The Pre-Historic Man and The Origin Of Man

 

 An image of a Man-Ape

Main Topic: AFRICAN PRE-HISTORY FROM THE EARLIEST TIMES TO 500BC

Sub Topic 1: Definition of Pre-History

Sub Topic 2: The Origin of Man

Sub Topic 3: Features/Characteristics of Man-Apes

Objectives (By the end of the Lesson students will be able to):

1.     explain the Pre-history of Africa

2.     examine the origin of man

3.     state the features of Man-Apes

What is Pre-History?

Pre-history is the stage of man’s development before the time of written records. In other words, it was the period before the art of writing was invented. Societies without written records preserved their history through stories and myths passed orally from one generation to another. Presently, the nature and events of pre-history can be partially reconstructed through archaeology. The Pre-historic period extends from 1,000,000BC to about 500BC. For the study of Pre-history, our main sources of information is archaeology. It was through this that scientist discovered that man originated from Africa. The pre-historic period has been divided into four phases namely:

1.     The Early Stone Age (1,000,000 BC- 50,000BC)

2.     The Middle Stone Age (50,000BC- 10,000BC)

3.     The Late Stone Age I (10,000BC- 4,000BC)

4.     The Late Stone Age II (4,000BC- 500BC)

The Origin of Man

There are many accounts concerning the origin of man. Every religion in the world has its own account about the origin of Man. One famous religious account concerning the origin of man is found in the Christian Bible. The Christian Bible records in Genesis that the World and its content, including man, was created in six days.  However, in 1859, Charles Robert Darwin published his book entitled, “Origins of the Species” which criticized the Biblical account of origin of man.

                                                    An image of Charles Robert Darwin

Darwin’s Theory of Evolution

This theory was postulated by Charles Robert Darwin, a British naturalist, and it stirred up so much controversy in the Christendom in Europe. According to the scientific explanation, man was like an ape and with time he developed to become man called “Homo sapiens” or thinking man. Scientist believed that the ape-man evolved and changed until he became Homo (man) and then to Homo sapiens, thus wise, intelligent and modern man. According to Darwin, organisms usually produce more offspring (young one) than what nature can support. For this reason, the organisms had to compete or struggle among themselves for limited resources offered by nature. Those who are successful in the struggle are those best suited to the environment, the less fit ones disappear. Thus, he propounded that life is a continuous struggle in which only the fittest can survive.

In another book titled, “The Descent of Man” (1871) Darwin expressed the view that man evolved from a primitive “monkey-like” animal in the tropics of Africa.

In 1959, Dr. and Mrs. Leakey, archaeologists, discovered the earliest proof of human culture in the world at the site of Olduvai Gorge in northern Tanzania in the Eastern Rift valley in Africa. They also discovered fossils of man-like creatures. This fossils remains was called Homo habilis (handy human). As a result, archaeologists described this primitive monkey-like man as “Near man” or “Man-apes”. The fossils were estimated to have existed 2,000,000 years ago.

                                                    Olduvai Gorge in northern Tanzania

Fig 5. The developmental stages of man.

Features/Characteristics of Man-Apes

Man-apes were different from human beings of today. They had the following characteristics:

i.                 They stood only four and half feet tall.

ii.               They were slightly built with broad faces and small brains

iii.             They walked upright and fast

iv.             They were capable of throwing objects with their hands

v.               They made crude tools to kill wild animals