Homo Habilis Evidence

I. African Genesis

A. Interpreting the Evidence

1. In 1859, Charles Darwin published On the Origin of Species, in which he suggested that species evolve over long periods of time through the process of natural selection. With regard to human beings, Darwin speculated that humans must be “descended from a hairy, tailed quadruped,” and that the process of human evolution must have started in Africa.

2. Discoveries of hominid skeletal remains on the island of Java (1891) and Beijing (1929) indicated Asian origins for human beings. However, the African origins of human beings were suggested by the discovery of Australopithecus africanus in 1924 and confirmed by the work of the Leakeys in eastern Africa beginning in 1950.

3. Archaeological
The australopithecines and modern humans are hominids, which are members of the primate family. Hominids such as australopithecines were distinguished from other primates by three characteristics: bipedalism, a very large brain, and a larynx located low in the neck.

2. Scientists theorize that these characteristics gave hominids advantages in the struggle for survival during the climatic changes of the Great Ice Age (Pleistocene period). Further climate changes 2 to 3 million years ago are thought to be the cause of the evolution of Homo habilis, whose brain was 50 percent larger than that of the australopithecines.

3. By 1 million years ago, Homo habilis and all of the australopithecines were extinct. They were replaced first by Homo erectus (1.7 million years ago) and then by Homo sapiens (400,000 to 100,000 years ago). Genetic evidence suggests that further development emerged around 50,000 years ago providing the capacity for speech.

C. Migrations from Africa

1. Both Homo erectus and Homo sapiens migrated from Africa to various parts of Europe and Asia; their migration was facilitated by the low sea levels associated with the Ice Age. Homo sapiens migrated from Africa during a wet period (40,000 years ago) and crossed the land bridge to the Americas during the last glacial period (32,000–13,000 years ago). The low sea levels associated with this period also allowed Homo sapiens to reach Japan and New
The presence of towns like Jericho and Çatal Hüyük indicates the emergence of a form of social organization in which food producers had to support nonproducing specialists such as priests and craftspeople and their labor had to be mobilized for nonproductive projects such as defensive walls, megalithic structures, and tombs. We do not know whether this labor was free or coerced.

V. Conclusion

A. Humans are descended from hominids that evolved in Africa about 7 million years ago. Modern human beings are descended from communities that evolved in Africa 50,000 years ago.

B. Humans began developing a variety of tools more than 2 million years ago from stone, bone, skin, wood, and plant fiber. Though primarily vegetarian, Paleolithic people also used weapons to hunt. They developed a sexual division of labor and became knowledgeable about the natural world that provided them with clothing and medicine.

C. Climate change drove early human communities to abandon hunting and gathering and develop agriculture and pastoralism, which consequently increased the global human population from 2 to 10 million in less than 10,000 years.

D. Prosperity of the settled life during the Neolithic period led to the first towns, trade, and specialization. Archaeology reveals that humans developed forms of religion to recognize the cycles of death and