Hominin Homo erectus: Characteristics, Culture, and Society
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This essay on Biological Anthropology discusses the characteristics, culture, and society of Hominin Homo erectus. It describes how Homo erectus lived, migrated, and evolved, including their use of fire, sophisticated tools, and family structures.
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Biological Anthropology Essay on Hominin Homo erectus. Name Professor Course Date
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Biological Anthropology Generally, hominins have been described as the earliest great apes which existed 500 years ago. The human being has evolved from these apes (Hublin 2014:76).They used to have human characteristics which later developed to form a complex creature known as the Homo sapiens or the current human being. Each hominin was discovered from different areas and some had some shared characteristics. Some of the hominin discovered by historians included the Homo erectus, Homo sapiens, and Homo habilis among others. The chronological order in which these species existed tries to remind the human beings on some of the stages they have passed. The hominin is believed to possess little characteristics connected with the current human beings. The evolution continued in millions of years until the current Homo sapiens. In the discussion have selected the homo erectus species as the only hominin to discuss.The content of homo erectus has been well articulated by summarising its culture, describing the environment where the species of homo erectus were found, discussing the culture of homo erectus and lastly revealing on some aspects that try to describe the society and the relationship exhibited in this stage of evolution (Baab 2016:312). Homo erectus has been identified as the longest living hominin (Spoor et al.2015:51).This has been clearly described by the researchers who discovered Homo erectus species in East Africa 1.9 million years ago. Evidence shows that a lot of hominins used to live in Africa.Some species were discovered in Lake Turkana. However, there are some discoveries which show that some species also existed in Asia and some parts of Indonesia. The fossil evidence of Homo erectus has been identified in western Asia in 1991 that existed 1.8-1.85 million years old. The overall environment where Homo erectus lived we can say it was Africa. Most of the Homo erectus fossils were discovered in different parts of Africa. Researchers show that these species later migrated from Africa and then spread out to different locations of the world. The migration was due to some reasons such as the adverse
Biological Anthropology environmental conditions which were unfavourable for the species. Later Homo erectus drifted to Asia then went to the Sinai Peninsula Asia .Here environmental conditions were favourable and thus affected the survival of Homo erectus. The characteristics of Homo erectus were totally different from the other species. Researchers have described that Homo erectus was the upright man and it only this stage which marked the full transformation of apes from animal posture to human posture (Bartstra 2015:300).The species were believed to have existed for a long time. It was a highly varied type of species which existed in a wide range of area. There is evidence that Homo erectus is the oldest hominin that human body characteristics that had elongated legs and shorter arms. The overall feature was that this hominin was upright. This was a unique feature of man's evolution. The brain size of Homo erectus was smaller as compared to the one for Homo sapiens. Individuals were like human beings today although they seemed to be more masculine compared to current human beings. Adults grew to 1.8 meters tall and their total weight ranged from 60 to 75 kilograms. The culture in this hominin was characterized by different factors.Homo erectus used to cook food and roasted meat. The only innovation which marked a unique transformation in the evolution of hominins was the discovery of fire by Homo erectus. He stopped eating uncooked meat and also unripe roots (Cofran and Jeremy 2015:142). Also, the species is characterized by the tools. Homo erectus made sophisticated tools which were used for functions such as butchering of meat and extraction of roots. Tools were stronger than those of other species. Most of them were simply the rock flakes which were entirely knapped to a sharp edge. Also, Homo erectus discovered the use of metals in designing tools. The fire marked an important milestone in this stage.
Biological Anthropology The Homo erectus society has been clearly described by the ancestry relationship. The creature had learned how to control a family. There was a lot of evidence that revealed the existence of the family in Homo erectus stage (Larsen 2014:200).The ancestry for Homo erectus was the Australopithecus Africans. This species gave birth to the Homo habilis which resulted to the Homo erectus. Homo erectus exhibited migration movements a fact which opt to reveal that they existed in a big population. Their strong legs helped them to migrate from one location to the other. The populations comprised family trees and there was the formation of groups which handled different types of labour in the society. Homo erectors preceded the Homo sapiens who later formed the real human beings. Their brain capacity was good enough to appreciate the aspect of social cohesion.
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Biological Anthropology References Baab, Karen L.2016 2016 "The role of neurocranial shape in defining the boundaries of an expanded Homo erectus hypodigm." Journal of human evolution 92: 1-21. Bartstra, G-J. 2015 "Late Homo erectus or Ngandong man of Java." Palaeohistoria 29: 1-7. Cofran, Zachary, and Jeremy M. DeSilva. 2015"A neonatal perspective on Homo erectus brain growth." Journal of human evolution8141-47. Hublin, Jean-Jacques. 2014 "Paleoanthropology: Homo erectus and the limits of a paleontological species." Current Biology 24, no. 2: R82-R84. Larsen, Clark Spencer. 2014 Our Origins: Discovering physical anthropology. WW Norton & Company. Spoor, Fred, Philipp Gunz, Simon Neubauer, Stefanie Stelzer, Nadia Scott, Amandus Kwekason, and M. Christopher Dean. 2015 "Reconstructed Homo habilis type OH 7 suggests deep-rooted species diversity in early Homo." Nature 519, no. 7541: 83.