. This suggests that Homo habilis is the first humanoid creature to have labor skills.
Homo erectus: appearance
The anatomical characteristic of the ancient people, known as Homo erectus, is a pronounced increase in the volume of the skull, which allowed scientists to assert that their brain is comparable in size to the brain of a modern person. and the jaws of a skilled man remained massive, but were not so pronounced as in their predecessors. The physique was almost the same as that of a modern person. Judging by the archaeological finds, Homo erectus led and knew how to make fire. Representatives of this species lived in rather large groups in caves. The main occupation of a skilled man was gathering (mainly from women and children), hunting and fishing, and making clothes. Homo erectus was one of the first to recognize the need to stockpile food.
appearance and lifestyle
Neanderthals appeared much later than their predecessors - about 250 thousand years ago. What was this ancient man? His height reached 170 cm, and the volume of the skull - 1200 cm 3. In addition to Africa and Asia, these settled in Europe. The maximum number of Neanderthals in one group reached 100 people. Unlike their predecessors, they had rudimentary forms of speech, which allowed their fellow tribesmen to exchange information and interact more smoothly with each other. The main occupation of this human ancestor was hunting. Success in the extraction of food provided them with a variety of tools: spears, pointed long fragments of stones that were used as knives, and traps dug in the ground with stakes. The resulting materials (skins, skins) Neanderthals used to make clothes and shoes.
Cro-Magnons: the final stage of the evolution of primitive man
Cro-Magnon or (Homo Sapiens) is the last oldest known to science, whose height already reached 170-190 cm. The external resemblance of this type of primitive people to monkeys was almost imperceptible, since the superciliary arches decreased, and the lower jaw no longer protruded forward. Cro-Magnons made tools not only from stone, but also from wood and bone. In addition to hunting, these human ancestors were engaged in agriculture and the initial forms of animal husbandry (they tamed wild animals).
The level of thinking among Cro-Magnons was much higher than their predecessors. This allowed them to form close-knit social groups. The herd principle of existence was replaced by a tribal system and the creation of the rudiments of socio-economic laws.
Section - I - An introductory description of the primitive society briefly
Section - II - primitive human herd
Section - III - Primal hunters
Section - IV - Formation of the genus
Section - V - Agriculture and cattle breeding of ancient people
It is interesting to realize that the course of development and abrupt changes in climate forced our human race to evolve from a half-ape into a completely rational being. A large number of finds in Africa indicate that civilized humanity is one of the smallest parts of the entire history of the existence of our species. Australopithecus.
Primitive man inhabited Africa presumably between 3.5-1.8 million years ago. At that time it was small herds of semi-intelligent monkeys, which were called Australopithecus - that is, southern monkeys. They were distinguished by a rather large jaw, a small brain, a straight posture, as well as the ability to hold a stone or a club in their hands.
A skilled man (eng.homo habilis) arose about 2.5 million years ago. years ago. This primitive man was characterized by the fact that he had the opportunity to use the first tools made of stone in the economy. Stone tools could dig up a root, hunt, skin a dead animal, chop branches, etc. It is a skillful person who is considered the main representative of the entire modern human race. Being homo habilis, primitive people moved on 2 legs. Their flock consisted of several males, and presumably the same number of females. They ate both animal and vegetable food. They still couldn't talk. Only with the help of simple cries and gestures did they somehow talk to each other.
Pithecanthropus. The next stage in the development of primitive man is considered to be a “straightened man” (that is, from the English homo erectus), Pithecanthropus or ape-man. In its appearance, this creature still resembled animals. It was hairy, with a large jaw, a low forehead, and a large head. But Pithecanthropus, unlike other homo habilis, learned not just to pick up sticks and pebbles from the ground, but to make them on their own. So there were various scrapers, sharp axes, which helped well to cut roots, branches, hunts, and also cut animal skins. It was during the time of the Pithecanthropes, primitive people learned to adapt to different climate conditions. Their sites were recorded in Africa and in Europe, and in China.
And the first parking lot of Pithecanthropus was found on the island of Java. During the existence of homo erectus, glaciers began to advance on the earth. It became very cold and the level of the World Ocean decreased. Therefore, many scattered small groups primitive people were forced to unite. This made it easier to hunt and protect yourself from threats. Around the same period, fire appeared, with the help of which primitive man was heated. The Pithecanthropus community evolved very slowly. In this society, adults began teach younger generations to hunt and n growth crafts, after some time was born
History is divided into two layers: primitive society and civilizations. The initial system is the primitive system, which covers a period of time over two million years, when there were no state formations, legal norms had not yet been formed.
During its existence, primitive society has gone through a significant evolutionary path, during which there was a change in its socio-cultural appearance and economic structure. There are two main stages of primitive society: the first is the appropriating economy, the second is the producing economy. The change of stages occurs in the Neolithic era in the 8th-3rd millennium BC.
The first stage is characterized by the formation of people who used the simplest stone tools, lived by appropriating the products of nature (gathering, fishing, hunting), led a wandering lifestyle, united in local groups under the leadership of a leader. This simplest form of life and social organization, reflecting the low level of development of industrial, social and cultural relations, is called the primitive herd or the ancestral community. However, despite the chaotic nature of the internal life of the herd, the first primitive society, rules, standards and other behavioral stereotypes can be traced in it.
Natural instincts begin to recede before sociocultural stereotypes. Relations within the group are egalitarian. Distribution of food and other resources occurs evenly. The basis of such equality is an equivalent exchange (both food, tools, and wives, etc.). The power of the leader over the group is manifested very expressively. His will is perceived by the herd as the norm.
The complication of social ties, changes in marital relations (the appearance of exogamy, which prohibited marriages between blood relatives) and the Neolithic revolution led to the emergence of family and clan groups. There was a change of the herd based on kinship relations. Clan-communal relations could be built according to the principles of matrilineality or patrilineality.
The history of primitive society after the Neolithic revolution enters a new round. People are moving to a productive economy, which allows them not only to ensure their own survival, but also to start purposefully providing themselves with food and other items necessary for life. This became a prerequisite for the transition to a settled way of life. Gradually, separate family and clan groups establish control over a certain territory. The primitive herd turns into a stable group of producers, which has grown in numbers and is associated with a certain territory. The new social organization is based on self-government and self-regulation.
At this stage of development, primitive society moves to a fixed division of labor, the distribution of food, and the principles of equality and egalitarianism are still preserved. But, at the same time, the distribution of booty could be made taking into account the role functions of its participants (by the principle of gender, age, etc.). Its leader also had advantages in the team. Members of the group were concentrated around him, who, in return for the benefits provided to them, recognized the authority of the leader. So there was a pre-state form of power.
In tribal communities, there are already rules of conduct that are obligatory for all members of its team. Generic norms were associated with totems, had a mythological coloring. The order of distribution of booty becomes regulated, the leader takes control over this process. are self-adjusting in nature: they are supported by interests, religious beliefs and other value orientations. But this did not exclude the compulsion to follow the norms that primitive society developed. When taboos were violated, the offender could even be expelled or subject to the death penalty.
Today, thanks to the work of archaeologists, it is possible to restore the entire history of human development. Since most of the skeletons belonging to the era of interest to us were found on the African continent, scientists recognize this territory as the historical homeland of primitive people - Australopithecus and, later, Homo habilis. Stone tools appeared about 2-2.5 million years ago, which allows historians to consider this time as a kind of reference point.
Unlike his ancestors, a "skillful" person - using primitive tools - moves confidently on his feet, and his hands can not only hold a stone or a stick, but also use them as the first primitive tools. However, this is where the differences between Homo sapiens and Australopithecus end: they also communicate through screams, exclamations and gestures.
Even after a million years, the creature, which historians call "straight man", still resembled a monkey not only in appearance - it was covered with hair, had the appropriate shape of the head and hands - but also in habits. Despite this, the brain of the “rectified man” significantly increased in size, which was reflected in his abilities: he could make tools designed for different purposes: to catch and kill animals, butcher their carcasses, dig the ground, hew wooden sticks.
Thanks to the developed skills, a person was able to survive the ice age and move from the African continent to Java, to the North and to Europe. The "straightened" man began - elephants and deer - and to use fire, which warmed him and protected him from predatory animals.
Due to the complication of human activity, 250 thousand years ago, homo sapiens appeared - “reasonable man” or, as he is also called, Neanderthal. Reasonable people first began to use the high caves in which bears hibernated. Firstly, they thus obtained meat without much effort, and secondly, they occupied caves, in which they subsequently lived in large groups.
It was during this period that strong family relationships began to take shape. The dead people began to be buried with special rituals, surrounding the graves with stones and flowers. The skeletons found have allowed scientists to determine that "intelligent" people were trying to cure sick or injured relatives by sharing food with them and caring for them.
Ceremonies and rituals were also characteristic of everyday life: animal skulls arranged in a special order were found in the caves.
Since it is impossible to trace exactly how their “transformation” into people of the modern type took place. In Latin, he is also called homo sapiens sapiens, or a man "twice reasonable" and his appearance is associated with the Stone Age. A man of this species already had practically nothing in common with a monkey - his arms became shorter, his forehead became higher, a chin appeared.
Stone tools were replaced by bone ones. In general, in his everyday life there were about 150 types of tools for different purposes. However, animal bones were used not only for the manufacture of tools. From massive bones, people built dwellings, wore animal teeth as decorations.
Obviously, the life of people directly depended on animals: primitive communities followed the herds that migrated south. For hunting, they used a spear and a bow, and for the construction of primitive dwellings, not only bones, but also animal skins.
Topic 1. Primitive era of human history.
Many phenomena of human life, including modern life, arose or began to arise in the hoary antiquity of primitive society. To name just a few: housing and clothing, agriculture and pastoralism, the social division of labor, marriage and the family, morality and etiquette, useful knowledge, art and religious beliefs. In order to properly understand the evolution of a number of elements of material culture, social norms or ideological ideas, one often has to turn to their origins. This is the cognitive significance of primitive history.
1.1 Chronology and periodization of primitive history.
The primitive communal system was the longest stage in the history of mankind - more than a million years and covers the period from the moment of the separation of man from the animal world to the formation of class societies. It is difficult to determine its lower bound with any precision. At present, some scientists believe that the most ancient man (and thus the primitive society) arose 1.5-1 million years ago, others attribute its appearance to more than 3.5 million years ago. The upper limit of the primitive communal system fluctuates within the last 5 thousand years, differing on different continents. In historical science, there are several options for periodization of the primitive era. One of the bottoms is archaeological, based on differences in the material and technique of making tools. In accordance with it, three periods are distinguished:
1.) stone age (from the emergence of man to the III millennium BC),
2) bronze age (from the end of IV to the beginning of 1 thousand BC),
3) iron age (from 1 thousand BC).
IN The Stone Age is further subdivided into Old Stone Age (Paleolithic), Middle Stone Age (Mesolithic), New Stone Age (Neolithic) and transitional to bronze Copper Stone Age (Eneolithic).
At an early stage of the formation and development of human society, the economic life of people can be characterized as an adaptation to the environment. As the main occupations of ancient people, scientists call hunting and gathering. Material culture was associated with the production of tools. New stone processing technologies are emerging, people have learned to make knives, scrapers, and spearheads from stone.
1.2. Social organization of ancient people It was a non-permanent, random community of 30-50 people, the so-called fore-communities. However, gradually the communities of people are being strengthened. the organization of hunting, which was the main source of food, required a collective effort. Hunting and gathering gave people only the necessary product, so the distribution and consumption of food could only be egalitarian and nothing else. Already at this early stage, leaders stand out within the fore-community. These were the members of the community who obtained more food than others. They enjoyed authority and respect, and gradually acquired some privileges, such as being able to have more women or distribute food among members of the community. Thus, there was a natural selection of leaders, their word became the law for the primitive collective, and already at the earliest stage in the history of human society, the prerequisites for social inequality arise.
Approximately 40 thousand years BC Homo sapiens appears, the form of social organization of people changes accordingly. The tribal community comes to replace the human herd (great community). It was a fairly large group of blood relatives and consisted of several generations. Power and control are inherent in any human community.
ABOUT features of the power of the tribal community :
1) the source of power was the entire tribal community as a whole. This was the period of the so-called direct rule when the people directly exercised power. Members of the tribal community themselves established rules of conduct for themselves, ensured their implementation themselves, and themselves brought violators of the established order to justice;
2) power functions were carried out by all adult members of the genus. The supreme authority was general assembly (council) all adult members of the genus, both male and female. Of course, the general opinion was formed by the most authoritative members of the clan, and authority was determined by life experience, seniority, professional achievements, courage, and physical strength. The decisions taken at the meeting were strictly binding. General meetings were convened, as a rule, to resolve the most important issues in the life of the community, concerning production, religious rites, etc. In ordinary daily life, people themselves perfectly understood what needed to be done;
3) for the direct management of the life of the community, the general meeting elected one or more elders. The term "elder" does not mean age, but generally recognized leadership in the community. The elder was the first among equal tribesmen. He led the daily life of the clan, but did not have any benefits, privileges. His power was not hereditary. At any moment, the elder could be replaced by another member of the family, stronger, more experienced and wiser. In case of war, the clan appointed a commander. Gradually stood out priests who performed ritual functions.
Power was elective, temporary and replaceable and relied on authority. There was no special apparatus of control and coercion, although there were opportunities for hard coercion against violators of the order. In addition, there was no specialization in the primitive community: as needed, an adult member of the clan acts as a hunter, a warrior, and a manufacturer of tools. Professional military squads have not yet been created; all men capable of carrying weapons participated in military conflicts. Elders (military leaders) participated in the production activities of the tribal community on an equal basis with its other members.
Decomposition of the tribal community The immediate prerequisite for the process of disintegration of primitive society and the formation of classes was the rise in various spheres of production, and as a result, the growth of a regular surplus product. The further development of the manufacturing economy, the emergence of metallurgy and other types of handicraft activities, and the intensification of exchange played a particularly important role here.
1.3. Development of the manufacturing economy and its analogues.
The emergence of a productive economy already at the stage of the late primitive community made possible its progressive development, various systems of agriculture, integrated agricultural and cattle breeding, and cattle breeding developed. In agriculture, such forms as the cultivation of permanent plots and fallow land have developed. Economic opportunities largely depended on natural conditions as well as the level of agricultural technology. Therefore, the evolution of primitive agriculture is more often seen in the transition from hand tools to arable and, accordingly, from hand (stick and hoe) agriculture to arable farming, involving the use of draft animals.
The development of agriculture made it possible to use part of the grown product to feed livestock and thereby contributed to the development of cattle breeding. This is especially true of arable farming, which required draft power and directly stimulated the breeding of animals suitable for draft. An important reason for the growth of pastoralism in the era of class formation was also the need for exchange, which will be discussed later.
Discovery of metallurgy. Copper was the first industrial metal to be known to man. The use of native copper by its cold or hot forging, and later smelting of copper ores, began already at the end of the Neolithic. It was a time when metal was just trying to compete with stone, and for the most part not very successfully. Copper was rare, expensive, and in terms of its working qualities did not always surpass stone. But the development of a new substance for the manufacture of tools - metal - in the future to a large extent determined the progress in the development of technology.
Then bronze came to replace copper. Bronze tools are superior to copper tools in their working qualities: they are harder, sharper, and their casting is easier. At the same time, bronze was even less available than copper. The situation changed only with the development of iron and the onset of the early Iron Age. Iron is the most widely distributed metal in nature, and in this respect it is incomparably more accessible than copper and bronze. It is also very important that its working qualities are much higher than copper, bronze, and stone.
The emergence of crafts. The production achievements of the era contributed to the further development of home crafts (i.e., the production of products for one's own needs) and the emergence of crafts (i.e., the production of products for exchange or sale). Of paramount importance in this regard was metallurgy itself, which stimulated the transition from home-trading to the actual handicraft activity. Metal was used to make tools, weapons, household items, jewelry. So, in particular, only with the onset of the Bronze Age did the sword and the war chariot appear, and protective armor became widespread. Iron further expanded the range of metal products, and most importantly, contributed to the development of craft as a special area of activity. The manufacture of stone and bone tools, weaving and weaving, potters and even bronze casting were all processes available to every member of the community, and iron metallurgy required special structures, complex skills, in general, professional specialization and qualifications. Other types of handicraft activities also developed. Pottery developed, which was especially facilitated by the invention of kilns for firing ceramics and the potter's wheel. The latter did not appear in a class society, as was previously thought, but already in a pre-class society, and even then it could evolve from the original archaic forms (turntable, circle of slow rotation) into a more perfect form (circle of rapid rotation). But neither ceramic kilns nor the potter's wheel were a prerequisite for the formation of early pottery.
The invention of the loom in the Bronze Age gave an impetus to the development of the weaving craft. Gradually, many other forms of domestic trade activities also took on a handicraft character: stone, bone and wood processing, weaving, etc. The second major social division of labor in the history of mankind was going on everywhere - the separation of craft from other occupations, and above all the most important of them - agriculture.
Exchange intensification. The deepening of the first and the formation of the second major social division of labor was accompanied by the development of exchange. The exchange of primitive collectives with the specific riches of their natural environment, as we have seen above, already existed in the era of the early primitive community. Now, in the course of the differentiation of economic and cultural types and with the further development of the prestigious economy, both of these forms have acquired even greater significance. But, more importantly, along with them, a truly economic exchange began to emerge, in which, unlike, for example, gift exchange, not so much exchange ties were valued as the things themselves obtained by exchange.
Farmers who did not have or lacked their own livestock sought to obtain meat, dairy products, skins, wool, and especially draft animals from pastoralists, which were needed as a draft and vehicle. Cattle breeders, in turn, needed agricultural products and, since a mobile lifestyle interferes with many types of handicraft activities, metal, pottery and other products.
With the beginning of the separation of the craft, the exchange received even greater development, and most importantly, it began to be carried out regularly not only on the borders of communities, but also within them. Some of the products were already produced specifically for exchange purposes. What was not done to order, not within the framework of partnerships, etc., could already go to primitive markets, where on certain days of the week a very significant number of people sometimes converged from the surrounding villages.
The development of exchange (although not the only one) contributed to the improvement of the means of communication. Roads and bridges were improved, wheeled carts and ships with oars and sails were widely used. From the middle of the 2nd millennium BC. e. a horse began to be used as a draft animal, in the next millennium as a pack transport in the desert regions of Asia - one-humped and two-humped camels.
1.4. Formation of a class society.
Scheme 1 Factors in the formation of a class society
Development (improvement) of labor tools
The level of development of productive forces rises
Increasing the level of land cultivation technology, knowledge and skills
There is a surplus of production
There is a division of labor
There is a stratification of society (property inequality, separation of the nobility)
Exchange processes are developing, trade
A new mode of production is emerging
Public education emerges
With the birth of a surplus product, the formation of the institutions of a class society begins, including the most important of them - private property, social classes and the state. Private property was decisive, making possible the existence of all other institutions. The emergence of private property was the result of a two-pronged process due to the rise of late primitive production. First, the growth of labor productivity and its specialization contributed to the individualization of production, which, in turn, made possible the emergence of a surplus product created by one person and appropriated by others. Secondly, the same increased productivity and specialization of labor made possible the production of a product specifically for exchange, created the practice of regular alienation of the product. Thus arose freely alienable private property. The formation of private property took place in sharp contradictions between the new and old orders. The principles of private ownership that were making their way to life had to overcome numerous more collectivist forms of production, as well as the strong psychology of communal-tribal egalitarianism. The accumulation by individual families of surpluses of unnecessary products, both in kind and in the transformed form of treasures, was contrary to the very spirit of primitive communal traditions, and the more wealthy were required to share one way or another with the less wealthy.
A wealthy person, especially if it was a big man or leader, in order not to lose authority and influence, had to arrange magnificent feasts, generously give gifts to relatives, neighbors and guests, help those in need, etc. The stingy rich man not only lost his authority, but also could lose property.
The birth of exploitation and social classes. With the advent of the surplus product and private property, social and property differentiation becomes more and more noticeable. While wealth was accumulating at the tribal and communal elite, ordinary relatives and community members had only insignificant surpluses, did not possess them at all, or even experienced deprivation. For various reasons, ordinary relatives and community members found themselves in unequal conditions: the unequal size and gender and age composition of families, the personal qualities of workers, and all sorts of accidents affected. This inequality was exacerbated by the fact that prestige-economic relations, in the past mainly inter-communal, began to penetrate more and more widely into the community. Thus, the principle of the equivalence of giving and bestowal began to penetrate here, displacing the former principle of gratuitous mutual assistance. Now he had to pay for material assistance received by a kinsman or fellow community member, first in the same amount, and then in a larger amount.
Thus, at the end of the Neolithic, an outstanding event occurs that radically changed the traditional life of the community - people learned how to make metal. In addition, stone processing operations have become more complicated. The technology for the production of fabrics and pottery was invented. Primitive vehicles (sledges, skis, boats) appeared and improved. Labor productivity has increased significantly. All these and other changes related to them, including such an important factor as the accumulation of experience and knowledge, led to a fundamental revolution in the system of material production, which was called the Neolithic revolution. The meaning of this revolution in the system of material production consisted in the transition from an appropriating economy to a producing economy, i.e. from hunting and gathering to farming and cattle breeding. People learned to sow bread, which provided uninterrupted food throughout the year, to breed livestock, which regularly supplied a person with meat (in addition, milk, cheese, skins, leather, wool, etc.).
Fig 1 Ancient people hunting
Fig 2 Tools of labor of ancient people
Fig 3 Settlement of ancient people
