Ancient Worlds
-Sarah Russell-
WEEK 2 - Pre-Historic Life
WORLD HISTORY
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World history is a historical approach that highlights connections between "geographically distinct" groups in both modern and ancient history
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World history explores more than just a single culture or region to look at the bigger picture conducting a comparative history.
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“World history emphasises the interaction of the prices in human history and … seeks to assess the experience of the whole of humanity through the study of these interactions” (Patrick Manning – 'The Problem of Interactions in World History' in "A Survey of World History Studies: Theory, Methodology and Networks")
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World history allows for Historians and Archaeologists to broadly look at the whole world seeing how civilisations with no contact evolved similarly or differently.
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This can be seen when analysing the agricultural revolution and the similarities adopted by different groups of early humans, even though they were spread out amongst the world. It is incredibly fascinating to note that there are similarities as more and more groups began to stay in one place and thus started to grow and manage their own food supply.(1)
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Most importantly, in my opinion, World History allows you to ask questions you may not of initially thought of when looking closely at one civilisation.
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However this methodology is criticised as by looking so broadly, individual diversity is ignored.(1)
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Overall it in an interesting way to look at history and examine how humans were able to evolve in relatively similar ways, despite not having contact with each other
Questions that can arise as a result of looking at world history
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Why did something happen at this one place and not at this other?
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Or why did these two civilisations have a commonality if they had no communication?
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Does it then have something to do with the environment?
EARLIEST HUMANS
LUCY
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From the study of Lucy and consequent studies of other Australopithecus historians
have been able to learn more about the origins and development from early human
to the modern human -
The discovery of Lucy's remains were an incredibly exciting find as her remains are over
3 million years old. -
Lucy's discovery was particularly exciting because it was confirmation of another species,
the Australopithecus, and she became the oldest potential ancestor for other hominin
species -
It was discovered through the "shape and positioning of her pelvis," as well as evidence from studying her knee and ankle, that Lucy would have walked upright providing an exciting link to later species of hominin. Through these finds it becomes clear that becoming bipedal was an important factor of human evolution
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Even though it has been found that Lucy would have walked on two legs, she still would have spent most of her time in trees
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It has been suggested that the tree dwelling contributed to the evolution of walking on two legs as the Australopithecus could have began to walk along branches.
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Why Bipedalism?
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I think this is a very important question as it is true that we are the only animals to walk the way we do
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The find of Lucy's bones and other Australopithecus bones have significantly contributed to the understanding of why we evolved to walk, which is so different from other animals.
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Initially it was suggested, and often it is suggested that we evolved this way from a "quadrupedal terrestrial precursor" (Animal that walk on all 4 legs). However some more recent palaeontologists have suggested it was born from an "arboreal context" (tree dwellers). The remains of Australopithecus supports this as bipedalism allows ape-like animals to better manoeuvre and climb flexible branches.
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This is also evident as orangutans also react in the same way along flexible branches
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THEREFORE this theory suggests that bipedalism was a response to environment
How does evolution actually work?
In class we talked about evolution and what happens to make us go from Australopithecus to Homo sapein. I wanted to know more about this process and how much of it is impacted by the environment.
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The DNA the makes up who we are "subject to random mutation." Therefore sometimes one of these mutations affects a significant aspect or trait of an animal. The two main factors that prove the benefits of the mutation are environment and opposite sex. If the mutation positively aids the animal within its environment it is likely that they will continue to reproduce and the mutation has the possibility to be passed on. Additionally if the mutation is favourable to the opposite sex the trait again has the possibility to be passed down generations. Thus if this mutation is then passed on there is the chance it will change the species or even create a new species!
Bibliography
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Andrew Kuech "A Survey of World History Studies: Theory, Methodology and Networks," Middle Ground Journal. no. 4 (2012) accessed from: <http://www2.css.edu/app/depts/HIS/historyjournal/index.cfm?art=76&cat=6>
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BBC Earth, "Lucy: 3.2 Million Year Old Mother Of Man - BBC", Youtube, 2014, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3U5KkOYRkA.
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(1)Graeme Barker. The agricultural revolution in prehistory. 1st ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press (2006). pp. 382-414
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Melissa Hogenboom, "The 'Lucy' fossil rewrote the story of humanity," BBC Earth, 2014, <http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20141127-lucy-fossil-revealed-our-origins>
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Nadia Drake, "Human Evolution 101", National Geographic, 2015, <http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2015/09/human-evolution-101/.> [accessed 10/03/2017]
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National Geographic, "New Human Ancestor Discovered: Homo naledi (EXCLUSIVE VIDEO) | National Geographic". Youtube, 2015, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oxgnlSbYLSc
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S. K. S. Thorpe, R. L. Holder and R. H. Crompton, "Origin Of Human Bipedalism As An Adaptation For Locomotion On Flexible Branches", Science 316, no. 5829 (2007): Abstract.
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"What is World History?", World History Association, 2017 <http://www.thewha.org/about-wha/what-is-world-history/> [accessed 10/03/2017]
Replica of Australopithecus "Lucy's" skull (BBC)
Donald Johanson speaking of his discovery of 'Lucy' and the other specimens of Australopithecus. It's a short informative video that shows the visual representations of the specimens. It is a useful video as it explains the evidence for the conclusions made about the species, for example highlighting and showing the features of the pelvis that indicate bipedalism.
This Video examines the discovery of the Homo naledi. These finds were particularly exciting because the way the bones were found suggests they were purposely put there. Therefore this could be signs of early burial, not in the same way as we do today but intentional placement of bodies after death. This is exciting because if the suggestion is true it provides a link to modern humans and they way we currently think.
Really interesting video indicating the direct links Australopithecus afarensis had to the chimpanzee and the modern human. It's facinating to see how although Australopithecus were very ape like and still had several features in common with the Chimpanzee, we can see the beginning of a link to the modern human, specifically in the development and evolution of walking.