Subscribe to America`s largest dictionary and get thousands of other definitions and an advanced search – ad-free! Similarly, some scholars have suggested that Middle Paleolithic societies such as Neanderthal societies may have practiced the earliest form of totemism or animal worship in addition to their (probably religious) burial of the dead. The South Caucasus was occupied by about 1,700,000 BP, and northern China was reached by about 1,660,000 BP. At the end of the Upper Paleolithic, members of the hominid family lived in present-day China, western Indonesia and Europe around the Mediterranean Sea and as far as England, France, southern Germany and Bulgaria. Their northward expansion may have been limited by the lack of fire control: studies of cave colonies in Europe suggest that about 400,000 – approximately. 300,000 BP no regular lights were used. [28] They come from the so-called prehistoric culture of the Upper Paleolithic. Some sources argue that most Middle and Upper Paleolithic societies may have been fundamentally egalitarian.[3][24][46][61] and rarely or never engaged in organized violence between groups (i.e., war). [46] [62] [63] [64] Some Upper Paleolithic societies in resource-rich environments (such as the Sungir societies in present-day Russia) may have had a more complex and hierarchical organization (such as tribes with a distinct hierarchy and somewhat formal division of labor) and may have fought endemic wars. [46] [65] Some argue that there was no formal leadership during the Middle and Upper Paleolithic. Like contemporary egalitarian hunter-gatherers like the Mguti pygmies, societies may have made decisions by community consensus, rather than appointing permanent leaders such as chiefs and monarchs. [6] Even in the Paleolithic, there was no formal division of labor. Each member of the group was qualified for all vital tasks, regardless of their individual abilities. Theories explaining apparent egalitarianism emerged, particularly the Marxist concept of primitive communism.
[66] [67] Christopher Boehm (1999) hypothesized that egalitarianism may have developed in Paleolithic societies because resources such as food and meat must be evenly distributed to avoid starvation and ensure a stable food supply. [68] Raymond v. Kelly speculates that the relative peace of Middle and Upper Paleolithic societies is due to low population density, cooperative relationships between groups such as mutual exchange of goods and cooperation in hunting expeditions, and because the invention of projectile weapons such as throwing spears provided less incentive for war because they increased the damage inflicted on the aggressor. and reduces the relative number of territories the attackers were able to gain. [64] However, other sources claim that most Paleolithic groups were larger, more complex, sedentary, and warlike than most contemporary hunter-gatherer societies, as they occupied more resource-rich areas than most modern hunter-gatherers, who were pushed into more marginal habitats by agricultural societies. [69] Anthropologists have different opinions about the proportion of plant and animal foods consumed. Just as with hunter-gatherers who still existed, there were many different “diets” in different groups, which also varied during this great period. There is evidence that Paleolithic peoples killed and ate seals and elands up to about 100,000 BP. Excavations in Gona, Ethiopia, have yielded thousands of artifacts and, thanks to radioisotope dating and magnetostratigraphy, the sites can be dated with certainty to 2.6 million years ago. Evidence shows that these early hominids deliberately chose rough stone with good chipping properties and chose stones suitable for their needs to make sharp tools for cutting.
[32] Paleolithic hunter-gatherers ate varying proportions of vegetables (including tubers and roots), fruits, seeds (including nuts and seeds of wild herbs), insects, meat, fish and crustaceans. [102] [103] However, there is little direct evidence of the relative proportions of plant and animal foods. [104] Although the term “Paleolithic diet” is sometimes used without reference to a specific time or place, implying that most people shared a particular diet throughout the era, this is not entirely accurate.
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