ABSTRACT
This chapter will deal primarily with the theme of human evolution. Since this topic is widely studied and debated, the text will make available to the readers all major historiographical dimensions under which the issue of human evolution has been analysed. Human evolution will be explained through the prism of interrelationship between biological and cultural evolution. The role of environment in the human evolution too will be given its due space in the text as the increase and decrease in the temperature had its corresponding impact on the flora and fauna necessitating changes in the adaptive strategies of the contemporary human species. The description of the origin of the human species will include biological and cultural attributes of primitive primates, advanced primates, the Hominoidea (apes and humans), Pongidae (apes), and Hominidae (earliest hominids and human-like creatures).
The major thrust of the chapter is on the cultural development of the early human species particularly tool-making and other cultural attributes. This will essentially involve a discussion on Palaeolithic tool cultures, beginning with the primitive Oldowan of the lower Palaeolithic period and concluding with advanced tool cultures of the upper Palaeolithic period developed by the modern Homo sapiens. The recent historiographical debates on the tool culture of early humans will be contextually embedded in the text. Palaeolithic art, a significant marker of the intellectual evolution of early humans along with their modern interpretations, will form the concluding part of the discussion on human evolution.
The concluding portion of the chapter will deal with the post-Pleistocene human adaptations in Northern Europe for which a specific term ‘Mesolithic’ has been used and is often considered a transitional phase between Palaeolithic and Neolithic cultures in this part of the ancient world. While analysing human development under different Mesolithic cultures in Northern Europe, an attempt will be made to bring out a paradigm shift in the historiography related to this phase of human history. The chapter will conclude with a comparative analysis of contemporary developments in Northern Europe and Southwest Asia.
