Been watching documentaries on and reading about earliest Homo Sapiens out of Africa. 50-70,000 years ago. General concensus is there were two waves of migrations. First wave went through southern part of Arabia, skirting coast, to India, Indonesia, and to Australia. One branch went to central Asia. From here, some went westward to Europe. When the first homo sapiens arrived in Europe, there was already a large existing population of Neandertals there. Eventually, they displaced them, even though the Neandertals had larger, stronger bodies, and larger brains, with no evidence their technology was lesser. One possibility was that they did not have an advanced form of communication (language) and that they could not see larger ideas (no proof they fashioned musical instruments or carved figurines or painted).
One branch from central Asia migrated towards Siberia and eventually took the land bridge route to North America. All Native Americans from North to South originate from as few as 10 individuals, all of which could perhaps have arrived in a single band.
- My thoughts? I think they had religion. I think it was based on a water culture. Why do I think that? When the first group migrated out of Africa, it hugged the coastlines all around the middle east and continued to hug it down the Indian subcontinent. They could have gone inland, but I think part of their religion had to do with a water god or gods. They migrate along the coastline for thousands of miles, from Africa to India to Malaysia, and eventually Australia. The big questions is: How did they make that final 120-150 mile journey to Australia? There's no two ways about it; they had to have boat technology. But, having the technology and the savvy to make such a major crossing and in strong numbers suggests a faith that doing so will result in the fulfillment of some devine design. We're not talking about a few men and at least one woman that were fishing and got blown away from shore and somehow survived by being blown to Australia. I believe they were convinced as a tribe to make a seafaring journey into the sunset and the unknown sea. I don't think it was an accident. I don't think they were pushed/forced out to the water. I think religious devotion drove them. Perhaps they were following signs. Perhaps a religious man persuaded them that's what the gods wanted. Perhaps they believed that a 'promised land' of plenty lay across the waters somewhere?
I think that when our first ancestors left Africa, they kept along the shores of Arabia because there was water available and food found washed up or fished from the oceans. By the time they had made it to India, their culture had changed enough that even thought they could have migrated inland, they stayed by the coast because they had become fishermen. It had started out as a necessity and become a way of life. There's no evidence the first men out of Africa knew how to fish or boat, but by the time they were in India they were hugging the coasts when they no longer had to, and by the time they got to Malaysia they had to know how to boat in order to make the crossing to Australia.
Bottom lines: All blood outside Africa has markers to those in Africa. Aborigines have African markers. There are some in India with an Australian marker, but the aborigines don't have any from them. This means some in India were the stepping stone to and not from Australia. All Europeans have a marker from central Asia, but not vice versa, meaning that's where they originated. From central Asia, two groups fanned out. One went northeast and ended up in America. The other went southeast and ended up in China.
What intrigues me is that when the first homo sapien Europeans arrived, there were large existing groups of Neandertals living there. I assume they also came out of Africa, but when and how? It has been suggested that a common ancestor existed between homo sapiens and neandertals about 550,000 years ago.
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So, why do we choose clothes? Is it because we don't have fur anymore? At some point, we lost fur for a reason. Is this a chicken-or-egg question? Did we lose fur because we started wearing clothes or start wearing clothes because we started losing fur? It's not as easy to answer as it seems at first.
Did we start wearing clothes because we had no choice or because we gained some sense of shyness about our nakedness? Even today, in remote tribes, a small g-string or other type of simple clothing is worn over the genitals. Is it for reasons of shyness or practicality? Do we have greater peace of mind when we don't have to think about insects or other things getting in our private parts, or do we not want to share with the whole world the size/shape of our genitals? It it's the latter, it's because we generally feel inadequate to those around us physically? Is it a partially a bit of each? The greatest hunter isn't necessarily the one with the largest penus. The best lover likewise. The best at anything isn't necessarily the one with the biggest penus and this could be extrapolated socially to teach that although impressive to behold, the largest penus has little bearing in most of life's abilities to survive, beside securing the most-sought-after female. Was clothing covering up a vagina dictated by the males, basically stating 'this is off limits'?
Original Hominids.... From Eurasia and not Africa?
A number of faunal groups don't originate in Africa. This includes giraffes, elephants, and rodents. They appear to originate from Greece and Iran, as do much of the African savanna fauna. There are valid reasons to suppose, given logical migration paths that the more likely scenario for hominid involvement is an original Into Africa migration path 18-20 Ma. Obviously, this was before the evolution of any bipedal homo species development (which occured 4.6-6.2Ma). The point is that it is entirely likely that most/all ape groups migrated into Africa from Eurasia before their evolution into different groups.
The famous "Lucy" skeleton discovered in the early 1970's was an Australopithecus. She was an early link in the chain that would lead to modern humans, but she was far from recognizably human. She looked more like a chimpanzee. However, the shape of her feet were human and the shape of her pelvis were definitely human, and as a result of both was bipedal (walked upright). She lived about 3 Ma. Others like her found that females averaged 3'3", while males averaged 4'10", a big difference in size between the sexes.
The first of the Homo line, habilis, lived about 1.8Ma. It was a tool maker. Habilis evolved into ergaster, from which erectus (which went to Asia), and neanderthalus (which went mostly to Europe), derive.
One branch from central Asia migrated towards Siberia and eventually took the land bridge route to North America. All Native Americans from North to South originate from as few as 10 individuals, all of which could perhaps have arrived in a single band.
- My thoughts? I think they had religion. I think it was based on a water culture. Why do I think that? When the first group migrated out of Africa, it hugged the coastlines all around the middle east and continued to hug it down the Indian subcontinent. They could have gone inland, but I think part of their religion had to do with a water god or gods. They migrate along the coastline for thousands of miles, from Africa to India to Malaysia, and eventually Australia. The big questions is: How did they make that final 120-150 mile journey to Australia? There's no two ways about it; they had to have boat technology. But, having the technology and the savvy to make such a major crossing and in strong numbers suggests a faith that doing so will result in the fulfillment of some devine design. We're not talking about a few men and at least one woman that were fishing and got blown away from shore and somehow survived by being blown to Australia. I believe they were convinced as a tribe to make a seafaring journey into the sunset and the unknown sea. I don't think it was an accident. I don't think they were pushed/forced out to the water. I think religious devotion drove them. Perhaps they were following signs. Perhaps a religious man persuaded them that's what the gods wanted. Perhaps they believed that a 'promised land' of plenty lay across the waters somewhere?
I think that when our first ancestors left Africa, they kept along the shores of Arabia because there was water available and food found washed up or fished from the oceans. By the time they had made it to India, their culture had changed enough that even thought they could have migrated inland, they stayed by the coast because they had become fishermen. It had started out as a necessity and become a way of life. There's no evidence the first men out of Africa knew how to fish or boat, but by the time they were in India they were hugging the coasts when they no longer had to, and by the time they got to Malaysia they had to know how to boat in order to make the crossing to Australia.
Bottom lines: All blood outside Africa has markers to those in Africa. Aborigines have African markers. There are some in India with an Australian marker, but the aborigines don't have any from them. This means some in India were the stepping stone to and not from Australia. All Europeans have a marker from central Asia, but not vice versa, meaning that's where they originated. From central Asia, two groups fanned out. One went northeast and ended up in America. The other went southeast and ended up in China.
What intrigues me is that when the first homo sapien Europeans arrived, there were large existing groups of Neandertals living there. I assume they also came out of Africa, but when and how? It has been suggested that a common ancestor existed between homo sapiens and neandertals about 550,000 years ago.
-----
So, why do we choose clothes? Is it because we don't have fur anymore? At some point, we lost fur for a reason. Is this a chicken-or-egg question? Did we lose fur because we started wearing clothes or start wearing clothes because we started losing fur? It's not as easy to answer as it seems at first.
Did we start wearing clothes because we had no choice or because we gained some sense of shyness about our nakedness? Even today, in remote tribes, a small g-string or other type of simple clothing is worn over the genitals. Is it for reasons of shyness or practicality? Do we have greater peace of mind when we don't have to think about insects or other things getting in our private parts, or do we not want to share with the whole world the size/shape of our genitals? It it's the latter, it's because we generally feel inadequate to those around us physically? Is it a partially a bit of each? The greatest hunter isn't necessarily the one with the largest penus. The best lover likewise. The best at anything isn't necessarily the one with the biggest penus and this could be extrapolated socially to teach that although impressive to behold, the largest penus has little bearing in most of life's abilities to survive, beside securing the most-sought-after female. Was clothing covering up a vagina dictated by the males, basically stating 'this is off limits'?
Original Hominids.... From Eurasia and not Africa?
A number of faunal groups don't originate in Africa. This includes giraffes, elephants, and rodents. They appear to originate from Greece and Iran, as do much of the African savanna fauna. There are valid reasons to suppose, given logical migration paths that the more likely scenario for hominid involvement is an original Into Africa migration path 18-20 Ma. Obviously, this was before the evolution of any bipedal homo species development (which occured 4.6-6.2Ma). The point is that it is entirely likely that most/all ape groups migrated into Africa from Eurasia before their evolution into different groups.
The famous "Lucy" skeleton discovered in the early 1970's was an Australopithecus. She was an early link in the chain that would lead to modern humans, but she was far from recognizably human. She looked more like a chimpanzee. However, the shape of her feet were human and the shape of her pelvis were definitely human, and as a result of both was bipedal (walked upright). She lived about 3 Ma. Others like her found that females averaged 3'3", while males averaged 4'10", a big difference in size between the sexes.
The first of the Homo line, habilis, lived about 1.8Ma. It was a tool maker. Habilis evolved into ergaster, from which erectus (which went to Asia), and neanderthalus (which went mostly to Europe), derive.
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