Origins of Human Evolution
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Origins of Human Evolution
The early humans were under pressure to increase their brain capacity. They did not invent guns and military equipment because that would always mean devolution. So, they made tools to allow them to hunt energy-rich meat products. This all happened some 4 million years ago.
Modern behavioural modernity includes specialization of tools, jewellery, images such as drawings and rituals like the burial of their dead. They also use specialised hunting techniques, trade (or barter), use of language. All these have been built on the foundations of the spiritual development of human ancestors.
About 50 000 years ago, human culture began to evolve rapidly which has been characterised as the “Great Leap Forward.” Some groups, like the Bushmen, chose not to do modern farming. Today some Europeans typify them as savages and brutes, but instead of modern cannons, guns, and forts, they kept with their bows and arrows (and some tribes also used lances) which do not kill on a large scale as men do today.
The Australian Aboriginal population separated from the African population around 75,000 years ago. 60,000 years ago, they made a 160 km sea journey. It was also at this time that they started burying their dead, making clothing from animal hides, hunting with more sophisticated techniques (such as pit traps or driving animals off cliffs) as well as cave painting. Fishhooks, buttons and bone needles showed signs that had not been seen before 50,000 before the present. (Human Evolution: Wikipedia p.23)
A Bishop from England took the saying in the Bible of 2 Peter 3:8 literally: “But forget not this one thing, beloved, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day.” The Bishop then concluded that the seven days in Genesis were actually seven thousand years in the time of humankind.
The Cradle of Humankind states that science says that the universe that we find ourselves in was formed about 14 billion years ago. The Earth is about 4.6 billion years old, and that life evolved from fossils found 200 million years ago in South Africa. (Cradle of Humankind: Maropeng p.2) It goes on to say that Africa is the birthplace of humankind; that Homo sapiens, the species to which we all belong, evolved in Africa about 200 000 years ago; that all humanity shares an African heritage.
Agriculture that started about 10,000 years ago showed that humans could determine their civilization (some 5,000 years ago) rather than being completely subservient to natural selection. 5 000 years ago, humans developed urbanization which led to industrialization 250 years ago. There are arguments that genetic differences occur to the extent that people differ today. Light skin and blond hair in some populations developed due to both climate and altitude adaptations. (Wiki: Human Evolution p23)
Culturally driven evolution causes some pressure due to effective contraception, higher education, and social norms. The human brain expansion could not only be the cause of the just-mentioned evolution but may also be the cause of the brain’s social learning and still greater efficiency. It is also support for skill development and the rapidly increasing technologies.
“Mitochondrial DNA” (mtDNA) can trace all modern humans to a single common female ancestor who lived about 200,000 years ago – and she’s from Africa, the African Eve, the Mother of all. It showed that all ancestors are African.
(Cradle of Humankind: Maropeng p.13)
Wrapping up this section, please allow us to introduce you to The Callers at the Cape before Jan van Riebeeck came to set up his halfway station here. Vasco da Gama in 1497 was the first to make contact with the Khoisan. These were Bushmen who made their living by foraging their food. Da Gama reported that their food near the Berg River at St. Helena Bay was confined to the flesh of seals, whales, gazelles, and the roots of herbs. They had no livestock.
After Da Gama’s men came to know them, the Bushmen, which they found to have a brownish-orange to light brown skin colour. They were like ‘men of little spirit, quite incapable of violence.’ This reminds one of Matthew 5:3 “Blessed [are] the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” The Cochoqua, Bushmen, Watermen or Strandlopers (Beach rangers) were another of this same group as those in St Helena Bay.
Alan Barnard: Anthropology and the Bushmen, p13.
At the Cape, they were about forty strong and headed by Autshumato known by Jan van Riebeeck as Herry, the Strandloper. In 1631 he was taken by a British ship on its way to Bantam (Java) to learn Dutch on the ship. Van Riebeeck notes that they, too, had no livestock. Therefore Van Riebeeck continually mentions that Autshumato could speak some English.
This then where we end this short series about the Bushmen. We will meet them again either as Bushmen where they were on their own or as Khoisan where they were mixed with Khoikhoi who had either left their clan or had been thrown out.
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