This question has always worried both scientists and ordinary people. Many scientists still devote their entire lives to studying this question, without finding an exact answer. And although no one knows for sure yet, in the scientific world they accepted as a basis the theory of Darwin, who believed that man evolved from a monkey naturally. However, so far no one has found such evidence of the origin of man from animals that is completely irrefutable.
Darwin's theory
In the modern world, Darwin's theory no longer has the same power as before, but it is still the basis for understanding where man came from.
The question of the origin of animal species is considered by such a science as biology. The origin of man is also a question of concern to this science.
British biologist and geologist Charles Darwin published his book on the Origin of Species in 1859, which is one of the most famous works in the history of the science of biology.
In his book, Darwin outlined a theory on the basis of which he made an assumption about the evolution of living beings. He believed that living beings had evolved over billions of years through natural selection, that is, the strongest survived and adapted to new conditions.
Then, in the book “The Origin of Man and Sexual Selection,” he tried to substantiate the theory of Georges-Louis de Buffon, who suggested that the first people on Earth appeared due to evolutionary processes. After Darwin published this work, it was recognized by the entire scientific world.
Darwin's descendants, followers of his school - Darwinists, then declared that man descended from the monkey. This opinion today is considered to be the only correct scientific explanation of what the origin of man was. There is still no scientific refutation of this theory.
Scientists believe that the first people on Earth appeared about 7 million years ago from ancient monkeys. Of course, there are also antagonists to this statement. The further evolution of man took place in a very complex way, leaving the right to life only to more advanced species.
Australopithecus
Australopithecus is considered the first link in the human evolutionary chain. In the Republic of Chad, remains of this species were found that are more than 6 million years old. The youngest Australopithecus was found in South Africa. No more than 900 thousand years have passed since his death. Of all the links found in human evolution, this species existed for the longest period of time.
Australopithecines have distinct features of both human and ape-like creatures. Their height was up to one and a half meters, and their weight ranged from 30 to 50 kg. The absence of large fangs suggests that they could not use them as weapons, therefore, they ate more plant foods than meat. They would not be able to kill large animals, so they hunted small animals or picked up already dead creatures.
These primates were able to use primitive tools that did not need to be made: stones, branches, etc. On the basis of this, Australopithecus is called “a skilled man.”
Pithecanthropus
The life of the first people on Earth was clearly not easy, given their poor adaptability to simply survival.
The first remains of this species of ape were found on the island of Java, which is located in South Asia. This species existed on planet Earth approximately 1 million years ago. During the same period, Australopithecines completely disappeared. About 400 thousand years ago, Pithecanthropus also became extinct.
Thanks to the found remains, from which it was possible to determine the structure of the skeleton, scientists suggest that this species almost always walked on two legs, for which it was nicknamed “Homo erectus.” This was found out due to the fact that the femur of such a primate is very similar to that of a human.
Their tools were also found during excavations. They cannot be characterized as masters of this craft, but the Pithecanthropes already at that time understood that sharp sticks and stones were more suitable for hunting and cutting food than unprocessed wood and cobblestones.
In addition, scientists believe that they managed to learn to coexist peacefully with fire. That is, they were not as afraid of it as other animals, but they still did not know how to get it on their own.
Pithecanthropus did not yet know how to speak and communicated with similar primates at the level of ordinary ancient monkeys.
They are often associated with another branch of evolution - synanthropes, which existed at the same time. Scientists believe that they were similar to each other and led a similar lifestyle.
Neanderthal
Neanderthals existed in Europe and Western Asia for hundreds of thousands of years, isolated from other lineages of great apes.
For the most part, Neanderthals were carnivores and ate meat. To do this, they had huge jaws, which did not protrude forward, like those of more ancient primates. They even hunted very large animals: mammoths, ancient rhinoceroses, etc.
The brain volume was the same as that of modern humans, although scientists suggest that in some groups of individuals it was even larger.
Due to the fact that they lived during the Ice Age, these apes were well adapted to survive in a cold environment. In addition, they had very broad shoulders, pelvis, and well-developed muscles.
About 40 thousand years ago, Neanderthals as a species of apes began to sharply die out. And 28 thousand years ago there was not a single living representative of this species left. Their extinction is associated with another link in human evolution - the Cro-Magnons, who could hunt and kill them.
Cro-Magnon
Representatives of this species are called “modern man.” Modern man, especially representatives of the Caucasian races, is considered completely identical to the late Cro-Magnons.
The found remains of Cro-Magnons tell us that representatives of the early species were as tall as a tall modern man (about 187 centimeters) and had a large skull.
Cro-Magnons already knew how to express their thoughts with characteristic sounds, which is associated with the appearance of speech. They were all divided into hunters and gatherers, each using stone tools.
Later representatives of the Cro-Magnons already skillfully used fire and built primitive kilns in which pottery was fired. Scientists also suggest that they could use coal for these purposes.
They also progressed quite far in creating clothing that both protected them from the bites of wild animals and helped them keep warm in the cold seasons.
The feature that distinguishes this species among all early apes is the emergence of such a concept as art. The Cro-Magnons lived in caves and left in them various drawings of animals or some life events.
Due to the fact that the number of different types of activities began to grow rapidly, more and more differences appeared between the arms and legs. For example, the thumb on the hand developed more and more, with which Cro-Magnons were able to hold heavy tools as easily as small objects.
Homo sapiens
This species is the prototype of modern humans. It appeared about 28 thousand years ago, as evidenced by the finds of the most ancient people.
Even then, our ancestors learned to express their emotions in coherent speech and increasingly improved their social relationships with each other.
Different climates and weather conditions entailed the formation of different traits of a particular race that lived on different continents. It was about 20 thousand years ago that three different races began to appear: Caucasoid, Negroid and Mongoloid.
Thus, in a very condensed form, one can express the Darwinian evolutionary chain, which can describe the origin of man.
Thanks to scientific research, human genes are 91% similar to chimpanzees.
Refutations of Darwin's theory and the teachings of his followers
Despite the fact that this theory is the foundation for all modern human science, there are also findings by various researchers that refute the generally accepted understanding of the scientific world about where the first people on Earth came from.
The found footprints, which are more than 3.5 million years old, prove that anthropoid individuals began to move on straight legs much earlier than primitive labor appeared.
The evolution of man, associated with descent from apes, is unclear if we ask the question about human limbs. Why are people's arms much weaker than their legs, while the opposite is true for monkeys? What contributed to the weakening of the limbs, since strong hands are clearly more useful for hunting and other work, is not clear.
To date, all the links that could completely unite the ancient monkey with modern man have not been found.
In addition, there is a whole series of incomprehensible questions and facts that cannot be answered using the well-known scientific theory of human origin.
Religious theory of human origins
Every religion that has survived to this day says that man appeared thanks to a higher being. Proponents of this theory do not believe in all the evidence of the origin of man from animals that exists today. For example, Christians say that man descended from Adam and Eve, the first people created by God. Everyone also knows the phrase: “God created man in his own image.”
Regardless of the type of religion, they all claim that man was not born naturally, but is a creation of the Almighty. No one has yet found evidence of the origin of man from the Creator.
Creationism
There is such a science as creationism. Scientists who study it are looking for evidence of theories of the origin of man from God and confirmation of information from religious books.
To do this, they use almost sound scientific calculations. For example, they calculated that the ark that Noah built could really accommodate all the animals (about 20 thousand different species), excluding waterfowl.
First man
Adam; Michelangelo
Religious ideas
According to the Book of Genesis: in Judaism, Christianity
According to the ideas of Kabbalah, the spiritual development of humanity began with Adam. For the first time in the history of mankind, he received a desire to understand the spiritual world and comprehended the nature of both worlds - the material and the spiritual. Adam is credited with the authorship of the ancient Kabbalistic book “Sefer Raziel ha-malach” (Book of the angel Raziel).
Among the ancient Germans and Scandinavians
From sparks and melt water arose the giant Ymir and the cow Audumla, who fed him with her milk. From the sweat of Ymir a couple was born - a man and a woman, and one leg with the other conceived a son. These were the first frost giants. Ask and Embla are people who, still in the form of tree prototypes, lifeless and “deprived of fate,” were found by the gods on the seashore; having revived them, they gave them reason and speech. (See also Storms).
Based on the Sumerian epic Enuma Elish
Among the ancient Indians
Purusha - according to the mythology of Ancient India, a creature living in the human heart and at the same time inhabiting the Cosmos. Moreover, every human being carries within itself a particle of immortality. vtsvtsvtsv
Among the ancient Persians
In the culture of Ancient Persia, the first ancestor of people was Gayomart, who emitted light. After the death of Gayomart, all the metals “sprayed” from his body, the soul turned into gold, and the first married couple appeared from the seed, in the form of a rhubarb bush: Mashya and Mashyana.
In Ancient Greece
Phoroneus is the ancestor and creator of humanity, the son of the river god Inach and the nymph Melia. The historian Akusilaus called him in the Genealogy the first "man and the first earthly king", king of the entire Peloponnese. Plato in the Timaeus and Clement of Alexandria in the Stromata also argued that Phoroneus was the first man or the “father of mortals.”
East Africa
One day, a toad crawled onto a deserted seashore - the first creature on the earth's surface. In those days there was nothing in the sky except the Moon. The Moon had an idea to create a man, and she told the Toad about it. But the toad outpaced the moon and, swelling beyond belief, gave birth to two twins - a man and a woman. These were the first people on earth.
The Moon was angry with the Toad and incinerated her. Taking into her care people - the children of Toad, she helped them bring their bodies to perfection, endowed them with intelligence and the gift of speech, giving them a resemblance to modern people. And the Moon named the man Bateta, and the woman Hannah.
Bateta and Hannah lived on earth several times longer than people live now, and when life became not a joy for them, the Moon, as promised, descended to earth and took them with it. Soon their firstborns died and were buried in the ground, and then death began to come for people more and more often.
West Africa
In heaven, Olorun, the Supreme Being, began to create the first people. Orisha Nla sculpted their forms from the earth, but only Olorun could breathe life into them. Orisha Nla hid in Olorun's workshop to spy on how this would happen. But Olorun found out about this and put Orisha Nla into a deep sleep; so that only Olorun knows the secret of reviving the body. To this day, Orisha Nla makes new human bodies through the father and mother of the unborn newborn, but it is Olorun who breathes life into them.
According to the Koran in Islam
Unlike the Bible, which gives a systematic account of Adam, the Qur'an mentions Adam in several separate suras (chapters). Individual verses (verses) mentioning his name are scattered throughout the Quran. In the thirty-second sura “Petition” it is said that Allah created Adam from clay:
“He is the One who knows the hidden and the manifest, the great, the merciful, who made beautiful all things that he created, and created man for the first time from clay” (32:6-7).
The second sura “Cow” most fully reveals the purpose of Adam:
And your Lord said to the angels: “I will appoint a governor on earth.” They asked: “Will You place on earth someone who will sin and shed blood, while we glorify You with praise and sanctify You?” Allah replied: “Verily, I know what you do not know” (verse 30). And Allah taught Adam all the names, then asked the angels about them and told them: “Explain to me [the essence] of these names, if you are sincere” (verse 31). The angels replied: “Praise be to you! We know only what You taught us. Verily, You are the omniscient, the wise” (verse 32). Allah said: “O Adam! Explain to them [the essence of] names.” When Adam explained to the angels the [essence of] names, Allah said: “Did I not tell you that I know the unseen of the heavens and the earth, I know what you do openly and what you conceal?” (verse 33). And then We commanded the angels: “Prostrate yourself before Adam.” Everyone fell on their faces except Iblis, [who] refused [to prostrate], became proud and became an unbeliever (verse 34). Then We said: “O Adam! Settle with your wife in the Garden of Eden, eat there to your heart’s content, whatever you want, but do not approach this tree, otherwise you will be among the wicked” (verse 35).
The seventh sura “Fences” tells about the reasons for Iblis’s discontent:
[Allah] asked: “What prevents you from bowing down, since I commanded you?” [Iblis] replied: “I am better than him: You created me from fire, and him from clay” (verse 12). Then Allah warned Adam: “And then We said: “O Adam! Truly, he is an enemy to you and your wife. May he not force you both to leave heaven - because [then] you will become unhappy” (twentieth sura “Ta Ha”, 117 verse). In paradise you will neither have to starve nor walk naked, there you will not suffer from thirst or heat.” But the shaitan began to whisper to him: “O Adam! Shall I show you a tree [with fruits that bestow] eternity and eternal power?” [Adam and his wife] ate [the fruit of that tree], and they saw their nakedness. They began to cover themselves with the leaves of the trees of paradise folded [together]. So Adam disobeyed his Lord and went astray from the right path. Then the Lord chose him [from among others], forgave him and directed him to the straight path. [Allah] said: “Descend from Paradise, both of you, and let some [of your descendants] be the enemies of others. If, by my will, you step on the straight path, then whoever follows it will not be in error or in disaster” (verses 118-123).
See also
Links
Literature
- Lafargue P., The Myth of Adam and Eve, [trans. with German], St. Petersburg. 1906;
- Trencheni-Valdapfel I., Social background for two myths about Adam, in the book: Origin of the Bible, M., 1964;
- Gunkel N., Die Urgeschichte und die Patriarchen, Gott., 1911;
- Hubner P., Vom ersten Menschen wird erzählt in Mythen, Wissenschaft und Kunst, Düsseldorf, ;
- Patai R., Adam we-Adamah, Jerusalem, 1942;
- Quispel G., Der gnostische Anthropos und die jüdische Tradition, “Eranos Jahrbuch”, 1953, Bd 22;
- Röhrich L., Adam und Eva, 1968;
- Schûöpfungsmythen, Darmstadt, 1977;
- Strothmann F., Die Anschauungen von der Weltschöpfung im alten Testament, Münster. 1933;
- Westermann C., Der Mensch im Urgeschehen, “Kerygma und Dogma”, 1967, Jg. 13, H. 4.
- Beck E., lblis und Mensch, Satan und Adam: der Werdegang einer koranischen Erzählung, “Le Museon”, 1976, v. 89, fasc. 1-2.
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- Monazite
See what “First Man” is in other dictionaries:
First man on the moon (US postage stamp)- First Man on the Moon ... Wikipedia
First Man (novel)- First Man Le Premier homme Genre: Romance
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Scientists, theologians, philosophers - everyone has been trying since ancient times to answer the question of where man came from on Earth. At the same time, theorists were divided into three camps: some believe in God's providence, others in Darwin, and others in alien intervention.
According to Darwin's theory, man descended from Neanderthal man, that is, he gradually evolved from a monkey to a humanoid creature. But how did Cro-Magnons appear - tall, slender and beautiful - instead of the bestial Neanderthals forty thousand years ago? After all, the study of the genetic code of a Neanderthal showed a very big difference with the genetic code of a Cro-Magnon man, that is, a modern type of person.
Perhaps this mystery can be solved with the help of ancient legends, in which there are always references to certain gods who came from the sky, flying deities who descended to Earth and took the most beautiful girls as wives. “They began to go in to the daughters of men, and they began to give birth to them,” the ancient texts say.
Similar facts are described in many sources and even in the Bible. There is a version that these long-standing contacts led to the mixing of blood and the birth of healthy, beautiful people.
Mysterious aliens in ancient times intervened in many earthly events; they often reconciled warring tribes and stopped wars. The writings of the prophet Ezekiel narrating events that took place at the beginning of the sixth century BC, in particular, tell about the incident when he was on the Chebar River among the migrants.
At that moment, people were thinking about how to get to the other side of the river. Suddenly a phenomenon unusual for that time appeared: “...a large cloud, fire, and spreading glow appeared. The likeness of four animals flew out of the fire; they had an appearance similar to that of a human.
They had wings, and ordinary hands were visible under them. The wings touched each other, keeping them in the air. If the movement of the wings stopped, then they seemed to cover the bodies of these creatures.” One can only envy the accuracy and detail of the description of those events.
The Bible mentions the most ancient encounters between man and aliens, and describes in detail the “angels” who visited the city of Sodom. According to biblical texts, these “angels” needed food and shelter, and physiologically they were so similar to people that the local “men” almost “dishonored” them. The "Angels" had to flee the city. After this, Sodom was destroyed. Holy Scripture talks about angels as humanoid creatures.
However, it may very well be that everything is just the opposite - the Cro-Magnon man, that is, a modern type of man, who miraculously appeared on Earth overnight, is “angel-like.” This fantastic hypothesis is still waiting to be confirmed.
It is believed that humanity in a civilized form, that is, when it began to use writing, appeared about five thousand years ago. By the standards of the Universe, this is a very short period of time. Official science prefers to delicately sidestep the question of the existence of previously highly developed civilizations.
There is constant emphasis on the fact that the current generation of people is the only one on the planet that has reached the pinnacle of development in technical terms, although many indirect evidence suggests that this is not so.
In addition to Atlantis, described in their dialogues by Plato and Herodotus, and the legendary northern country of Hyperborea, there were also mainland states that reached unprecedented prosperity at the same time. Even with all the disdainful attitude of many historians towards such mythical peoples, some artifacts confirming their existence have been found, and many of them are on the territory of modern China. In contrast
from the island states that ceased to exist due to natural disasters and went under water, the territory of the ancient Chinese empire was preserved much better. Archaeologists have discovered pyramidal structures similar to those in Egypt and South America.
By the way, not so long ago, Novosibirsk scientists confirmed the existence in ancient times of a single Arctic continent - Arctida-Hyperborea. According to their research, published in the international journal Precambrian Research, Franz Josef Land, the Spitsbergen archipelago, the Kara Sea shelf and the New Siberian Islands used to be one continent.
At the same time, researchers were able to prove that the continent of Arctida existed twice, with a difference of 500 million years.
Before this, it was believed that after the collapse of the continent, the relief acquired its modern appearance. However, recent studies have shown that 250 million years ago, parts of the continent were reunited again, and only after the second disintegration were the coastline shapes that we can see now formed.
This discovery once again confirmed that the Indian and Slavic legends about the distant northern ancestral home are not a myth, but a description, albeit very ancient, but very real events of the past of humanity, in contrast to the official version of history.
The ancient Egyptians, Chinese, Atlanteans, Hyperboreans, peoples of the South American or African continents were united by the possession of technologies that were fantastic even for our time. Scientists still have not been able to find the answer to how they managed to lift giant blocks during the construction of the pyramids or install giant statues on Easter Island.
And there are many such examples. Take, for example, the mythical Tower of Babel, mentioned in biblical history. The described structure is reminiscent of modern skyscrapers, and accordingly, it is impossible to build it without accurate calculations of loads and analyzes of the rocks under the structure.
Made only of stone, without a metal frame, the building would not be able to support even its own weight or would tilt, as happened with the Leaning Tower of Pisa. It is possible that the structure in Babylon (like the pyramids) also had a completely different purpose in technical terms. There is no reliable evidence that the tower had a round base, so it is possible that the Babylonians also built a pyramid. Subsequently, as we know, the building was destroyed, and the city itself fell into decay.
The legends of all these peoples always mention certain gods who came from the sky... and then follows a description of some apparatus, identified by contemporaries with some fantastic creature.
Why does no one know exactly how and when man appeared on Earth? After all, knowledge about nature and the teachings of great philosophers came to us thousands of years later. But knowledge about how the pyramids were built has disappeared. Knowledge about the first man also disappeared. Maybe they were deliberately “erased” from people’s memory?
So where does the human race come from? With each subsequent discovery in genetics, there are fewer and fewer supporters of Darwinism, and there is more and more evidence of the impossibility of the independent origin of species.
The version about the intervention of extraterrestrial intelligence is the most relevant today, especially since it is quite organically linked with religious teachings, not only current ones, but also those that have long been artifacts.
The event of greatest importance in the history of the Earth was appearance of the first people.
It is usually believed that this happened at the beginning of the Quaternary period, about 500 thousand years ago. To emphasize the importance of this event in the history of the Earth, many scientists, as mentioned above, call this period the Anthropocene period, that is, the period of the birth and appearance of man.
Man comes from the animal world. Its ancestors are great apes. However, man, unlike all other animals, learned in the process of collective labor not only to use the benefits of nature, but also to remake nature, to subjugate its forces. The remains of the oldest ape-men - Pithecanthropus - were found in the layers of the late Tertiary period, dating back more than a million years. The most ancient ape-people continued to live in the first millennia of the Quaternary period. Therefore, it would be more correct to consider the beginning of the Anthropocene period from the time of the appearance of human ancestors, that is, to add to the Anthropocene period part of the Tertiary period - the so-called Pliocene era, which is about 5 million years old. The entire history of modern animal species, starting with their closest ancestors, fits into this period of time.
The remains of Quaternary ape-men, called Sinanthropus, which means “Chinese people,” were found by the Chinese scientist V. C. Pei in Northern China in caves near Beijing.
Along with the bones of Sinanthropus, thick layers of ash from fires, fragments of animal bones, and rough fragments of broken stones that served as knives and scrapers for Sinanthropus were found in these caves. Probably these ancient people used wooden clubs for hunting, but the wood has not survived to this day.
Sinanthropus was significantly different from modern people, but they were still people. They already used fire, and this was the greatest conquest in the history of mankind.
The time of existence of ape-people ended approximately 500 thousand years ago and was replaced by the “Paleolithic”, or in Russian, the Old Stone era (or the Old Stone period). The Paleolithic, as this era (or this period) is sometimes called, in turn was replaced first by the Neolithic, or New Stone Age, and then by the Age of Metal.
The Old Stone Period, or Paleolithic, is divided into two unequal parts: the Lower and Middle Paleolithic, which lasted about 300 thousand years, and the Upper Paleolithic, which lasted no more than 100 thousand years. The duration of all other eras is no more than 12-15 thousand years.
During the Lower Paleolithic, the direct descendants of ape-men lived - primitive people, or, as they are usually called, Neanderthals.
They were still significantly different from modern people and retained some features of their ancestors. The remains of their camps, as we said above, were found in the lower layers of Crimean caves, in Central Asia and in many other places.
Neanderthals were short (155-156 centimeters), but they were distinguished by significant strength. A large, elongated head with a low forehead extending back and an overhanging eyebrow, under which small eyes were hidden, sat on a thick short neck, which on the back side seemed to form one whole, with a flat nape. A wide nose and a sloping back, like apes, and not a protruding chin like ours - this was the portrait of our ancestor.
The Neanderthal's gait was extremely awkward. A heavy short body sat on strong legs with short lower legs and wide massive feet. The powerful hands had wide hands with thick short fingers, which, however, could make rough stone wedges (axes) and scrapers. The club in the hands of this primitive strongman was a reliable weapon of defense, attack and hunting.
The favorite habitats of Neanderthals were river valleys and caves.
The enormous advantage of the Neanderthal, as well as his closest ancestors, over other animals was upright posture, as a result of which the hands were free to make various tools, and this primarily expanded the possibilities of hunting. Hunting at that time was, together with collecting fruits and edible plant roots, the main source of subsistence.
For about 300 thousand years, Neanderthals perfected their primitive art of stone processing. Gradually, as a result of labor, their appearance changed. They became more and more like modern people. By the time the Great Glaciation of the Earth reached its greatest extent, man was able to adapt to new living conditions, and he himself had already become completely similar to modern man. At this time, a very important improvement was made in the manufacture of labor and hunting tools. Man learned to make tools not from a whole piece of stone, cutting them with rough chips, like a wooden wedge, but from specially chipped stone plates; at the same time, he learned to produce flint plates that were thin and long, like a knife blade. People began to widely use bone for all kinds of crafts. Dart tips, piercings, awls, carefully crafted scrapers, knives, chisels for carving bones, bone needles with eyes for sewing clothes, and the like appeared.
This stage of development of human society is called Upper Paleolithic.
At sites of that time, sometimes, in addition to various household items and hunting tools, female figurines carved from mammoth tusks or carved images of various animals used in magical (witchcraft) rituals are sometimes found.
Hard-to-reach caves sometimes served as sanctuaries for our ancestors, and various religious rituals were performed in them. On the walls of some caves, drawings made in red and black paint have survived to this day, depicting bison, mammoths, deer pierced by darts, drawings of hands with chopped off fingers, as well as witchcraft signs that are incomprehensible to us.
Upper Paleolithic people - “new people”, or, as they are usually called, “reasonable people”, were physically no longer significantly different from modern people.
Upper Paleolithic people did not know how to make pottery; they did not know bows and arrows and used darts. They did not have domestic animals and, of course, did not even know the rudiments of agriculture. Hunting was still the main means of subsistence, and in it they achieved significant success.
The “new people” were nomadic hunters. They already knew how to hunt such large animals as bison, rhinoceros and even mammoth, but they also willingly ate the corpses of these animals if they found them in perpetually frozen soil - on the site of a melting glacier. They exterminated smaller and more easily accessible animals, especially reindeer, and birds - ptarmigan, in huge quantities. We find many thousands of bones of various animals during excavations of their sites. But especially a lot of bones of mammoths and reindeer are sometimes found there, which is why Upper Paleolithic people are also called “mammoth and reindeer hunters.”
Many tens of thousands of years have passed, and now, on the verge of modernity, about 15 thousand years ago, humanity was enriched with a new wonderful invention: man invented the bow and arrows. This immediately expanded the possibilities of his hunting, which was still the main source of human existence. Rhinoceroses and mammoths have long been extinct. The huge ice sheet was melting quickly. Its southern border was already near present-day Leningrad. The climate was becoming warmer.
A new era was beginning in the history of mankind - the New Stone, or Neolithic.
The most important discoveries and inventions follow one after another. Man is increasingly seizing power over nature. Almost simultaneously with the invention of the bow, man tamed the wolf in some places and the jackal in others, and thus got the domestic dog. Then the remarkable property of clay was discovered: when fired, it produces a waterproof and sufficiently fire-resistant material. Vessels for cooking food began to be made from clay. People have also learned to process hard stones more skillfully - to drill and polish them. Wooden boats appeared, made from a whole tree trunk.
But hunting, as before, still remains the main source of human existence.
Along with hunting, fishing and hoe farming began to develop.
The Stone Age ended about 6-7 thousand years ago. People learned to mine metal and make hunting and household items from it.
The era of metal has arrived. Knives, spears and arrows were the first metal products. They were first made from pure copper, then from bronze (an alloy of copper and tin) and finally from iron.
In addition to hunting and fishing, cattle breeding and agriculture were added, the beginnings of which, apparently, arose at the end of the Neolithic. From the appropriation of finished products of nature, man moved to their conscious increase.
Our Soviet scientists P. P. Efimenko, S. N. Zamyatnin, M. V. Voevodsky, S. N. Bibikov, P. I. Boriskovsky, G. P. Sosnovsky, O. N. Bader, M. Z. Panichkina and many others have great merit in the discovery and study of the most ancient settlements of the Stone Age on the territory of the USSR.
M. M. Gerasimov managed to develop a method for reconstructing the appearance of people from the skull, and we now have the opportunity to see portraits of our ancestors who lived tens of thousands of years ago. Foreign scientists worked unsuccessfully on solving this problem for many years and declared it unsolvable.
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Let's try to uncover the geographical problem of anthropogenesis: on what continent did the first Intelligent Man arise? There is no consensus on this issue in world science.
Some scientists claim that Homo sapiens was formed in Africa, others in the Himalayas, others in Europe, and so on.
The process of transformation of an ape (or rather a hominid) into a human is called anthropogenesis (from the Greek word “anthropos” - man, “genesis” - emergence, origin), or noogenesis (from the Greek “noos” - mind).
Where and when did man appear on Earth: place and period of origin
The economic and social aspects of anthropogenesis have been well studied: the evolution of marriage and family relations; reasons for the emergence of the team; the role of labor in the emergence of man; the emergence and evolution of speech, language, writing, religion; collective work; division of labor in the family, in the tribe and between tribes; ancient agriculture, the emergence of crafts, metallurgy; exchange in kind, money, value; the emergence of private property, social classes, the state, and so on - dopinfo.ru.
Science has many brilliant achievements in many fields of knowledge. For example, radiophysics helps determine the exact age of the bone remains of human ancestors and their stone tools; biochemistry can identify the degree of similarity of protein fractions of blood in monkeys and humans.
However, world science still cannot accurately indicate the continent where the first Intelligent Man on Earth arose.
The geographical problem of noogenesis remains unresolved to this day, despite the fact that a wealth of information on this issue has been accumulated by sociologists, philosophers, archaeologists, anthropologists, and ethnographers, but it has not been systematized.
Indeed, on what continent did the first Man arise? To correctly solve the problem of the place of origin of the first Man, it is necessary to take into account the following facts.
Firstly, all the ancient civilizations (Egypt, Ancient Greece, the Cretan kingdom, Sumerians, Aztecs, Mayans and Olmecs and all others) are located in the northern hemisphere between 30º and 50º north longitude, located between the north pole and the equator.
Consequently, the first man arose on some continent of the northern hemisphere, and not the southern!
Secondly, cold is the only reason for the emergence of Reason and the first Thinking Man!
Body mass (like a mammoth), sharp teeth (like a tiger), or running speed (like a deer) will not help an animal survive in a cold climate. Only Reason will help you survive. An intelligent Animal will hide from the cold wind in a tent made of skins, build a fire there, melt ice in a pot and get water, and cook meat in boiling water. Only with the help of Reason can you survive in cold climates!
Thirdly, The Earth began to cool down from the poles.
Intelligence arose on the cold continent of Arctida, which very recently (2 million years ago) became the bottom of the Arctic Ocean. Once upon a time, the North Pole of the Earth was occupied by a huge continent, which scientists call Arctida or Hyperborea - dopinfo.ru. This is an ideal place for hominids to physically suffer from cold, where hunger and cold would force the animal to engage in intelligent activities to fight for survival.
Consequently, only Arctida can lay claim to the role of a continent where the first Intelligent man could arise. The warm and “well-fed” African climate would never have forced the ancient hominids to strain their thoughts to the point of exhaustion in order to come up with a method of survival.
Test yourself
1. Where on Earth did the first human ancestors appear?
In Africa.
Why was one of man's ancestors called a skilled man?
They knew how to make simple tools.
3. How does Homo sapiens differ from the rest of his ancestors?
Homo sapiens differed from its closest ancestor, the Neanderthal, and other ancient people in the following features:
Structural transformations of the brain
Enlargement of the cerebral cavity and brain
Development of bipedal locomotion
Development of the grasping hand
Prolapse of the larynx and hyoid bone
Reducing the size of fangs
Reduction of most of the hair.
He knew how to think, talk, and had complex behavior.
How did man change the appearance of our planet?
He cultivated the land, cut down forests, tamed animals, built houses, then factories, railways, and roads. Basically, the impact of human activity on nature is negative.
5. How does a person strive to restore the wealth he has destroyed?
Creation of parks and reserves. Creation of the Red Book. Limiting the extraction and use of rare (depleting/vanishing) resources, both minerals and living organisms
What significance did such a human characteristic as brain size have for the development of humanity?
This was of great importance because a second signaling system appeared, which was characterized by the appearance of speech and the systematic production of tools, which actually made a man out of a monkey.
Explain why nature reserves are needed?
A reserve is a section of territory (water area) in which its entire natural complex is preserved in its natural state, and hunting is prohibited. In addition, any human economic activity is prohibited on the territory of the reserve, and the lands are forever withdrawn from any form of use.
How do schoolchildren in our country participate in the protection of rare species?
They helped save lotus (collected seeds and distributed them to different lakes), ginseng and golden root, as well as other species.
Complete tasks
A. Comparison and explanation tasks
Compare Homo Habilis and Cro-Magnon Man
The Cro-Magnon man had a larger brain, taller height, he knew how to make fire, speech, rituals, rituals, complex tools and decorations appeared.
2. explain how some plants and fungi from natural communities can serve as medicine for humans
Many plants and mushrooms contain substances from which medicines are obtained.
Many plants are used in folk medicine (St. John's wort, dandelion, sage, celandine, etc.) and mushrooms (fly agaric).
The first people on Earth. Human history
explain why people at any age have a responsibility to protect the natural environment.
Nature must be protected so that we ourselves can live on earth. And not only us, also our ancestors, children, grandchildren.
Nature feeds us, waters us, supplies us with everything we need. And how can we not take care if everything that surrounds us is very beautiful and makes us happy every day. This is our planet and it is our responsibility to maintain order on it.
B. choose the correct answer from the given statements.
The closest ancestor of modern humans is:
c) Cro-Magnon
2. a new stage of human development began when primitive people learned to make tools from:
c) made of stone
3. From what plants, at the behest of Peter 1, was the Livaulov Grove near St. Petersburg grown?
b) larches.
make up a word that contains the given letters in the given order.
1. a. reserve
B. person
B. security
2. a. Australopithecus
B. forest plantations
B. cutting down.
Where did man first appear?
The oldest of the genus Homo is Homo habilis, or skilled man, the first representatives of which appeared on Earth about 2 million years ago. Before this time, only australopithecines probably existed. About 2.5 million years ago, a split occurred in the evolution of hominids, as a result of which the massive australopithecines (a dead-end branch of evolution) and the genus Homo became separated.
Early human migrations
In addition to the finds from the Olduvai Gorge, the species Homo habilis also includes the so-called Rudolf man, Homo rudolfensis, whose skull was found in Kenya in 1972 in the area of \u200b\u200bLake. Rudolph (now Lake Turkana), as well as finds from Ethiopia and South Africa. The antiquity of these species is from 2.4 to 1.9 million years. It is assumed that these first people were the creators of the tools of the oldest Olduvai (pebble) culture on Earth. There are finds that have not found a taxonomic definition and some researchers refer to Homo habilis, and others to groups of archanthropes (ancient people) that replaced Homo habilis approximately 1.6-1.5 million years ago.
The group of archanthropes includes two main species.
This is a species of Asian ancient people, Homo erectus, and its African variant, Homo ergaster.
For many millions of years, human ancestors inhabited a limited area in eastern Africa. Here, on Lake Victoria, 18 million years ago lived a proconsul, our common ancestor with apes; there are more than 4 million here.
years ago, Australopithecus afarensis, our upright walking ancestor, arose. The first representative of the genus Man, a skilled man who appeared more than 2 million years ago, spent his entire history here, and here 1.6 million years ago an upright man arose. It is not known where our species, the intelligent man, began its journey, but somewhere nearby.
Place of formation of sapiens
“The processes of sapientation, as evidenced by paleoanthropological data, occurred in various regions of the Old World, although at different speeds.
Various circumstances, environmental features, specific social structure of the population, etc. could play a role here. Thus, both hypotheses - the multiplicity of centers of sapientation (polycentrism) or its limitation to one fairly vast territory (broad monocentrism) - have points of contact. It can be assumed that, so to speak, it occurred at an “accelerating pace” in East Africa, South-Eastern Europe and the Middle East.
Nowadays, the issue of priority for Africa or Europe is causing a lot of controversy.
Judging by some data, in the ancient homeland of humanity, sapiens could have appeared several tens of thousands of years earlier than in other territories. However, even if we accept this hypothesis, it does not at all exclude the possibility that sapientation also occurred in other areas of the Old World. Most supporters of polycentrism recognize a moderate number of sapientation centers: from two (“dicentrism”) to four or five.
However, the following idea was also expressed: there could be as many centers of the emergence of sapiens as there were places of formation of the Upper Paleolithic culture.
After all, the Mousterian culture is mainly associated with Neanderthals, and the Upper Paleolithic culture is associated with sapiens.
However, there was no strict connection between the stone implements and the physical type, and there was, apparently, no insurmountable boundary between Neanderthal and sapiens in cultural terms.
Polycentrism is also supported by the almost simultaneous appearance of sapiens at the turn of the Upper Paleolithic - approximately 40-35 thousand years ago, moreover, in such remote and sometimes even marginal areas as Indonesia (Nia in Kalimantan), Western Europe (Cro-Magnon, Hanöfersand) or South Africa (Florisbad).
One of the most significant questions concerns the antiquity of the formation of the races of modern humanity - Negroid, Caucasoid and Mongoloid
The large races of modern humanity themselves formed only in post-Paleolithic times. That is, sapiens are older than the races, the processes of sapienation and raceogenesis coincided only partially, and the latter occurred on a rather mixed basis.
The final stage of hominization - the process of sapientation - took mainly the last 100 thousand years.
years. During this period of anthropogenesis, significant changes occurred in morphological organization and cognitive abilities, the rate of aging processes decreased, and life expectancy increased (p.
Spread of modern humans
More ancient fossils have been found in Africa than on any other continent. Thus, in Southern Ethiopia they found Omo-I, an incomplete skull with many modern features, which is probably more than 60 thousand years old. At the mouth of the South African Clasis River, “modern” remains were discovered that were 100,000 years old, and in Border Cave, a “modern” lower jaw was found that was 90,000 years old.
Fossil skulls from 40 thousand years ago, which belong to a completely modern type, are found in various areas of Asia - from Israel to Java.
They all have a chin protrusion or other distinctly "modern" features.
Humans first appeared in North America probably between 70 and 12 thousand years ago.
During periods of extreme cold at this time, the sea retreated and a wide land bridge, Beringia, was formed, which is now flooded by the Bering Strait.
Traces of hearths and fossil remains, the age of which has been established, indicate that modern man lived in Australia at least 40 thousand years ago.
Most likely, people first appeared here between 55 and 45 thousand years ago, when the sea level was 160 feet (50 m) lower than now, and many islands formed a single whole.
This scale shows the development of all the primitive people of the world, from the period when the first humanoid hominids arose (5 million years ago) until 700 BC.
5,000,000-2,000,000 up to.
The first tree-dwelling hominids appear in Africa.
2,000,000- 250,000 up to. AD
Homo erectus appears and spreads throughout Asia and Europe.
250,000 – 120,000 up to. AD
In Africa - Homo sapiens - who are gradually moving to the north.
80,000 – 30,000 up. AD
Neanderthals (cave dwellers) live in Europe.
50,000 – 25,000 up to.
Modern people are settling throughout Europe, Asia, Australia, and America. Tools are made from bone and stone.
25,000 – 10,000 up to. AD
The first round houses, drawings and carvings.
10,000 – 9,000 before. AD
Climate change, end of the Ice Age.
9,000 – 7,000 before. AD
The emergence of agriculture in certain areas of the world.
Settlements in Syria, Palestine, Cyprus. Domesticated dog.
7,000 – 6,000 before. AD
In the eastern Mediterranean, goats, sheep, and pigs are domesticated. They make linen fabrics, ceramics, and copper is used. The first cities are being built.
5,000 – 4,000 to. AD
In Anatolia, copper and lead are processed. Horse and donkey are domesticated. Maize is grown in the Gulf of Mexico region, cotton is grown in Peru, and rice is grown in China and India.
4,000 – 3,000 before.
Sumerian civilization. First writing. Products made of gold, silver, lead. Irrigation. Sailing ships on the Nile and Euphrates. Stone temples and tombs in Malta and Europe.
3,000 – 2,000 up.
The first pharaohs of Egypt, hieroglyphic writing. The chariot was invented in Mesopotamia. The Rise of the Indian Valley Civilization. Cotton fabrics. Techniques for copper processing and fabric making spread throughout Western Europe.
2 000 – 1000 up. AD
Distribution of bronze processing methods throughout Europe. Construction of Stonehenge is completed.
1,000 – 700 BC
Olmec culture in Mexico. The Celts settled throughout Central Europe and the British Isles.
By 700 BC. The secret of iron processing was discovered in Europe. Prehistoric cultures developed in America and Africa.
