Earth Skills and Human Evolution | The cultured ape
Earth living skills and knowledge represent a central, fundamental component of being human, and have played a defining role in the evolution of our species: the human animal.
This post addresses the importance of earth living skills and knowledge in the evolution of the human animal. We’ll take a look at skills and knowledge both in terms of an adaptive potential - cultural evolution - that allowed the extraordinary colonising success of our genus, and also in the capacity of a driver for further biological evolution that led us to become to the animal we now are.
As well as providing some background and hopefully opening your eyes to just how central earth skills are to human existence, this post lays the ground for a later post on the importance of practising these skills and knowledge in modern society:
UNIQUENESS OF THE HUMAN ANIMAL
The human species relies on cultural knowledge for survival. In order to live in the natural world we require skills passed down and learnt from others, whether that’s our parents, siblings, friends, or whoever. It’s true that other animals do have culture (chimpanzees, macaques, and dolphins for example), and so this is a difference of scale not type, but we are arguably unique in our dependence on culture and certainly in its complexity (cumulative bodies of earth skills and knowledge developed over generations such as tracking, weaponry, foraging knowledge, and so on).
The key point I’m making here is that culture in the form of earth skills and knowledge is not an add-on to human ability. Rather, in the context our species’ original lifestyle, they are an integral and absolutely essential component of human existence: as much a part of our species as claws are to a lion or a deer’s innate awareness.
The only difference is that being culturally learnt, and therefore not innate, these skills can become detached and lost if they’re not taught down the generations. And so we have the classic example of the experienced adventurer who perishes in lands where local children thrive.
In fact, the human species never existed without this culture, since archaeological and paleontological evidence suggests it appeared early in the evolution of our genus, before the origin of H. sapiens (Henrich 2011).
Just stop and think about this for a moment – it’s quite a big revelation: culture in the form of earth living skills is part of the original definition of our species – as necessary to our existence as walking, digestion, or an ability to make decisions.
HUMAN ADAPTATION THROUGH CULTURE
So why is our species so unique in this respect?
As I’m sure you’re aware, over evolutionary time a species may evolve by natural selection. This happens when environmental conditions (whether through predation, competition, climate, or other factors) impose selective pressure on the species, resulting in differential survival and reproduction of individuals. This leads to genetic adaptation as a result of beneficial genes proliferating and spreading through the population.
But there are also other mechanisms of adaptation – other ways in which a species may respond to selective pressures. One mechanism is behavioural change - specifically cultural/learnt behaviour (non-cultural, innate behaviour has a genetic basis and would evolve under natural selection).
By using cultural practices (earth skills and knowledge) to change our environment we can buffer selective pressures and avoid the need to adapt genetically as a species. For example, in cold conditions lighting a fire changes the environment, eliminating the selective pressure of death by freezing; or, with respect to food, by cooking we eliminate the energetic pressures that select for increased chewing muscles or a larger digestive system. Of course, when culture is unable to bridge the adaptive lag, (the difference between genes and environment) genetic evolution or local extinction soon follows.
This buffering is known as niche construction theory (Laland & Brown 2006; Laland, Matthews & Feldman 2016), and has been a major component of human evolution since the origin of complex culture in the region of 2-3 million years ago (the oldest undeniable evidence of stone tools dates to 2.6 million years ago).
Essentially, we as a species use skills and knowledge (culture) to adapt to our environment. This is less evolutionarily costly than genetic adaptation, since it doesn’t result in loss of variation and therefore future adaptive potential – should the environment change again, culture can simply revert back. Most importantly, cultural adaptation is far faster than genetic adaptation (Dawkins 1976; Henrich & McElreath 2003). This is because culture can change within a single lifetime, rather than needing to wait for gradual selection and elimination of gene variants over generations. On top of this, unlike genetics, culture can spread horizontally as well as down the generations, uncoupling it from reproductive success and allowing far faster spread through populations.
The capacity for rapid and effective cultural adaptation is thought to be a major explanation for our species’ incredible colonising ability: allowing us to spread and thrive in diversely different environments at extreme evolutionary speed (Stock & Wells 2007). Potential evidence includes the temporal correlation of rapid hominin expansions into northern latitudes (e.g. colonisation of Northern Europe ~70,000 years ago) with the first evidence of controlled fire use, and the coincidence of major H. sapiens expansions after this time with a whole host of cultural innovations such as watercraft and ranged weaponry.
As a side note it’s worth noting that cultural practices can also alter our environment to create an even greater mismatch with our genetics, imposing new pressures that must be adapted to or face extinction. This mismatch is essentially the root of modern society’s discordance with our evolutionary heritage: the origin of many issues we currently face – but that’s another discussion altogether!
‘A new kind of replicator has recently emerged…. achieving evolutionary change at a rate that leaves the old gene panting far behind.’
HOW CULTURE MADE US HUMAN
Earth skills and knowledge also played a secondary, although no less important role in human evolution. As well as acting as a rapid means of adaptation by buffering external pressures, it in turn drove many of the evolutionary changes that we associate with being human. Sometimes referred to as culture-gene coevolution (Henrich 2011) or dual inheritance theory, below are just a few examples:
Of course, as with all evolutionary reasoning, these are only theories, however they’re very convincing – in my opinion at least!
1) ENCEPHALISATION (brain enlargement): made possible by meat eating and cooking
The most commonly cited example is that development of cooking (and other food processing) practices (Wrangham 2009), coupled with greater foraging efficiency and more meat eating (likely partly due to innovation in hunting technology), resulted in a nutritionally denser diet. This allowed a reduction in relative gut size, and in turn energetic reallocation for the evolution of our (relatively) extraordinarily large brain. This theory is known as the expensive tissue hypothesis (Aiello & Wheeler 1995). No wonder our society is so obsessed by cooking programmes!
Diagram from Aiello & Wheeler (1995)
2) EVOLUTION OF SCIENTIFIC THOUGHT: driven by tracking ability
In his book ‘The Art of Tracking: The Origin of Science’ Louis Liebenberg suggests that the development of complex tracking ability (in particular speculative tracking, beyond simply following track and sign) may have been the selective driver that led to the evolution of the capacity for scientific thought and speculative deduction: defining aspects of our species’ potential.
I thoroughly recommend the book – it highlights the fundamental importance of tracking and awareness to our species and in my opinion dispels the idea many of us have that as a species we’ve somehow transcended our animal nature. It places the seemingly detached aloofness of modern human society firmly within the context of our indigenous past.
3) LANGUAGE: driven by the need for cultural transmission fidelity
There is an idea that the origin of language may actually have been driven by pressure for increasingly reliable transmission of skills and knowledge between generations. As cumulative culture became more and more complex, fidelity of transmission between individuals would’ve become a limiting factor to that complexity. Evolution of language solves this problem by allowing easy conveyance of cultural skills and knowledge from one individual to another.
4) ENCEPHALISATION: driven by tool making
Brain scanning studies have shown that individuals experience remodelling of specific brain regions with the progressive acquisition of knapping (stone tool making) skills (Hecht, et al., 2014). Notably these areas are of evolutionarily recent origin and similar trends are observed in brain development of the hominin lineage. This suggests that the evolution of these brain areas may have been at least partly driven by stone tool making.
Interestingly, different brain areas are stimulated when making different tools (e.g. Acheulian versus Oldowan technologies), suggesting that tool making may have been an important factor in ensuring continued evolution of encephalisation over time, preventing stasis at developmentally-imposed maximums (Stout et al. 2008).
These brain areas also appear to be closely linked with language and action planning, potentially meaning that tool making may have paved the way for these other capacities, but it’s hard to say which came first, and an iterative back-and-forth pattern of evolution is probably most likely.
WHAT THIS ALL MEANS
Earth skills and knowledge were a key turning point in the evolution of the hominin lineage, representing the start of our rapid adaptive success and unique divergence from the rest of the animal kingdom. They’re a fundamental and essential component of our species, fitting alongside, not below, the domain of physiological and other biological factors that we share with non-human animals. It’s in this way that we are most unique from other animals.
The key point I’m trying to make here is that for the human animal in its original context as a component of the natural ecosystem, earth skills and cultural knowledge comprise as important and central a part of our existence as do our biological attributes. They’re consequently an equally important aspect of the definition of being human – that is how we existed and survived, no two ways about it.
Of course culture takes another form in our modern society. Simply put, the cultural we now survive by are the skills and knowledge that allow us to survive off the net of society we’ve constructed and rely on. But this doesn’t negate the importance of our ancestral culture, not least in acknowledgement of the many obvious flaws of, and human degradation imposed by, our modern culture. See this article on the importance of practicing earth skills in a modern world – the depth of some reasons may surprise you.
Our ancestral culture, like our ancestral physical ability, also represents a gateway towards the expression of a greater human existence and higher, less tangible potential. Through tracking and earth living we begin to experience and develop an awareness innate to our species, of intuition and an understanding of the world far beyond that which can be imagined in the context of modern society. It is through the disciplines and ideas that make up human evolution (and perhaps only so) that we are able to reach the full extent of human potential. Again, a topic for a future post!
I hope this post might have made you think a little about the role of earth living skills: a major component of being human, not simply a hobby.
REFERENCES AND FURTHER READING
Aiello, L. C., & Wheeler, P. (1995). The expensive-tissue hypothesis: the brain and the digestive system in human and primate evolution. Current anthropology, 36(2), 199-221.
Dawkins, R. (1976). The selfish gene. Oxford university press.
Hecht, E., et al. (2014). Acquisition of Paleolithic toolmaking abilities involves structural remodeling to inferior frontoparietal regions. Brain Struct Funct .
Henrich, J. (2011). A cultural species: How culture drove human evolution. Psychological Science Agenda, 25(11).
Henrich, J., & McElreath, R. (2003). The evolution of cultural evolution. Evolutionary Anthropology: Issues, News, and Reviews, 12(3), 123-135.
Laland, K. N., & Brown, G. R. (2006). Niche construction, human behavior, and the adaptive-lag hypothesis. Evolutionary Anthropology, 15, 95–104.
Laland, K., Matthews, B., & Feldman, M. W. (2016). An introduction to niche construction theory. Evolutionary ecology, 30(2), 191-202.
Liebenberg, L. (1990). The Art of Tracking Tbe Origin of Science. South Africa: David Philip Publishers
Wells, J. C., & Stock, J. T. (2007). The biology of the colonizing ape. American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 134(S45), 191-222.
Wrangham, R. (2009). Catching fire: How cooking made us human. Basic Books
Ujuzi na ujuzi wa kuishi duniani ni sehemu muhimu ya kuwa binadamu na wamecheza jukumu muhimu katika mageuzi ya spishi yetu. Maandishi haya yanazungumzia umuhimu wa ujuzi na maarifa ya kuishi duniani katika mageuzi ya mnyama wa binadamu. Tutaangalia ujuzi na maarifa, kwa upande wa uwezo wa kubadilika - mageuzi ya kitamaduni - ambayo yalitupa mafanikio ya ajabu ya ukoloni wa jamii yetu, na pia katika uwezo wa kuendesha gari kwa mageuzi zaidi ya kibiolojia ambayo yalitupeleka kuwa wanyama sisi sasa. Pamoja na kutoa baadhi ya msingi na matumaini ya kufungua macho yako kwa jinsi ujuzi wa ardhi ni muhimu kwa kuwepo kwa binadamu, chapisho hili linaweka msingi kwa ajili ya chapisho la baadaye juu ya umuhimu wa mazoezi ya ujuzi huu na maarifa katika jamii ya kisasa: UTAJIRI WA KIWANDA WANAUMA. Ili kuishi katika ulimwengu wa asili tunahitaji ujuzi uliopitishwa na kujifunza kutoka kwa wengine, iwe ni wazazi wetu, ndugu, marafiki, au yeyote. Ni kweli kwamba wanyama wengine wana utamaduni (chimpanzees, macaques, na dolphins kwa mfano), na hivyo hii ni tofauti ya kiwango si aina, lakini sisi ni arguably kipekee katika utegemezi wetu juu ya utamaduni na hakika katika utata wake (miili ya mkusanyiko wa ustadi wa dunia na maarifa maendeleo juu ya vizazi kama vile kufuatilia, silaha, maarifa ya foraging, na kadhalika). Jambo kuu mimi nina kufanya hapa ni kwamba utamaduni katika fomu ya ujuzi wa dunia na maarifa si nyongeza ya uwezo wa binadamu. Badala yake, katika muktadha wa mtindo wa maisha wa asili wa spishi yetu, ni sehemu muhimu na muhimu kabisa ya kuwepo kwa binadamu: sehemu kubwa ya spishi yetu kama vile makucha ni kwa ufahamu wa asili wa simba au mnyama. Tofauti pekee ni kwamba kuwa na elimu ya kitamaduni, na kwa hiyo si asili, ujuzi huu unaweza kuwa detached na kupotea kama wao si kufundishwa chini ya vizazi. "Hii ni mfano wa kawaida wa ""mwindaji mwenye uzoefu"" ambaye anakufa katika nchi ambapo watoto wa eneo hilo wanafanikiwa." Kwa kweli, spishi ya binadamu haikuwahi kuwepo bila utamaduni huu, kwani ushahidi wa akiolojia na paleontolojia unaonyesha ilionekana mapema katika mageuzi ya jenasi yetu, kabla ya asili ya H. sapiens. "Kujaribu kufikiria jambo hili kwa muda mfupi ni ufunuo mkubwa: utamaduni katika namna ya ujuzi wa kuishi duniani ni sehemu ya ufafanuzi wa awali wa spishi zetu, kama muhimu kwa kuwepo kwetu kama kutembea, kumeng'enya, au uwezo wa kufanya maamuzi.""" Utabiri wa binadamu kupitia utamaduni: Kwa nini jamii yetu ni ya kipekee sana katika suala hili? Kama nina uhakika unajua, juu ya wakati wa mageuzi spishi inaweza kuendeleza kwa uteuzi wa asili. Hii hutokea wakati hali za mazingira (ama kupitia wawindaji, ushindani, hali ya hewa, au sababu nyingine) zinaweka shinikizo la kuchagua juu ya spishi, na kusababisha uokokaji tofauti na uzazi wa watu. Hilo husababisha marekebisho ya chembe za urithi kwa sababu chembe za urithi zenye manufaa huongezeka na kuenea katika idadi ya watu. Lakini pia kuna mifumo mingine ya kubadilika - njia nyingine ambazo spishi inaweza kujibu shinikizo la kuchagua. Moja ya utaratibu ni mabadiliko ya tabia - hasa tabia ya kitamaduni / kujifunza (si utamaduni, tabia ya asili ina msingi wa maumbile na ingeendelea chini ya uteuzi wa asili). Kwa kutumia mazoea ya kitamaduni (ufahamu na ujuzi wa dunia) kubadilisha mazingira yetu tunaweza buffer shinikizo la uteuzi na kuepuka haja ya kukabiliana na maumbile kama spishi. Kwa mfano, katika hali baridi, kuwasha moto hubadilisha mazingira, kuondoa shinikizo la kuchagua kifo kwa baridi; au, kuhusiana na chakula, kwa kupika, tunaondoa shinikizo la nishati ambalo huchagua misuli ya kutafuna iliyoongezeka au mfumo mkubwa wa kumeng'enya. Bila shaka, wakati utamaduni hauwezi kuunganisha lag ya kukabiliana, (tofauti kati ya jeni na mazingira) mageuzi ya maumbile au kutoweka kwa eneo hufuata hivi karibuni. "Kutengenezwa kwa niche ni ""mfano wa maendeleo ya binadamu"" na ""mfano wa maendeleo ya binadamu"" na ""mfano wa maendeleo ya binadamu"" na ""mfano wa maendeleo ya binadamu"" na ""mfano wa maendeleo ya binadamu"" na ""mfano wa maendeleo ya binadamu"" na ""mfano wa maendeleo ya binadamu"" na ""mfano wa maendeleo ya binadamu"" na ""mfano wa maendeleo ya binadamu"" na ""mfano wa maendeleo ya binadamu.""" Kimsingi, sisi kama spishi hutumia ustadi na maarifa (utamaduni) ili kukabiliana na mazingira yetu. Hii ni chini ya maendeleo gharama kubwa kuliko marekebisho ya maumbile, tangu haina <unk> kusababisha hasara ya tofauti na kwa hiyo uwezekano wa marekebisho ya baadaye <unk> lazima mazingira kubadilika tena, utamaduni unaweza tu kurudi nyuma. Uwezo wa kubadilika kwa utamaduni ni mkubwa kuliko ule wa chembe za urithi (Dawkins, 1976; Henrich na McElreath, 2003). Hii ni kwa sababu utamaduni unaweza kubadilika ndani ya maisha moja, badala ya kuhitaji kusubiri kwa uteuzi wa hatua kwa hatua na kuondolewa kwa tofauti za jeni kwa vizazi. Kwa kuongezea, tofauti na chembe za urithi, utamaduni unaweza kuenea kwa usawa na pia chini ya vizazi, ukiondoa kutoka kwa mafanikio ya uzazi na kuruhusu kuenea kwa kasi zaidi kupitia idadi ya watu. Uwezo wa kubadilika kwa haraka na kwa ufanisi wa utamaduni unafikiriwa kuwa ufafanuzi mkubwa wa uwezo wa ajabu wa ukoloni wa spishi zetu: kuturuhusu kuenea na kusitawi katika mazingira tofauti kwa kasi ya kipekee ya mageuzi. Uthibitisho wa uwezekano ni pamoja na uhusiano wa muda wa upanuzi wa haraka wa hominin katika latitudo za kaskazini (kwa mfano Katika karne ya 19 na karne ya 20 ya ukoloni wa Ulaya ya Kaskazini (miaka 70,000 iliyopita) na ushahidi wa kwanza wa matumizi ya moto uliodhibitiwa, na mwendelezo wa upanuzi mkubwa wa H. sapiens baada ya wakati huu na idadi kubwa ya uvumbuzi wa kitamaduni kama vile mashua na silaha za umbali. Kama maelezo ya upande ni muhimu kutambua kwamba mazoea ya kitamaduni pia yanaweza kubadilisha mazingira yetu kuunda kutofautiana hata zaidi na maumbile yetu, kuanzisha shinikizo jipya ambalo lazima lipewe au kukabiliwa na kutoweka. Hii kutofautiana ni kimsingi mzizi wa jamii ya kisasa ya kutopatana na urithi wetu wa mageuzi: asili ya masuala mengi sisi sasa kukabiliana na <unk> lakini hiyo ni mjadala mwingine kabisa! ‘Kuna aina mpya ya chombo cha kuiga ambacho kimetokea hivi karibuni.... Uwezo wa kubadilisha mabadiliko ya mageuzi kwa kiwango ambacho kinacha jeni la zamani likikosa nguvu. <unk> Jinsi Utamaduni Uliotufanya Sisi Watu Ujuzi na ujuzi wa Dunia pia ulicheza jukumu la pili, ingawa sio muhimu zaidi katika mageuzi ya binadamu. Pamoja na kutenda kama njia ya haraka ya kukabiliana na shinikizo la nje, kwa upande wake iliongoza mabadiliko mengi ya mageuzi ambayo tunahusianisha na kuwa binadamu. Wakati mwingine inajulikana kama utamaduni-gene coevolution (Henrich 2011) au nadharia ya urithi mara mbili, hapa chini ni mifano michache tu: Bila shaka, kama na hoja zote za mageuzi, hizi ni nadharia tu, hata hivyo wao ni wa kusadikisha sana - kwa maoni yangu angalau! "Kuchukua mfano wa ""kufanya kazi"" na ""kufanya kazi"" kwa njia ya chakula, Wrangham alionyesha kuwa ""kufanya kazi"" na ""kufanya kazi"" kwa njia ya chakula, pamoja na ""kufanya kazi"" na ""kufanya kazi"" kwa njia ya chakula, ilisababisha ""mlo wa chakula.""" Hii iliruhusu kupunguzwa kwa ukubwa wa matumbo, na kwa upande mwingine kugawa tena nishati kwa mageuzi ya ubongo wetu (kwa kiasi) mkubwa sana. "Hiyo ni kwa sababu ya nadharia ya ""viungo vya gharama kubwa"" (Aiello & Wheeler, 1995)." Haishangazi kwamba jamii yetu imeathiriwa sana na programu za kupikia! "Kama ilivyoelezwa katika kitabu chake ""The Art of Tracking: The Origin of Science,"" Louis Liebenberg anaonyesha kwamba maendeleo ya uwezo wa kufuatilia tata (haswa kufuatilia nadharia, zaidi ya kufuata tu kufuatilia na ishara) inaweza kuwa dereva wa kuchagua ambayo ilisababisha mageuzi ya uwezo wa kufikiri kisayansi na uvumbuzi wa nadharia: kuamua mambo ya spishi yetu." Ninapendekeza sana kitabu hicho - kinaangazia umuhimu wa msingi wa kufuatilia na ufahamu wa spishi zetu na kwa maoni yangu huondoa wazo ambalo wengi wetu tuna kwamba kama spishi kwa njia fulani tumezidi asili yetu ya wanyama. Inaweka kujitenga kwa jamii ya kisasa ya kibinadamu kwa uthabiti ndani ya muktadha wa zamani wetu wa asili. Lugha: inaendeshwa na uhitaji wa uaminifu wa uhamisho wa kitamaduni Kuna wazo kwamba asili ya lugha inaweza kuwa kweli kuendeshwa na shinikizo la uhamisho wa ujuzi na maarifa kati ya vizazi. Kama utamaduni wa mkusanyiko ukawa tata zaidi na zaidi, uaminifu wa maambukizi kati ya watu binafsi ungeweza kuwa sababu ya kupunguza utata huo. Mageuzi ya lugha hutatua tatizo hili kwa kuruhusu uhamisho rahisi wa ujuzi wa kitamaduni na maarifa kutoka mtu mmoja hadi mwingine. Utafiti wa utengenezaji wa zana za mawe unaonyesha kuwa watu wana uzoefu wa kurekebisha maeneo maalum ya ubongo na upatikanaji wa ujuzi wa kutengeneza zana za mawe (Hecht, et al. 2014). Kwa kweli, maeneo haya ni ya asili ya hivi karibuni ya mageuzi na mwenendo kama huo unaonekana katika maendeleo ya ubongo wa ukoo wa hominin. Hilo laonyesha kwamba huenda mageuzi ya sehemu hizo za ubongo yalisababishwa angalau kwa sehemu na utengenezaji wa vifaa vya mawe. Kwa kushangaza, maeneo tofauti ya ubongo huchochewa wakati wa kutengeneza vifaa tofauti (kwa mfano Acheulian vs Oldowan teknolojia, ambayo inaonyesha kwamba kutengeneza zana inaweza kuwa sababu muhimu katika kuhakikisha maendeleo ya kuendelea ya encephalization kwa muda, kuzuia stasis katika maendeleo-imposed maxima. 2008) na Sehemu hizi za ubongo pia zinaonekana kuwa zimeunganishwa kwa karibu na lugha na mipango ya hatua, uwezekano wa maana kwamba utengenezaji wa zana unaweza kuwa umefungua njia kwa uwezo huu mwingine, lakini ni vigumu kusema ni nini kilichotokea kwanza, na muundo wa iterative nyuma-na-mbele ya mageuzi ni uwezekano mkubwa. Ujuzi na ujuzi wa Dunia ulikuwa hatua muhimu katika mageuzi ya ukoo wa hominin, ikiwakilisha mwanzo wa mafanikio yetu ya haraka ya kukabiliana na tofauti ya kipekee kutoka kwa ulimwengu mwingine wa wanyama. Wao ni sehemu ya msingi na muhimu ya spishi yetu, kufaa pamoja, si chini, uwanja wa kisaikolojia na mambo mengine ya kibiolojia kwamba sisi kushiriki na wanyama wasio binadamu. Ni kwa njia hii kwamba sisi ni wa kipekee zaidi kutoka kwa wanyama wengine. "Kitu muhimu ninachojaribu kusema hapa ni kwamba kwa mnyama wa kibinadamu katika muktadha wake wa asili kama sehemu ya mazingira ya asili, ujuzi wa ardhi na maarifa ya kitamaduni yanajumuisha sehemu muhimu na ya msingi ya kuwepo kwetu kama sifa zetu za kibiolojia. """ Kwa hiyo wao ni kipengele muhimu sawa cha ufafanuzi wa kuwa binadamu - kwamba ni jinsi tulivyowepo na kuishi, hakuna njia mbili kuhusu hilo. Bila shaka utamaduni huchukua namna nyingine katika jamii yetu ya kisasa. Kwa ufupi, utamaduni ambao sasa tunaishi ni ujuzi na maarifa ambayo yanaturuhusu kuishi nje ya mtandao wa jamii ambayo tumejenga na kutegemea. Lakini hii haipingui umuhimu wa utamaduni wetu wa mababu, hasa katika kutambua kasoro nyingi dhahiri za, na uharibifu wa binadamu uliowekwa na, utamaduni wetu wa kisasa. Angalia makala hii juu ya umuhimu wa mazoezi ya ujuzi wa dunia katika ulimwengu wa kisasa <unk> kina cha baadhi ya sababu inaweza kushangaza wewe. Utamaduni wetu wa kale, kama uwezo wetu wa kimwili wa kale, pia unawakilisha lango kuelekea usemi wa uwepo mkubwa wa kibinadamu na uwezo wa juu, wa chini wa kugusa. Kupitia kufuatilia na kuishi duniani tunaanza uzoefu na kuendeleza ufahamu wa asili kwa spishi yetu, ya intuition na uelewa wa ulimwengu mbali zaidi ya kile kinachoweza kuwa na mawazo katika muktadha wa jamii ya kisasa. Ni kupitia taaluma na mawazo ambayo huunda mageuzi ya kibinadamu (na labda tu hivyo) kwamba tunaweza kufikia kiwango kamili cha uwezo wa kibinadamu. Tena, mada kwa ajili ya chapisho la baadaye! Natumaini makala hii inaweza kuwa na alifanya wewe kufikiri kidogo kuhusu jukumu la ujuzi wa kuishi duniani: sehemu kuu ya kuwa binadamu, si tu hobby. Maelezo na kusoma zaidi Aiello, L. C., & Wheeler, P. (1995). Nadharia ya tishu ghali: ubongo na mfumo wa kumeng'enya chakula katika mageuzi ya binadamu na primati. Anthropology ya sasa, 36 (2) 199-211. Dawkins, R. (1976). Chembe ya urithi ya ubinafsi. Oxford Chuo Kikuu Press. Hecht, E., et al. (2014). Kupata uwezo wa kutengeneza zana za Paleolithic kunahusisha kurekebisha muundo wa mikoa ya chini ya mbele na mbele. Muundo wa Ubongo Unafanya Kazi Henrich, J. (2011). Aina ya kitamaduni: Jinsi utamaduni ulivyoongoza mageuzi ya binadamu. Maelezo ya Mafunzo ya Sayansi ya Saikolojia, 25 (11). Henrich, J., & McElreath, R. (2003). Mageuzi ya utamaduni. Anthropolojia ya Mageuzi: Masuala, Habari, na Maelezo, 12(3), 123-135. Laland, K. N., & Brown, G. R. (2006). Ujenzi wa niche, tabia ya binadamu, na nadharia ya upitishaji-lag. Anthropolojia ya Mageuzi, 15, 95-104. Laland, K., Matthews, B., na Feldman, M. W. (2016). Utangulizi wa nadharia ya ujenzi wa niche. Mageuzi ya ikolojia, 30 (2) 191-202. Liebenberg, L. (1990). Sanaa ya Kufuatilia Asili ya Sayansi. Afrika Kusini: David Philip Publishers Wells, J. C., & Stock, J. T. (2007). Biolojia ya nyani wa ukoloni. American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 134 (S45), 191-222, na makala nyingine nyingi. Wrangham, R. (2009). Kuchukua Moto: Jinsi Kupika Kulivyotufanya Tuwe Wanadamu. Vitabu vya Msingi