Skillful Stone Agers—Part 2

How can it be that, on the average, life was better for our Later Stone Age ancestors? Yes, there is a small proportion of people today who live sumptuously and possess a far greater knowledge base than any time in prehistory, but most people today (particularly the countless residents of underdeveloped countries) are in poor health, are dependent on others for their bare necessities, eat poor quality food (when they are fortunate to have much at all), suffer from numerous diseases, are trapped in poverty and oppressive circumstances, and face constant violence. Their lives are mostly out of their control.

Quite the opposite, our Later Stone Age forebears were far more in control of their lives. Although their knowledge about the nature of their wider world was very limited (no books or internet for them), they had an intimate understanding of their proximate surroundings. They needed to know every plant and critter around them, and thus they possessed a knowledge of their immediate environment that dwarfs that of modern humans. 

 

Most people today live by developing a very deep understanding of a tiny slice of their world, and then trade that knowledge and skill for money or goods—items for which we have no ability to make ourselves. We enjoy the products of countless skilled people, having no idea how it’s done. It causes a type of dependency that we readily accept as a bargain, but makes us vulnerable and dependent on a system that can be shaky. (To wit, the financial debacle of the last few years that has impoverished countless people.)

Later Stone Age citizens had a more nutritious and better balanced diet than today. Most poverty-stricken people in the modern world survive primarily on rice or other nutrient-poor food. Additionally, when our agricultural ancestors abandoned the nomadic lifestyle, they settled down and surrounded themselves with disease-transmitting animals, as well as their own putrefying garbage and excrement. Most of the deadly diseases that humans have suffered from over the ages have been contracted from domesticated animals.

Maybe one of the most surprising facts I listed above is that the brain of modern humans is somewhat smaller than that of our Stone Age ancestors. What? How can that be? Aren’t we smarter than they were? Scientists do not know exactly why, but they have certainly verified that the quantity of our cerebral matter is less, through forensic examination of skulls. 

 

Furthermore, our modern brains seem to be continuing to shrink! One possible reason for this is that our modern, easy-going lifestyle does not require as much cognitive ability as our Later Stone Age forebears needed. They had to be constantly on their toes in order to stay alive. We can be half asleep and get by just fine. Our intelligent machines are allowing us to become stupid.

So the next time you hear someone sneeringly referring to another person as having a caveman or Stone Age mentality, you might tell them the truth: that they should show respect for those ancient peoples who were damned smart and had a very good quality of life.

Skillful Stone Agers—Part 1

When people want to disparage another person’s intellect, they often compare them to an ignorant Stone Age inhabitant, or liken them to a Neanderthal. “Man, you’re as dumb as a Neanderthal!” Modern people tend to look upon our Stone Age cousins as simpletons living a life of danger, deprivation, even misery—when compared to our modern existence. Today we have so many conveniences and comforts that our ancestors lacked, and we’ve progressed so much farther, that we feel as if their lifestyle was simple-minded and of extremely low quality. Who would ever want to live like they were forced to? They were ignorant. How could I live without TV, my smart phone, or my emails?
 

The Stone Age or Paleolithic period may be defined as the span of time beginning about 2.6 million years ago and ending about 4,000 years ago—when the Bronze Age began. The predecessors to humans began using stone tools around that earlier date, and when we Homo sapiens entered the scene (some 200,000 years ago), we continued using stone, until we learned how to forge metal. The period I’m considering here is what’s called the Upper Paleolithic or Later Stone Age: the span from about 60,000 years ago to the beginning of the agriculture revolution, about 12,000 years ago. (A simple graph would work better here, than all these numbers. Sorry.)

At the beginning of this Later Stone Age period—that time about 60,000 years ago—we humans experienced a leap forward: we developed the ability to communicate in a complex manner. We acquired the full benefits of language; after which we entered a period of rapidly-improving cognitive abilities. Symbolic thought emerged and cultural creativity exploded. This was a time before we became an agricultural people (around 12,000 years ago) and well before we began to play with metals. We had not settled down yet, but wandered about, in search of food. Stone tools were our primary implements. Later Stone Age people were hunter-gatherers, living off the land, wandering seasonally from place to place.

We like to consider ourselves as far more advanced and smarter than these Later Stone Agers. So what was life really like for these ancient ancestors? How primitive were they? How dumb were they? Well, contrary to what we modern humans think, the quality of life for our Later Stone Age ancestors was better than today. Yes, that’s right; better. Let me repeat that: BETTER! 

 

That statement may seem outrageous to those of us who enjoy a lifestyle of owning conveniences and enjoying advantages that our deep ancestors could never have imagined. While that may be true for the privileged few among us, when we compare most people around the world today to the typical Later Stone Age person, we find that the latter was (1) healthier and less disease-prone, (2) taller, stronger and more robust, (3) in possession of a larger brain, (4) far more knowledgeable about her immediate environment, and (5) in possession of greater coping and survival skills. 

 

More on skillful Later Stone Agers next time…