What is anthropogenesis? Stages, theories, problems of anthropogenesis
A lot of sciences are engaged in research of suchphenomena as anthropogenesis. The history of the people, their appearance and evolution began to be studied in the 18th century. Until that time it was believed that nature and all living beings were always the same as God created them. Next, we'll figure out what anthropogenesis is. The article will list the characteristics of the most ancient representatives of civilization.
Terminology
Before we say what anthropogenesis is,it should be noted that studies of this phenomenon are engaged in such sciences as paleoanthropology, linguistics, genetics and others. Taking into account the evolutionary context, it should be said that the term "people" should be attributed not only to those living today, but also to extinct species of the genus Homo. Now consider the definition. Anthropogenesis is part of the evolutionary process that led to the emergence of Homo sapiens. Reasonable people separated from other hominids, placental mammals and monkeys. Talking about what anthropogenesis is, it should be said that this is not just an isolation. The whole process was a historical, evolutionary formation of people and from a physical point of view. It includes the initial development of speech and work.
General information
According to the theory of anthropogenesis, the genus Homosegregated about two million years ago. This happened, according to researchers, in Africa. At that time there were several types of people. Most of them died out. Representatives of those types should, in particular, include Neanderthals and erectus. Speaking about what anthropogenesis is, it should be said that research is not only spreading to Homo sapiens. Science also studies other hominids, Australopithecines, for example.
Stages of
The process of evolution - the stage anthropogenesis (Ukr.) - was not spontaneous. The formation of Homo sapiens, its isolation proceeded systematically. The most important stages of anthropogenesis are the appearance of language, the mastery of fire and the beginning of the manufacture of adaptations for labor. People began to use stone tools, beginning with Homo habilis. Each new generation more skillfully made objects than the previous one. It should be noted that during the last 50 thousand years, culture and technology change much faster than it was in past eras. It is the stages of anthropogenesis that testify to the separation of people from other hominids. Evolving, they were alienated from the animal world.
In-depth study
As mentioned above, the problem of anthropogenesisbegan to be investigated in the 18th century. The notion that everything around is the result of God's creation was widespread enough. But, despite this, theories of anthropogenesis gradually became established in consciousness, social culture, and science. Ideas about evolution were occupied by the minds of many researchers. The problem of anthropogenesis quickly became one of the most important questions of the science of people.
Hominapia
Humanization included the development of a number ofskills. In particular, people started walking straight, their body weight increased, the structure of the brain became more complicated. In this case, there was a non-entityization. During this process, the cerebral cortex evolved. Biological anthropogenesis was accompanied by the formation of a hand, adapted to work, articulate speech, conceptual thinking, intelligence. There was an obvious and social organization of people. In the process of evolution the material culture of man began to be formed.
Unevenness of the process
As suggested by researchers, speedchanges in the morphological nature, most likely did not completely coincide with the rates of molecular and biochemical evolution. The process was not characterized by a strict correspondence between the progress of culture and the morphofunctional organization. This uneven development of the physical type was manifested in a significant advance of the formation of a set of uprightness with respect to other hominidization systems. Homo sapiens began to move on two extremities about 3,6-3,8 million years ago.
Philosophical view
According to thinkers, the driving forcesanthropogenesis, the main of which is considered labor, allowed people not only to separate, but also to embark on a higher stage of evolution compared with other living beings. Many philosophers regarded the formation of Homo sapiens as a qualitative leap, the emergence of a new social form of the movement of matter. Hominidization, according to thinkers, is a break in the gradual development of living organisms. Dialectically, the relationship between social and biological progress of people explains the Marxist-Leninist teaching. According to him, hominidization has become an organic inclusion of a higher form of motion of matter (social) low, which are not abolished, but only obey and are transformed.
The Formation of Science
The whole process was accompanied by an increase in volumeinformation. First of all, this concerns the initial period of the formation of people. The development of anthropogenesis as a science was accompanied by the dissemination of a comprehensive study of the most important locations, the creation and introduction of objective methods (mainly radiometric methods). Important in the process of research was the dating of finds. Scientists used biomolecular approaches to phylogeny reconstruction. Speaking of what anthropogenesis is, the researchers noted that it was a complex process, characterized by the indirect nature of the flow. In addition, scientists point to the extremely high variability of fossil populations.
Ramaptecoid hypothesis
The early stages of the formation of the common trunk of humans andAnthropoid apes can be observed in the primates of Central Burma. Their absolute age is about 40 million years. Approximately 10 million years younger than their primitive monkeys, inhabiting North Africa (Egypt). Egyptopithec is investigated as an ancestor from a later group of driopithecines. Among them, since the time of Charles Darwin, there have been searches for the genealogical roots of humans and anthropoid apes. There are some differences in the definition of the period of separation of the Homo line. Among the existing one of the popular hypotheses is "ramapithecoid". In accordance with it for the initial form of people are accepted ramapithecines. They were humanoid highly developed monkeys. Lived Ramapithecus in East Africa, Front, East and South Asia and Central Europe. The studies were carried out mainly on dentoalveolar fragments, which had an absolute dating from 14-15 to 8-10 million years ago.
Another point of view
Some researchers believe thatmorphological differences of ramapithecines from other modern diapithecines were insignificant. In accordance with this hypothesis, the isolation of the genus Homo occurred no earlier than 10 million years ago, and probably, even later than 8 million years. Here it should be noted that these figures are more consistent with molecular anthropological data. With the separation of the Homo line, speech formation took place, straight-ahead skills were acquired, changes in the brain structure, and others were noted. All this is a specific adaptation of people to the environment. In the process of evolution, the survival of individual individuals, as well as their groups, mainly began to depend on the use of tools.
The oldest representatives
With the transition of a person to a new level,formation of a special group of hominids. In this family the early representatives were Australopithecus - bipedal highly developed anthropoid apes. They lived in Africa, in the East and South predominantly. The representatives of this family lived 5-4.5 million years ago. The most ancient is Australopithecus afar. This Australopithecus, presumably, could have been the common ancestor of both the late representatives of this family, and the human race. The first representatives of the family appeared about two million years ago. Bone remains of Homo habilis are found together with the oldest stone objects, which was first found in Tanzania, in the Aldovay gorge. However, the researchers do not exclude not only the use, but also the making of tools by other bipedal Australopithecus. However, for unclear reasons, the representatives of the human line showed great ability to adapt by means of culture. Late australopithecines died out about a million years ago. After some time, the species Homo habilis was replaced by Homo erectus (erect person). This happened about 1.6-1.5 million years ago.
Change of species
It occurred in East Africa. Homo erectus in the Old World is represented quite widely. Representatives of the species lived in Asia, Africa and, probably, in Europe. They inhabited these territories to 400-300 thousand years ago. Archanthropes (as they are called these ancient people) made more modern devices for labor. Subsequently, in the period from 300 to 40 thousand years ago, extensive areas of the extratropical space of Eurasia and Africa inhabited paleanthropines. From a morphological point of view, it was a very diverse population. As a rule, it is associated with the cultures of the Paleolithic (compare Stone Age). Most of the finds belong to the Neanderthals. They, in turn, are considered either as an independent species, or as a subspecies of modern man. In the Old World at the end of Wed. Palaeolithic began to appear neanthropines. These were the first people of the modern type. Until now, isolated their findings are known. Neoanthropines existed 100-70 thousand liters. back, probably earlier. They lived in East Africa, the Near East, the Crimea and other territories.
Period of separation of the Homo sapiens line
On this issue, there are some disagreements. Most researchers believe that separation occurred in the middle or early Upper Pleistocene. At the same time, it remains unclear whether the sapientation (the process of formation of people of a modern species) was taking place by branching or gradual transformation of taxa against the background of a general rise in the level of organization. Here it must be said that the latter seems more likely for late stages of anthropogenesis. Given the differences, it is difficult to establish a specific ancestor of Homo sapiens, since sapientation seems to have been accompanied by a mixture of populations. This, in turn, led to the evolution of the "network-like type". The sapientation took place in different regions of Eurasia and Africa at different rates. Presumably, not all groups of the ancients managed to reach the level of Homo sapiens. Given the general patterns of historical evolutionary development, the conditions for their implementation could depend on environmental and other factors. Accelerated rates are characteristic of the ancestors who lived in the Near East, South-Eastern Europe and East Africa. Supporters of both basic hypotheses about the place where Homo sapiens appeared, include these regions in the zone of sapification in the first place.
The final stage
Approximately 40-35 thousand liters. back view Homo sapiens became the only representative of the hominid on the planet. To the Upper Paleolithic people began to populate America and Australia. Large races - Mongoloid, Negro-Australoid and Europoid - presumably arose later. They were formed in the process of intraspecific differentiation of the Homo sapiens that had developed by that time. In their formation a relatively small contribution was made by fossil hominids of the previous stages. In the Paleolithic (lower and middle) only single signs of races appeared; in the upper there was not any way any established racial groups, there were only rudiments. During this period, the number of people increased slowly.
Factors of anthropogenesis
People in the process of evolution received a greatadvantage - the ability to adapt to any zone of the oecumene. At the same time, the structural features remained unchanged. Biological factors of anthropogenesis were of great importance in the process of sapientation. One of the main was natural selection. They secured the hereditary changes that contributed to the formation and implementation of work. As for the primitive hominid society, the progress of social organization largely depended on the biological characteristics of people. However, over time, the zone of distribution of natural selection narrowed. This was facilitated by the formation and development of social patterns, the creation of a cultural environment. If we touch the anthropogenesis of modern man, then natural selection acts as a mechanism for maintaining an already formed organization within the framework of specific norms of reactions or as a sign of intraspecific polymorphism. The latter is advantageous to the mind, since various genetically-shaped forms that have an advantage in different conditions favor the increase in general fitness. Probably, this is how races and "adaptive types" were formed. For the latter one should take the variations of the morphofunctional organization that were formed during the development of those or other climatic geographic zones with sharply differing ecological conditions.
Holocene
What is modern anthropogenesis? In the course of the current geological epoch, a chain of differently directed changes is observed. They affected the overall dimensions of the body, the shape of the head, the massiveness of the skeleton, the size of the brain, the structure of morbidity and other signs. These shifts in biological parameters may not be observed in all populations, they tend to be cyclical, on the whole quite within the framework of the species line Homo sapiens. Among these epochal changes is the acceleration.
Scientific material
Since a person is considered simultaneouslybiological and social being, anthropogenesis and sociogenesis are inextricably linked. By the first half of the 19th century, ethnographers, paleontologists, and archaeologists had accumulated extensive empirical material. He became the foundation of the doctrine of anthropogenesis. In studies, great importance was the work of Boucher de Perth (French archaeologist). In the middle of the 19th century, he searched for tools made of stone and proved the fact of their use by primitive people who lived in the times of mammoths. The discoveries of the archaeologist became a refutation of the biblical chronology and met with rather stormy resistance from the public. Boucher de Perth was recognized in science only to the 60th years of the 19th century.
Ideas of Darwin
In 1856, after the discovery of the skeletonNeanderthal and a number of previous similar findings, already in the second half of the 19th century, a new direction was formed in science, which was called paleoanthropology. Thanks to him, factual material was accumulated, which made it possible to raise the question of the similarity of man and monkeys in anatomical terms, as well as the biological progress of people in previous eras. The latter was delivered by Darwin soon after the publication of the Origin of Species. However, already in this work he wrote that soon the origin and history of man will be more clearly understood.
Scientific debate
The question of the origin of people has become a matter of disputebetween Richard Owen and Thomas Huxley. The latter convincingly described the differences and similarities between monkeys and man. By that time, Darwin published a second work on the origin, which, it should be noted, despite the widespread enough, provoked heated discussions. However, some advocates of the idea of evolution, for example Charles Lyell and Alfred Wallace, did not understand how morality and mental ability could appear in people during natural selection.
Scientific Presentations Today
In accordance with modern hypotheses, peoplewere the result of the formation of matter for 13.7 billion years. They represent the most complexly organized type of the whole observed. Here we are talking not only about the human consciousness, the brain or some form of social organization. It is generally accepted that as a result, the inflationary vacuum, which is a state of matter, preceded by a large explosion, where particles possessed a "virtual" existence, has traveled to the person who exists today. This theory is called universal evolutionism.
Finally
The problem of anthropogenesis as a matter of appearanceessential properties of people, emerged relatively recently (in comparison with the world evolution), focuses on the emergence of Homo sapiens. In this regard, it is closely associated with bioevolution. Since Darwin's time, the problem has been explained by the adaptation of living beings to the conditions of a changing environment under the influence of three factors. These include mutation, selection and heredity. As a result, it is believed that under this "evolutionary legislation", under the influence of environmental changes, ape-like predecessors of modern man have received characteristic properties. Among the qualities that are specifically human, language and cognitive abilities are primarily distinguished. Their formation was determined by changes in the ancestral organism. First of all, we are talking about brain enlargement. These changes, in turn, were greatly influenced by a change in climatic conditions. In particular, the decisive role belongs to cooling. Of course, these are all hypotheses.
And anyway, the question of the key transformation, which directly made of the animal man, is considered by different researchers in different ways - depending on their definition of this boundary.
