Life in Early Human Societies

Since historical scholars have no written record for what happened here, we rely on a variety of scientific fields to help peel back the layers of history and give us an idea of how we lived. Archaeologists provide the majority of what we know from ancient camp sites, skeletal remains and cave paintings. Anthropologists study the societies still found on Earth that practice a way of life similar to that of our distant ancestors. These scholars give invaluable information for historians to use to find clues to our distant past.

Our ancestors lived in highly structured hierarchical societies led by a leader known to scientists as the “alpha male.” This alpha got their jobs through the ability to create the biggest alliance among those within the group and is not directly related to his physical presence. Challenges to his power would have to be done through the same process, and current chimps can be found

accomplishing this through campaigns of hugs and kissing babies. The coalitions that formed through this process continued to be important, since they shared and protected those within their coalitions. Occasionally these coalitions would split into different groups and the break would cause wars between the competing factions. These social connections were the glue that bound our ancestors together, but since it required a great deal of trust, these groups were compromised of only 20-50 people. Scientists in a variety of fields have noticed that 50 (give or take a few) seems to be the largest a group in nature can achieve before splitting into factions. Infighting and cliques start once groups surpass this magic number.

Current humans are so enamored with our position at the top of the food chain that we forget how recent that change was. For most of our history, humans were relegated to the middle of the food chain. Our diet consisted of mostly plants, insects, roots, and small animals. When larger animals were killed, we were forced to wait for the lions and hyenas to finish eating what they wanted from the carcass. We created a niche specialty of using tools to break open the bones to get at the only major source of food left, the bone marrow. The trick that catapulted us up the food chain were the very tools that allowed us to get to the bone marrow. We created a list of tactics that allowed us to use our thinking skills to trick animals, using traps along with weapons we created. It took a lot of development before we were able to hunt big game, but by about 40,000 years ago we developed tactics and tools to do just that. These same tactics and tools allowed us to jump the evolutionary line and take a spot at the top of the food chain. Since our ability to think was so rare, we used this to change at a much faster rate than evolution could ever dream of. This left the rest of the animal kingdom at an extreme disadvantage considering they had no time to catch up to these changes (using evolution).

The domestication of fire was another pivotal moment in history. Fire, of course, could be used for heat and defense against predators, but the most important thing it did for us was to cook food. The use of fire not only allowed for an increased range of food we could consume, but it made eating less dangerous by killing off the germs that killed so many. The process of cooking also aided digestion; allowing us to cut down on the time it took to chew food (Chimps chew their food for 5 hours a day to aid in their digestion). Once cooked food became the norm, it allowed us to use our energy elsewhere. Our bodies started changing based on this, with both teeth and intestines getting smaller.

The energy from the digestive process seems to have been diverted to the human brain. We had an unusually large brain for the size of our bodies, being three times the size of a normal mammal brain (12 vs. 36 cubic inches on average). It is clear from the historical record that a big brain doesn’t necessarily mean that they are smarter though. Neanderthals had even larger brains than we did but weren’t as skilled in its use as later humans. Our brains would continue to grow over time and culminate in the modern human brain that is 73-85 cubic inches. What might seem like the perfect “tool” does have some limitations though. While the brain accounts for 2-3% of body weight, it consumes a whopping 25% of our energy while at rest (apes need 8%). This caused our ancestors to spend much more time finding food as well as our bodies to divert energy from muscles to the brain. The muscular frame that had been a staple of previous archaic humans started to atrophy because we weren’t using it as much as we used to.

Side note: This is why aliens in the movies are always seen as thin with big heads. The writers have guessed that any species that made it here would be further along this process than we are.