Beginnings of Human History - The Original Story

Beginnings of Human History - The Original Story

“Most of human history is irreparably lost to us. Our species, Homo sapiens, has existed for at least 200,000 years, but for most of that time we have next to no idea what was happening.” (Graeber, David. The Dawn of Everything (p. 1). Kindle Edition).

So what?

“Why the world seems to be in such a mess and why human beings so often treat each other badly – the reasons for war, greed, exploitation, systematic indifference to others’ suffering. Were we always like that, or did something, at some point, go terribly wrong?

In Hobbes’s Leviathan, published in 1651, is in many ways the founding text of modern political theory. It held that, humans being the selfish creatures they are, life in an original State of Nature was in no sense innocent; it must instead have been ‘solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short’ – basically, a state of war, with everybody fighting against everybody else.

A nearly opposing view is … “the updated variation on Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s Discourse on the Origin and the Foundation of Inequality Among Mankind, which he wrote in 1754. Once upon a time, the story goes, we were hunter-gatherers, living in a prolonged state of childlike innocence, in tiny bands. These bands were egalitarian; they could be for the very reason that they were so small. It was only after the ‘Agricultural Revolution’, and then still more the rise of cities, that this happy condition came to an end, ushering in ‘civilization’ and ‘the state’ – which also meant the appearance of written literature, science and philosophy, but at the same time, almost everything bad in human life: patriarchy, standing armies, mass executions and annoying bureaucrats demanding that we spend much of our lives filling in forms.

One must simplify the world to discover something new about it. The problem comes when, long after the discovery has been made, people continue to simplify.” (Graeber)

Today, Hobbes’ view would be considered right wing and Rousseau left wing. Both were philosophical. (Neither view was supported by much scientific research or proof.) The prevalent ‘big picture’ of history – shared by modern-day followers of Hobbes and Rousseau alike – has almost nothing to do with the facts.(Graeber)

A simple explanation for how humanity progressed is through the revolutions that have been discussed, such as the cognitive, agricultural, urban, industrial, scientific, political, etc. But this was not a single path but many diverse human experiments with various forms, developed independently by isolated groups then blended as contact between these groups was made.

Stepping back, the agricultural revolution supposedly turn nomadic hunter gathers into farmers. Those farmers created a surplus (wealth), which gave rise to bureaucracy, specialized soldiers, government, hierarchy, etc.; in short civilization as we know it. The record does NOT support this as universal. Any time a model is created there are exceptions. If hunter gathers create fishponds as a means of allowing fish to flourish so those hunter gathers can more easily capture the fish, are they still hunter gathers, or have they developed aqua culture and are quasi fish farmers? What about a farmer who hunts game to add to his food supply? Is he a part time hunter gather and part time farmer? There is strong evidence across the globe and time that various groups straddled the line and were part time hunter gather and part time farmer. This is especially true of the seasonality of fishing, game availability and growing periods.

There is evidence that the agricultural revolution and its surplus was a means to develop large community projects that required organization, leadership, cooperation of a labor force that is necessary to build large communal structures. The Pyramids of Egypt are the most obvious, begun about 4700 BCE. However, many ancient structures were built on the cusp of the agricultural revolution. It’s plausible that the Ngunnhu Fish Traps of Brewarrina in Australia are tens of thousands of years old, making them the oldest structures in the world. Göbekli Tepe, in Turkey built between 10000 and 8000 BCE, Stonehenge in the UK, built over millennia, may have started with wooden structures 8000 BCE. Poverty Point in the USA built by indigenous people between 1700 and 1100 BCE. Burial mounds have been found in France, the UK and Ireland that date back to between 4850 to 3450  (Sources: 10 Oldest Structures in the World (Updated 2020) - Oldest.org, Göbekli Tepe,Stonehenge, Poverty Point - Wikipedia, )

A massive prehistoric settlement has been uncovered in the Ukraine consisting of a large temple, human-like figurines, and animal remains, which dates back to around 4,000 BCE. According to Live Science , the town once covered an enormous 238 hectares (588 acres) and would have contained more than 1,200 buildings and nearly 50 streets. …link the site to the Trypillian culture (a modern-day name), which is believed to have extended over an area of around 35,000 square kilometers, incorporating parts of present-day Moldova, Romania and Ukraine, between 5400 and 2700 BCE. The Trypillian culture established cities to accommodate up to 15,000 inhabitants, being some of the largest settlements in Neolithic European history. ( Archaeologists unearth 6,000-Year-Old Temple in Ukraine | Ancient Origins (ancient-origins.net)

Huts built from mammoth bones found along the Dniepr river valley of Ukraine, and at locations near Chernihiv, in Moravia, Czech Republic, and in southern Poland, that date between 23,000 BCE and 12,000 BCE, may be the earliest structures built by prehistoric man (Perhaps the Oldest Surviving Architecture : History of Information)

“Collectively, we have learned it’s to our advantage to prioritize our long-term interests over our short-term instincts; or, better, to create laws that force us to confine our worst impulses to socially useful areas like the economy, while forbidding them everywhere else.” (Graeber)

So, who cares? Just about EVERYONE! These beginnings are the STORY! Many stories that rule our lives today, helping to manipulate (press the Maslow buttons). It  is best to make sure the stories have some validity.

Graeber asked, “Were we always like that, or did something, at some point, go terribly wrong?” Well some religions answered that question with the closer to God’s creation the more perfect humans were. Hence, the dominating view since the fall of Rome in the West was not scientific, not according to reason but mostly according to FAITH! For centuries religion supported the idea of God’s representative on Earth. The Pope, the King were “Lord’s anointed”. Their power came from God (and for Kings a standing army, to squash any rebellion and to resist other Lord’s anointed from conquering them).  So, millions of people submitted to power that they believed came from God. Heresy was a serious crime that was punished severely, often with death. To discuss ideas such as equality, justice, democracy, Graeber states “Enlightenment thinkers who propounded such ideals almost invariably put them in the mouths of foreigners, even ‘savages’” often in a dialogue where points could be debated but the author could avoid execution. This is not a social construct where things can be freely debated.

The previous paragraph referred to Christianity in Europe. The issue is not just with Christianity. Religion often regulates the dialogue between the Almighty (however perceived) and the people. That is an extremely powerful force. Since certain elite groups claim to be the correct interpreters of God and the rest of humanity doesn’t have that ability, there isn’t much room for debate. Still those willing to risk the wrath of the prevailing religion claim they have a more correct view. The divisions of religion are often expressed as differences in the message from the Almighty and the people. Every major religion has its various sects. Religion is a touchy subject and will be discussed later, in another section.

The reality is our history did not start with Creation in 4004 BCE, as once was widely accepted. Research has shown that “one of the most common uses of early stone tools was to crack open bones in order to get to the marrow. Some researchers believe this was our original niche. the first humans specialised in extracting marrow from bones. Why marrow? Well, suppose you observe a pride of lions take down and devour a giraffe. You wait patiently until they’re done. But it’s still not your turn because first the hyenas and jackals – and you don’t dare interfere with them – scavenge the leftovers. Only then would you and your band dare approach the carcass, look cautiously left and right – and dig into the edible tissue that remained. This is a key to understanding our history and psychology. Genus Homo’s position in the food chain was, until quite recently, solidly in the middle. For millions of years, humans hunted smaller creatures and gathered what they could, all the while being hunted by larger predators. It was only 400,000 years ago that several species of man began to hunt large game on a regular basis, and only in the last 100,000 years – with the rise of Homo sapiens – that man jumped to the top of the food chain. That spectacular leap from the middle to the top had enormous consequences. Other animals at the top of the pyramid, such as lions and sharks, evolved into that position very gradually, over millions of years. This enabled the ecosystem to develop checks and balances that prevent lions and sharks from wreaking too much havoc.

UPDATE: The Bottleneck Event Recent genetic research suggests that around 800,000 to 900,000 years ago, early human ancestors experienced a dramatic population bottleneck. According to a 2023 study published in Science, the number of breeding individuals may have dropped to as few as 1,280 and remained that low for approximately 117,000 years. Also just recently Using advanced computational models to analyze genetic data from modern populations, researchers identified a sharp decline in ancestral human numbers during the mid-Pleistocene epoch. The reason? Scientists suspect drastic climate change played a major role. ...These few thousand individuals were the genetic founders of all modern humans. Our collective ancestry—every culture, every civilization, every person alive today—traces back to them. https://www.thearchaeologist.org/blog/how-1280-ancestors-nearly-disappeared-800000-years-ago

…Some human species may have made occasional use of fire as early as 800,000 years ago. By about 300,000 years ago, Homo erectus, Neanderthals and the forefathers of Homo sapiens were using fire on a daily basis. Humans now had a dependable source of light and warmth, and a deadly weapon against prowling lions. Not long afterwards, humans may even have started deliberately to torch their neighbourhoods. A carefully managed fire could turn impassable barren thickets into prime grasslands teeming with game. In addition, once the fire died down, Stone Age entrepreneurs could walk through the smoking remains and harvest charcoaled animals, nuts and tubers. But the best thing fire did was cook. Foods that humans cannot digest in their natural forms – such as wheat, rice and potatoes – became staples of our diet thanks to cooking. Fire not only changed food’s chemistry, it changed its biology as well. Cooking killed germs and parasites that infested food. Humans also had a far easier time chewing and digesting old favourites such as fruits, nuts, insects and carrion if they were cooked. Whereas chimpanzees spend five hours a day chewing raw food, a single hour suffices for people eating cooked food. The advent of cooking enabled humans to eat more kinds of food, to devote less time to eating, and to make do with smaller teeth and shorter intestines. Some scholars believe there is a direct link between the advent of cooking, the shortening of the human intestinal tract, and the growth of the human brain. Despite the benefits of fire, 150,000 years ago humans were still marginal creatures. They could now scare away lions, warm themselves during cold nights, and burn down the occasional forest. Yet counting all species together, there were still no more than perhaps a million humans living.

The period from about 70,000 years ago to about 30,000 years ago witnessed the invention of boats, oil lamps, bows and arrows and needles (essential for sewing warm clothing). The first objects that can reliably be called art date from this era (see the Stadel lion-man), as does the first clear evidence for religion, commerce and social stratification." (Harari, Sapiens, A Brief History)

This last period is the Cognitive Revolution. “Reliable information about who could be trusted meant that small bands could expand into larger bands, and Sapiens could develop tighter and more sophisticated types of cooperation. The gossip theory might sound like a joke, but numerous studies support it.” (Harari, Sapiens, A Brief History)

Graeber asks, “are we inherently selfish and violent, or innately kind and co-operative?” Is this the most important question? Because again it sounds like either or. Why not both? There is evidence to support selfish and violent, and innately kind and co-operative. Just not all at the same time or the same person.

‘Good’ and ‘evil’ are concepts humans made up to compare ourselves with one another. It follows that arguing about whether humans are fundamentally good or evil makes about as much sense as arguing about whether humans are fundamentally fat or thin.” (Graeber)

Because of the cognitive Revolution “only Homo sapiens can speak about things that don’t really exist and believe six impossible things before breakfast. You could never convince a monkey to give you a banana by promising him limitless bananas after death in monkey heaven.” (Harari, Sapiens, A Brief History)

There is NOT a single story that is the template of universal humanity. It has been diverse with countless experiments, with adaptation to climate, different tribes colliding, war, oppression, cooperation, imagination, story, beliefs, science, knowledge and more. It is an ongoing human experiment. Humans likely have the biggest role in how it evolves. I believe the decisions we make should be rational, based on fact.

As stated in a Brief Timeline of History as an update - what we know of the Earth today is not static. It too has a history. Beware! History can change, which seems impossible! We inpret the past by what we know NOW. The present does not affect what happened in history, but it does affect how we understand history. History is pieced together by evidence (and myth). As the evidence changes (often new uncovered) so can our understanding of what really happened.

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