A Long Way

Human beings have come a long way. Just how far we have come, we shall never know exactly. It is amazing to think that the first human experiences can be traced back to Africa. This means we have the same origin and are all connected. Even though with time and climate changes, we have lost information about early peoples, there is enough to help us see the movements of migration out of Africa. It is interesting to see how between 100,000 and 60,000 years ago, the movement ourside Africa was first to Eurasia, then Australia and finally the Americas.

 

In each new environment, humans had to adapt to their surroundings. This gave rise to the unique survinal techiques, beautiful crafts and cultures of each region. In today’s world where information, memories and processes are stored using complex and creative technology for the future, it might be hard to take our minds back to a time when it was not possible to capture the reality so vividly for future use. Today we place heavy emphasis on efficiency. It might be hard for us to appreciate the early hunting and agricultural methods of the Paleolithic age. Recent studies have shown that the early societies had more leisure time. Relationships in the between men and women in the first human societies were more equal than during later times. Each had specific roles—women gathered food and men hunted. Humans while being shaped by their environments, also shaped the environments in which they lived. Hunting and gathering led to the extinction of some animals in Siberia, Madagascar, North America and Siberia.

 

There is evidence that Paleolithic culture believed in a spiritual realm, though for them the spiritual world and material world were not always distinct. They believed in the supernatural. This belief points to something both sacred and natural in human beings--something that transcends time and culture.