UCSP

• The four evolutions of humans

  • Hominids - man like primates
  • Homo habilis - handy man
  • Homo erectus - the upright man
  • Homo sapiens - the thinking man
• 2 major discovered fossils

  fossilsPithecanthropus erectus "Java Man"
• Sinanthropus pekinensis "Peking Man"

  One of the major discovered fossils
• 2 Homo sapiens subspecies

  • Cro Magnon Man
  • Neanderthal Man
• Cro Magnon Man

  Discovered by a French archaeologist Louis Lartet in the Cro Magnon Cave
• Neanderthal Man

  Discovered in Neanderthal Valley near Dusseldorf, Germany in 1856
• Four biological capacities of humans that allowed for culture

  • Thinking capacity
  • Gripping capacity
  • Speaking capacity
  • Walking/standing capacity
• Power grips

  Enabled humans to wrap the thumb and fingers on an object
• Precision grips


  Enabled humans to hold and pick objects steadily using fingers
• Two forms of locomotion in primates

  • Bipedalism (walking and standing on two feet)
  • Quadrupedalism (using all four limbs)
• Cultural and sociopolitical development

  • Paleolithic period (Old Stone Age)
  • Neolithic age (New Stone Age)
  • Age of Metals
• Paleolithic period


  • Used simple pebble tools, learned to live in caves, discovered the use of fire
• Neolithic age


  • Stone tools were shaped by polishing or grinding, settlement in permanent villages, dependence on domesticated plants or animals
• Age of Metals


  • The use of metals such as bronze, copper, iron produced a new historical development from cradles civilizations of Egypt, Mesopotamia, Persia, including India and China which later on spread throughout Asia
• Components of culture


  • Material culture
  • Non-material culture
• Material culture


  The physical objects that a society produces, things people create and use
• Technology


  A society's culture of not only physical objects but also rules for using those objects
• Non-material culture


  Consists of elements termed norms, values, beliefs, and language shared by the members of a society
• Language


  The very foundation of culture
• Beliefs


  The ideas that people hold about the universe or any part of the total reality surrounding. These are the things how people perceive reality.
• Values


  Shared ideas about desirable goals
• Forms of norms


  • Mores
  • Folk ways
  • Laws
• Mores


  Norms associated with strong ideas of right and wrong
• Folk ways


  Norms that are simply the customary, normal, habitual ways a group does things, these ways are accumulated and become permanent traditions
• Laws


  Formal norms that are enforced and sanctioned by the authority of the government