THE BEGINNINGS OF HUMANS

Creationism
- is the belief that the account of the origins of different life forms given in the early
chapters of the Bible is true and scientifically valid explanation
- the Bible is cited as the main source of evidence
o Intelligent Design: a belief that many of the features of living organisms can best
be explained by the idea that they had an intelligent designer rather than arising
from natural selection
o Four Different Views
Young Earth Creationists: all life and humankind came into existence in
six 24-hour days, some 6-10,000 years ago
Old-Earth Creationists: accepts that the days of creation are
metaphorical and could represent very long periods of time
Theistic evolutionists: diversity of nature from stars to planets to living
organisms, including the human body, is a consequence of the divine
using processes of evolution to create indirectly
Evolutionary theists: hold that the witness of creation itself is that the
divine creates only indirectly through evolutionary processes without any
intervention in the order of nature

Evolutionism
Charles Darwin formulated a theory of evolution in 1859.
modification, which occurred as a population (group of interbreeding individuals)
adapted to its environment through natural selection
o Natural selection: hold that the witness of creation itself is that the divine creates
only indirectly through evolutionary processes without any intervention in the
order of nature.
o Evolution: at the level of population genetics; change in allele frequencies
(microevolution)
o Four evolutionary forces that affect the genetic structures of populations:
Mutation
the ultimate source of evolutionary change, constantly introduces
new genetic variation
occurs randomly
provides the variation upon which the other evolutionary forces
work
Genetic drift
refers to chance fluctuations of allele frequencies in the gene pool
of population
evolutionary force produces changes at the population level as a
result of random events at the individual level
Gene flow
introduction of new alleles from nearby populations, brings new
genetic variation into a population

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 Natural selection
Shapes the genetic variation at the population level to fit local
environmental conditions
Adaptation: Series of beneficial adjustments to the environment
(outcome of natural selection)

Microevolutionary forces of mutation, gene flows, genetic drift, and natural selection can lead
to macroevolutionary change but the tempo of evolutionary change varies.

Becoming Human

Hadar: one of the most significant hominoid fossil sites in the world
Discovery of Lucy: opened up a major new window in the study of human origins
Lucy:
- 3.2 million years
- Australopithecus afarensis
- 4 feet tall
- Biped
- had fairly long arms
African chimpanzee: closest living relative of human species; about 98% of the same genes
Laetoli foot prints/Laetoli trackway (dated at 3.6 million years old): evidence for one of the
defining characters of being a hominid (bipedalism)
Taphonomy: study of laws of burial or how animals got into the deposits; used to understanding
what process affects the preservation of bones between the time of death and the moment
of discovery
Neanderthals are distinctly different from modern humans particularly in the structure of the
face and in the structure of the brain case.
- Neanderthals and humans are a closely related species but very different species.
- Neanderthal DNA is distinct from that of modern humans >>> Neanderthal went extinct
without contributing to the modern human genome.

Neanderthals Homo sapiens

Skull was low and long Skull was high and short
have a big face that protruded in front of the With little face that is tucked underneath the
skull front of the skull

Evidence supports the conclusion that early apelike ancestors became bipedal while still in this
familiar forest environment.

A large number of hypotheses have been offered for the evolution of bipedalism including:
Energy efficiency
Temperature regulation
Food gathering

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 Predator avoidance & threatening displays

Events and physical changes define the evolution of our species in the process of becoming
human.

Sequence of events: (Before)

Increase in brain size changes in posture, locomotion, diet, behavior, jaws, and teeth, etc

Sequence of events: (Now)

Walking upright developing bigger brainstool usemanufacturerich and varied material
culture

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THE CHANGING ENVIRONMENT

Personal troubles: the problems you classified as being within your personal capacity to solve
Social issues: the problems you classified as not being within your personal capacity to solve;
problem that may go beyond our personal capacities and lie in the large social context

There is a connection between the personal and social: our social environment affects what is
happening in our own personal circumstances.

Sociological imagination
- Stresses the social contexts in which people live
- examines how these contexts influence people
- enables us to grasp the connection between history and biography - C. Wrightmills

Significance of sociological imagination:

- It is important in looking at the connection between the personal and the external
environment.
- Using the framework, we have known that our external environment affects us while we
in turn also affect the larger social context.

Environment: surroundings in which we live

- Physical environment
- consists of physical features that occur naturally on Earth
- Air, land, water and living things
- Human environment
- made by man
- formed by man when a physical environment is changed by human activities

Elements in our physical environment affect the way we live (food, shelter and economic
activities):
- Climate and weather
- Landforms (Mountains, volcanoes, river valleys, etc.)
- Water forms (sea, river, etc.)
Environmental changes result from result from a complex social, political, economic,
technological and cultural values.
Social variables that cause environmental change (Stern et al. 1992):
- Population growth
- Economic growth
- Technological change
- Political-economic Institutions
- Attitudes and Beliefs

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HUMAN ADAPTATION

Human Adaptation
- the process of modification in structure or function that enables an organism to survive,
reproduce and flourish in new conditions
- Includes any changes by which organisms surmount the challenges to life
- ability of the population to survive and reproduce (biology)

Two General Ways of Adapting:

1. Biological adaptation
2. Cultural adaptation

Modes of human adaptation:

1. Genetic change
Natural selection
Occurs over generations
Not flexible as other forms
Population phenomenon
Examples/responses to:
Altitude stress
Cold and heat stress
immunity
Two ecological rules:
Allens rule
- describes the regularities of the bodys proportion; Body form or shape is
linear in warm climates and more rounded and compact in cold climate.
Bergmanns rule
- states that two bodies with similar shapes, the one which is larger has less
surface area per unit volume will hold heat better and thus will better
adapted to cold regions
- body form and size as adaptations to temperature stress
- both rules cause systemic changes in the surface area to volume ratios
- Cold climate (need to retain heat); bodies are larger and more compact
- Warm climate (need to expel heat); bodies are smaller and more linear

2. Plasticity (developmental adjustment)

- Anatomical and physiological changes that are mostly irreversible in adulthood
- Plasticity: acquisition of appropriate responses when an individual grows up in a
particular environment.

3. Acclimatization
- forms of adaptation to environmental stresses that are usually reversible whether occur in
childhood or adulthood:
long-term acclimatization (years)
seasonal acclimatization (months)

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 short-term acclimatization (days, hours, seconds)

4. Cultural practices and technology

- Culture: total way of life of any society; includes the learned behaviours as well as the
beliefs, attitudes and values and ideal that are characteristic of a particular society or
population
- Characteristics of culture:
1. Culture is learned.
2. Culture is shared.
3. Culture is based on symbols.
4. Culture is integrated.
5. Culture is dynamic.
- Culture as a form of adaptation (Ember and Ember, 1999)
1. Many cultural behaviours are societys response to the physical environment.
2. Culture may also represent an adjustment to social environment.
3. Different societies may choose different means of adjusting to the same situation.
4. Why a society develops a particular response to a problem always requires
explanation.
5. Not all cultural traits are adaptive.
6. People may choose not to change their customs even in the face of changed
environmental circumstances.
- Cultural development:

Cultural Development System of Production Kinds of Social Organization

Hunting and gathering Extracting livelihood from the nomadic
environment by muscular
energy; use of bows and arrows
Horticulture Planting food using hoe or Permanent or semi-permanent
digging stick
Pastoralism Care of large herds of transhumance
domesticated animals
Agriculture Plows and draft animals, large- Permanent
scale and centrally controlled
irrigation networks and terracing
Industrialism machines Individuals relationship with the
machine

- Cultural adaptation: major alterations in the relationship of societies to their habitats

that result in different levels of adaptation from foraging to industrialism
Cultural adjustment: not directly or materially tied to a societys maintenance of
an adaptive relationship with its habitat; important components of cultural
adaptation.

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HUMAN BEHAVIORAL IN ITS CULTURAL CONTEXT

Culture
- the ways of thinking, the ways of acting, and the material objects that together form a
peoples way of life
- that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, laws, customs and any
other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society (Edward B. Tylor,
1871)
- complex whole: an integrated unit; the parts of the culture fit together
- acquired by man: culture is learned from the members of his or her group; there is no
biological basis for ones culture.

Society and culture are interdependent.

- There will be no culture if there are no groups of people practicing a common culture.
- Society cannot be called as such without people sharing a common culture.
- Culture binds the people together.

Components of culture:
1. Material culture (artifacts): physical objects that human beings create and give meaning
to
2. Non-material culture: Consist of abstract, intangible elements; ideas created by
members of a society
Elements of non-material culture:
1. Knowledge
- total range of what has been learned or perceived as true accumulated through
experience, study or investigation
2. Norms
- Shared rules or guidelines that prescribe the behavior appropriate in a given situation.
- define how people ought to behave under particular society
Folkways
- weaker norms
- ordinary usages and conventions of everyday life
- norms for routine or casual interaction
- deals with custom and etiquette that with critical moral principles so
conformity is expected but not absolutely insisted upon
Mores
- norms that are widely observed and have great moral significance
- crucial for the maintenance of decent and orderly society
Taboo
- specific act that is utterly loathsome; tabu (unacceptable; prohibited)
Law
- formal norm
- written or codified standards which entail very specific consequences and
as justified by certain values
- derive from and codify mores and folkways

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 Social control
- set of rules and understandings that control the behavior of individuals and
groups in a culture
Sanctions
- rewards and punishments received in following and violating norms

3. Beliefs
- ideas that people hold about the universe or any part of the total reality surrounding
them
- specific thoughts or ideas that people hold to be true

4. Values
- culturally defined standards that people use to decide what is desirable, good, and
beautiful and that serve as broad guidelines for social living

5. Language
- system of symbols that allows people to communicate with one another
- allows communication but also a key to cultural transmission (the process by
- which one generation passes culture to the next)
Symbol anything that carries a particular meaning recognized by people
who share a culture.
Sapir-Whorf thesis states that people see and understand the world through
the cultural lens of language.
Strengths (Filipino Character):
1. Pakikipagkapwa
2. Family orientation
3. Faith and religiosity
4. Joy and Humor

Weaknesses (Filipino Character)

1. Extreme Personalism
2. Extreme Family-centeredness
3. Lack of discipline
4. Passivity and lack of initiative

Other concepts on culture:

Culture shock: personal disorientation when experiencing an unfamiliar way of life
Technology: knowledge that people use to make a way of life in their surroundings
Cultural diversity
- reflects regional differences, differences in social class that set off high culture (available
only to elites) from popular culture (available to average people)

Cultural change results from:

invention process of creating new cultural elements
discovery involves recognizing and understanding more fully something already in existence
diffusion the spread of cultural traits from one society to another

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Ethnocentrism: the practice of judging another culture by the standards of ones own culture
Cultural relativism: the practice of judging a culture by its own standards
Multiculturalism: an effort to enhance appreciation of cultural diversity
Subculture: culture based on differences in interests and life experiences
Counterculture: strongly at odds with conventional ways of life

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