Early Hominid Behavior & Culture

This week the theme is early hominid culture: Just what were our ancestors doing to survive? How could they compete with other species of animals? What made early members of the genus Homo successful?

This forum concentrates on early hominids (Chaps. 10-11) ONLY: late australopithecines and early Homo: Homo habilis and Homo erectus ONLY.

(Later Homo — archaic Homo sapiens, including Neandertals, and modern Homo sapiens from Chaps. 12-13 — will be covered in the next & final forum.)

Remember our original definition of culture from the section on non-human primate behavior: learned behavior passed from generation to generation not genetically but through observation, imitation, and practice.

First view & read the following from the Chap. 11 block:

Week 11 – Start Here (for Chap. 11)
the NOVA video, In Search of Human Origins, Part 2
the article on the discovery of early stone tools
the 2 PowerPoints on biocultural evolution & cooking
the article on the evolutionary importance of cooking
the short video clips on the evolution of the hand & running as an adaptation in the genus Homo
Chap. 11 — also review pp. 269-279 in Chap. 10 on late australopithecines
Then discuss what you learned about early hominid adaptations and refer to the sources of your information. You are required to study all materials and incorporate them into your answer rather than just winging it. Demonstrate you put in the time & actually did the work yourself instead of piggybacking off of other students’ hard work. You also are expected to use your own words and not plagiarize.

Here are some things to consider: describe the evidence that provides answers to any of the bulleted questions below.

Were the late australopithecines (before the genus Homo) killer apes? Why or why not? Who proposed the Killer Ape hypothesis? Is there evidence to support it?
Was early Homo (Homo habilis & Homo erectus) a mighty hunter or a sneaky scavenger? What is the evidence? (You can Google the article, “Scavenger Hunt”, by Pat Shipman)
What role did culture & learned behavior play in the lives of early hominids? What is the evidence?
What types of tools were made & used? Which species made them? What activities could they be used for?
Richard Wrangham’s cooking hypothesis: what information can you provide about this?
Discuss a specific site and/or fossils, such as: Olduvai Gorge, Nariokotome (WT-15000 fossil); Dmanisi; Zhoukoudian/Choukoutien
anything else you consider important or interesting that you have discovered this week — you must provide the link(s) and/or source(s) in your discussion