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Reno, NV March 28, 2013 3/21/2016RMS Consulting Group ASR 1
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Humanity's ancestors first appeared in the African Rift Valley from which they migrated, north, west and south. A current hypothesis is that diverging hominid stock migrated from Africa at two different periods. One lineage of 700,000 years ago led to the Neanderthals evolving in the temperate zone of Europe and the Middle East. Another, which evolved in Africa about 140,000 years ago, led to modern humans. An ice age set in about 186,000 years ago, creating arid conditions in Africa. By 100,000 years ago the Sahara desert was lush, with lakes, streams and vegetation. Plentiful game would have encouraged a wider distribution of early humans. Migrants that colonized the rest of the world, left Africa between 90,000 and 100,000 years ago, reached China by 68,000 years ago, Australia by at least 60,000 years ago, Europe by 36,000 years ago and the New World by 12,000 years ago. But humans only flourished at the time of the extinction of the Neanderthals around 35,000 years ago. 3/21/2016RMS Consulting Group ASR 2
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Some nuclear DNA sequences (including Y-chromosome data) and mitochondrial DNA indicate that modern humans originated and migrated relatively recently from a subset of the African population, putting Africa as the home of modern humanity. Mike Hammer (1995) at the University of Arizona, sequenced 2,400 bases in the same Y chromosome region from 16 ethnically diverse humans and four chimpanzees, and dated the common ancestral human Y chromosome at 188,000 years with a 95 percent confidence interval from 51,000 to 411,000 years. Other data shows that Africans and non-Africans split about 156,000 years ago. Within Africa the oldest modern human fossil is just less than 160,000 years old and represented by Homo sapiens idaltu.Homo sapiens idaltu The genetic information suggests an early diversification, dispersal and widespread distribution of human populations within Africa. Paleoanthropological records suggest that this occurred during an interglacial 130,000 to 90,000 years ago. This is supported by faunal evidence, showing the presence of modern humans and east African animal species in the Middle East at this time. 3/21/2016RMS Consulting Group ASR 3
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Outside of Africa, there is evidence for the early formation of a non-African grouping, represented today by the Australians, New Guineans, southeast Asians, Japanese and central Asians. All Y-chromosomes that are not exclusively African contain an identifying mutation, that originated from one of the two African groups, and evolved into three distinct sub-clusters, representing the deepest structuring of Y-chromosome diversity outside Africa. Paleoclimatic records suggest an onset of glacial climates 70,000 years ago (Toba), accompanied by the fragmentation of African environments. This isolated both northwest and northeastern most Africa from each other and the south. Isolation allowed African populations to evolve the variation later exported out of Africa more than once through multiple dispersals of different African groups. The current diversity found outside Africa is therefore a magnification of a process of diversification within Africa 90,000 to 50,000 years ago. The last common ancestor of all non-African human Y-chromosomes, is estimated to be about 40,000 years (31,000-79,000) ago. 3/21/2016RMS Consulting Group ASR 4
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With fossil evidence these recent findings confirm the African origin of humanity. Africans have the greatest genetic distance from the rest of humanity, showing that on the human family tree, the split from the Africans occurred before the other branches. Australian aborigines are genetically the most distant from the Africans. Humans migrated into Europe about 40,000 years ago. They used two different tool traditions at this time. People south of the Sahara had the same Middle Stone Age tools between 200,000 and 40,000 years ago. The first migrants into Europe transmitted this tradition. In North Africa and Europe, a new tool tradition started 40,000 years ago. These are associated with early Cro-Magnon cultures (modern Caucasians), called the Aterian culture in Tunisia and Libya. North Africa had more rain at this time and was lush and full of large game. Tool points with tangs that allowed the attachment onto a spear or arrow first appeared at this time. The bow and arrow are believed to have been invented here. This North African Aterian tool culture lasted for 20,000 years. Smaller points such as those used in arrows developed. Tiny microliths (small barbs) of flint, used to mount in rows on bone or wood sickles are also found, showing that they reaped wild grasses. 3/21/2016RMS Consulting Group ASR 5
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This culture led to the Egyptian Quadan people of about 15,000 years ago. Humanity was on the brink of civilization, complete with grinding stones and agriculture. Farther north, in France, hunters became herders about 10,000 – 20,000 years ago. Most modern Europeans arose from two distinct migrations of Paleolithic ancestors – one about 40,000 years ago and the other about 22,000 years ago. More recent Neolithic farmers arriving in Europe about 10,000 years ago comprise only about 20% of modern day European gene pool. Modern humans underwent a ‘bottleneck’ in our progression toward dominance on Earth about 72,000 – 75,000 years ago, where there was a massive die-off of people, reducing the number of breeding females to as few as 5,000 – 10,000 planet wide. Needless, to say, we the people have since recovered. The strongest suspected culprit – Toba – a super-volcano exploding in Indonesia that may well have plunged the world into a renewed and deepened ice age, causing food to become scarce. 3/21/2016RMS Consulting Group ASR 6
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Humanity has passed through three major evolutionary phases - hunter gatherer, agricultural and technological. It is difficult to generalize on human lifestyles as adaptation to the environment is a continual, cultural and learned process. Instead of genetic adaptation, cultural adaptation has been important. Physical changes are small. Forest dwellers tend to be small, with a light muscular frame. Eastern Mediterranean hunter gatherers of 30,000 to 9,000 years ago stood at five feet ten inches. Agriculturalists of 5,000 to 3,000 years ago, from the same region, only average five foot three inches. Evidence suggests that both the size and robustness of humans, and their brain volume has decreased over the last 10,000 years or so.hunter gathereragriculturaltechnological The traditional classification of human social evolution is into pre-history and recorded history. The latter follows the invention of writing and therefore written historical records. Pre-history is broken down onto 3 periods, according to the materiel used for making tools: The Stone Age (50,000 BC to 4000 BC), The Bronze Age (4000 to 2000 BC), and The Iron Age (1500 BC onwards). 3/21/2016RMS Consulting Group ASR 7
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Some texts will explain that the Old Stone Age (the Paleolithic Age (50,000 to 12,000 BC) ) is the Age of food-gatherers, while the New Stone Age or the Neolithic Age (12000 to 4000 BC)) is referred to as the Age of food producers. This puts the Bronze age onwards as the Age of civilization, starting towards the end of the Neolithic Age. In the below discussion, look at three major lifestyle groupings:Neolithic For 99% of our history, we have lived as hunter gatherers, living a nomadic way of life similar to that of the Neanderthals. Over the period called the Middle Paleolithic (called the Middle Stone Age in Africa), 200,000 to 40,000 years ago, stone tools found are quite similar, representing a uniform technology world- wide.hunter gatherers There is evidence that fire was first used by Homo erectus at Ghoukoutien, China 300,000 to 400,000 years ago Exploitation of natural resources through this lifestyle had small impact upon the environment as technology was not very complex and population densities were generally low and mobile. To keep on the move is important to hunter gatherers to monitor the changes to the huge territory upon which they depended. 3/21/2016RMS Consulting Group ASR 8
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Hunter-gatherers had a practical, but excellent knowledge of their natural environment, be it plants animals or the physical conditions. In productive areas, Australian aborigines had up to 250 food plants from which to choose. Poorer areas had about 50. During the last Ice Age (Upper Paleolithic: 35,000 to 8,000 B.C.), a culture of mammoth hunters lived in eastern Europe and Siberia, keeping south of great sheets of ice that stretched across the continent. A period of intense cold between 20,000 and 18,000 years ago (the "glacial maximum") forced these people off the Russian plain, but mammoth hunters returned between 15,000 and 14,000 years ago. From 18,000 to 10,000 years ago an intense period of technological, cultural and intellectual change followed the climatic change. Large prey would have served as a food resource until their extinction, probably due to a combination of massive environmental changes and hunting pressure, no more than 12,000 years ago. As the climate warmed, these large animals would have been forced to retreat north with their cold-specialized habitat. 3/21/2016RMS Consulting Group ASR 9
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With human dependence upon this prey, hunting intensity within this smaller range would have probably increased. This coupled with the long generation times of the mammoth and other mega-fauna of the time would have led to their rapid extinction A time of dry and cold called the late-glacial period gripped the earth between 23,000 and 14,000 years ago. Climatic changes then caused a change in the natural vegetation such as the northward spread of forests of birches, conifers and then oaks. This environmental change led to an increase of large and small game and the importance of vegetable foods. Forests favored deer, elk and wild pig. As the climate warmed, lakes formed, creating habitats for waterfowl and fish. This was followed by the development of new tools and a new form of subsistence in the more diverse ecosystem. A study of modern hunting groups suggests that the warmer the climate, the less part meat plays in the diet. 3/21/2016RMS Consulting Group ASR 10
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Today, many large prehistoric game species have no living representatives. Humans have had to adapt to, and may often have been the cause, of these changes. In North America, modern humans (Cro-Magnons) probably influenced the extinction of many species such as the mastodon, saber-toothed tigers and giant beavers. Fire may also have altered the environment quite dramatically as people used fire as a hunting tool, significantly affecting ecosystem structure and species composition. Early Europeans wore skins, as shown in their paintings and fished with spears. Before them, Neanderthals occupied the area, with their Mousterian stone tool technology. These Neanderthals depended mostly upon horses, bovines and two species of rhinoceros for meat. During this Middle Paleolithic period, the Neanderthal population densities were low, so subsistence must have been less demanding.Paleolithic By 10,000 to 11,000 years ago, ocean fishes and other marine resources had become increasingly important to coastal Eurtope. The importance of seafood rose dramatically after that. It appears that an increased population density led to a greater demand on all available food resources 3/21/2016RMS Consulting Group ASR 11
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A vast region in the Pacific, known as the Oceanic Arena, extends from Easter Island in the east, to Australia in the South, China in the north and the Andaman Islands in the west. This part of the world was the last to be colonized by humans. Homo erectus remains in Sundaland (Java, Sumatra and Borneo), of between 600,000 and 900,000 years old, represent the earliest evidence of our pre-human ancestors in this region. Much later, two groups of people colonized it. The more recent colonists were Australoid hunter-gatherers. The Australoid colonists of this area are represented today by the Aborigines of Australia, the Highlanders of New Guinea, the Negritos of Malaya and the Philippines. Melanesian people (New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Fiji etc.) are a genetic hybrid of Australia, Polynesian and Micronesian people. This mix is the result of continual migrations from the mainland of East Asia. People of Mongoloid ancestry attained dominance of the Southeast Asian islands and settled empty areas of Micronesia and Polynesia over the past 6,000 years. These mongoloids had little genetic impact on most of Melanesia. Mongoloids subsisted largely by gardening. 3/21/2016RMS Consulting Group ASR 12
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They practiced fishing and sailed on outrigger canoes. It appears that they did not use metals. Their geographical dispersal ranges from Madagascar in the west to Easter Island in the east.. Ancient sites, 5,000 to 6,000 years old, show evidence of rice cultivation, stone reaping knives, pottery, cattle and pigs. These cultivators of cereals reached Formosa (Taiwan) by 6,000 years ago. Other crops cultivated later by this group of people includes millet, yam, taro and sugarcane. Eventually tropical crops from their new areas of colonization were grown, including breadfruit, banana, sago and coconut. Dogs and chickens also formed part of their material culture. Use of metals began about 3,000 years ago, but even in recent times metal usage did not extend beyond western New Guinea. The ocean navigation skills of the ancient Polynesians show that technical knowledge and the art of the craft to be as complex as any practiced today. Using a knowledge of stars, currents and the movement of ocean swells, they managed to colonize a constellation of islands covering 39 million square kilometers, from Hawaii in the north to New Zealand in the South. 3/21/2016RMS Consulting Group ASR 13
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With no instruments or maps, they used environmental cues to guide their navigation. Swells that passed slowly under their boats every 10 minutes were used to navigate across the open Pacific. By following a star path, they could travel as precisely as with a compass. They would head toward a star on their desired bearing, and when it had moved too high, select the next star to rise from the same point and continue through the night. With a knowledge of ocean currents, sailors would alter their bearings to compensate, using stars ahead and to port as markers. Deep down in the water depths, experienced mariners would gaze into the "te tapa" a type of underwater lightning, presumably caused by bioluminescence triggered by deep waves bouncing off distant islands. The streaks dart out from the islands direction and are used on dark cloudy nights when no stars are visible. Using this, they could even determine how many islands lay ahead! Swells reflected off islands beyond the horizon, also guided skilled navigators. Naturally, to support this skill, these people also needed the craft of boat building. With no written language, this knowledge was passed through cultural songs and from father to son. 3/21/2016RMS Consulting Group ASR 14
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Archeological information points to three centers of early plant cultivation: central Mexico (9,000 years ago), the middle Yangtze River in China (9,500 years ago), and the best-recorded sequence from foraging to farming in the Middle East (11,000 years ago). This agriculture led to the emergence of complex civilizations. Demographic pressure probably led to the adoption of crop cultivation and animal husbandry, leading to modern civilization. As populations grew, there was an increased dependence upon plants. Next, consumer demand within a constrained space forced the adoption of some form of intensive agricultural production.agricultural production 3/21/2016RMS Consulting Group ASR 15
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Archaeologists have evidence that ancient people grew fig trees about 11,400 years ago, making the fruit the earliest domesticated crop. This find dates use of figs some 1,000 years before the first evidence that crops such as wheat, barley and legumes were being cultivated in the Middle East. Eventually there is a full transition to, and dependence upon agriculture to survive. Technologically, these societies are more complex. Domestic crops and animals become more important as food than wild animals and plants. Agriculture is relatively new, only emerging between 12,000 and 8,000 years ago and has often caused environmental damage, but has led to the social changes that have allowed the formation of our modern civilization. This seems to have followed the end of the last Ice Age between 15,000 and 8,000 years ago. Before this, people living the hunter-gatherer lifestyle depended upon what was available. Over such spans of time, the social and cultural changes must have been largely imperceptible to the individual. 3/21/2016RMS Consulting Group ASR 16
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The Indo-European languages appear to have their root at the beginning of agriculture and spread with the advance of agriculture. These languages with a common root include Albanian, Greek, Tocharian (extinct), Indic (Indo-Aryan) (e.g. Urdu), Iranian (e.g. Persian), Slavic, Baltic, Germanic (e.g. German, English, Swedish, etc.), Italic, Celtic, Romance (e.g. Spanish, French etc.), Armenian and Anatolian (extinct). This family of languages probably arose in the Middle East around Anatolia (Turkey) where an advanced society lived over 8000 years ago. This was before recorded history or writing. Other language families that reflect our most recent history are, Southeast Asian, Sino-Tibetan, Semito-Hamitic, Eskimo-Aleut, Uralic, Altaic, Korean, Japanese, Dravidian, Caucasian, Amerindian, Niger-Congo, Nilo-Saharan, Australian, Malayo-Polynesian, Papuan and Khoisan.language families 3/21/2016RMS Consulting Group ASR 17
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Linguists have established the common origin of languages such as Sanskrit and many European languages. By dating sites with crops typical of early farming, we can trace the diffusion of agriculture from the Middle East around 8,500 years ago, reaching Britain around 6,000 years ago and Spain and Portugal by 5,000 years ago. A study of blood groups that established gene frequencies in Europe shows common groups extending out from the Middle East, giving some support for this proposal of the migrations of peoples in Neolithic times.Sanskrit Other scholars place the origins of the Indo-European languages about 6300 years ago. They claim this early language spread with the military conquests of the Kugans who lived in the Russian steppes near the Volga River, north of the Caspian Sea We are a technological civilization and culture. It is impossible to separate technology from our social fabric. 3/21/2016RMS Consulting Group ASR 18
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