Early Development and Ideas

Ideas: A History of Thought and Invention, from Fire to Freud by Peter Watson is a giant chunkster of a book. Taller and wider than your average Bible and containing over 800 pages, the book terrifies me in the commitment level required to read it cover to cover. So I'm just not going to do it. :P

At this point, I've read to page 56, probably about 150 pages in a normal sized book. All 56 pages are littered with underlining, random stars next to important passages, and my half-articulate annotations. (Apologies to the book purists out there.)

Instead of even attempting to paraphrase the overwhelming amount of information, I am just going to give you some of the points I found most intriguing in separate posts throughout the month. I highly doubt I will read the entire book this month as it's extreme weightiness would overwhelm any other reading I want to do. Who knows, maybe I'll do another Echoes of Man month in April?

The chimpanzee-human divergence occurred 6.6 million years ago. Early humans were bipedal 3.4 to 2.9 million years ago. "We" were using stone tools 2.5 to 2.7 million years ago. We were vegetarians until about 2.5 million years ago. (Clearly those stone tools served a purpose, mainly FRESH MEAT).

Much early art focuses on the female form: "Many of them...are buxom, with large breasts and bellies, possibly indicating they are pregnant. Many...have distended vulvas, indicating they are about to give birth. Many...are naked. Many...lack faces but show elaborate coiffures. Many..are incomplete, lacking feet or arms...Some...were originally covered in red ochre - was that meant to symbolise (menstrual) blood?...Until the link was made between sexual intercourse and birth, women would have seemed mysterious and miraculous creatures, far more so than men." And we still are in my opinion. :)


Mother Earth (Gaia to the Greeks) tried out a few varieties of humans over the millenia: three styles of Paranthropus and three styles of Homo (of which we are eventually derived). Of the Homo variety, "H. habilis had an ape-type body with more human-like face and teeth, H. rudolfensis was the other way around." Watson doesn't tell me what the third, H. ergaster, looked like. H. erectus (our ancestors) appeared well after the original three, about 1.7 million years ago. H. erectus morphed into H. sapiens around 500-300,000 years ago. H. sapiens evolved into both Neanderthals and well, us, with Neaderthals dying out about 31,000 years ago.

Humans started burying bodies after death about 120-90,000 years ago. While some view this as evidence of spirituality, I personally couldn't help but wonder if it had more to do with an efficient means of disposal and smell control. :)

H. floresiensis, discovered in 2004, apparently lived only on the Indonesian island of Flores. They were barely one metre tall, had small brains, walked upright, produced tools, and controlled fire. Can anyone say hobbits? (And I seriously mean no offense to the H. floresiensis by that comment.) (Nor to hobbits.)

Around 60-55,000 years ago, early humans reached Australia. Were these early sailors unbelievably brave or seriously directionally challenged?

There are about 6,809 languages exist today, and (rather fuzzy) research indicates that ancient people's probably had just as many: roughly one language per thousand people.

Three is the biggest number the human brain can recognize without having to count.

True houses didn't begin until about 18-14,000 years ago. And then quickly developed into elaborate mansions where no one lived, but cleaning services still kept spotless just in case. (pictures is of Oprah's mansion).

"The term civilization generally implies four characteristics - writing, cities with monumental architecture, organised religion, and specialised occupations."

The greatest human invention is arguably agriculture. This make sense to me as the domestication of animals and plants is what allows communities to become stable and hence allows the above indicators of civilization to develop. This domestication occurred sometime between 14,000 and 6,500 years ago in the Fertile Crescent (Middle East today, Mesopotamia then) and in Mesoamerica (Panama-Mexico area). Animals were not domesticated until about 1,000 years after plants. Full domestication took about 3000 years.

Our original plan of attack, hunting and gathering, seems much more appealing and efficient than our turn to farming. H-Gs only work about three-five hours a day, and ethnographic evidence suggests that the farmers had more cases of malnutrition, more infectious diseases, and more tooth decay than their H-G counterparts. Plus, the farming diet was way more monotonous than the H-G diet.

I could go on and on and on about all of the interesting ideas presented in the first 56 pages. If you have any interest in ancient history, in human development, or just in ideas in general, I highly recommend getting this book.
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Echoes of Man is my month-long sojourn into antiquity. I plan on entering the ancient world and basking in its glory for the entire month of November.

During this time, I will be reading and reviewing literature of the time and posting about related topics. If you have anything you would like to add - a review, an informative post, etc. - let me know. I would love to have you join in!
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Echoes of Man Image from ~darkmatter257 at deviant art