Primitive people. What were they like? What did they look like and what did they do? Scientists are sure that they have found comprehensive answers to these questions, but is it so?.. In this article, we will also find out where wild people live today.
First wild people on Earth
Ancient people, that is, their very first and wildest species, appeared about 2.5 million years ago. According to Darwin's theory, they are descended from australopithecines, which are higher primates. They originated 3.5-2 million years ago in Africa. The southern monkeys, as the australopithecines were called, had small brains and massive jaws. They could already hold objects like stones or sticks in their hands and even move in an upright position.
Mutations occurred in their genes, resulting in two species - Homo erectus and Homo erectus.
Homo erectus - humans or animals?
Homo erectus is the first wild man to come to Europe. It is difficult to say exactly when he did this, since historians indicate different dates. These ancient people gathered in small tribes and performed elementary actions:hunted, built themselves primitive huts. They used fire, although they did not know how to produce it. More socially advanced than their predecessors, they already buried the dead and even worshiped certain types of animals.
The appearance of Homo erectus was more like the appearance of monkeys - a low, sloping forehead, the absence of a chin. The right hand is more developed than the left. Nevertheless, they still resembled their ancestors in appearance and habits - a body covered with hair, corresponding to the size of the arms and legs, communication through gestures and shouts.
200,000 years ago, wild primitive people appeared on the territory of Europe - Neanderthals. Having lived a quarter of a million years on Earth, they suddenly disappeared, scientists are still scratching their heads over this mystery.
Neanderthals: who are they and why did they disappear?
Neanderthals got their name from the Neanderthal cave in Germany, where one of the few skulls of representatives of this genus was found. Today, scientists are sure that they are not direct descendants of people, but rather, their relatives. Their gene is present in the DNA of a modern person (it was not found only in Africans) in an amount from 1 to 4%. Today, scientists admit that the Cro-Magnons, the true descendants of modern man, actually did not come after the Neanderthals, but lived with them at the same time for about 20,000 years. This suggests that the species may have mixed.
Why did the Neanderthals die out? There are many versions, but none of them has found reliable confirmation. Some are sure that everything is to blameThe Ice Age, others - that another wild man arranged for them - Homo sapiens - as a more enduring and intellectually developed species. But the fact remains - the Neanderthals died out, while the Cro-Magnons were more capable of development.
Cro-Magnons, or Homo sapiens
Cro-Magnons is the common name for the ancestors of modern man. Their development differed significantly from that of their predecessors, and their appearance bears little resemblance to modern humans. Cro-Magnons in a broader sense are often called Homo sapiens (reasonable person). It is this definition that we will use below.
The most complete and earliest skulls of this species were found in Ethiopia, their age is about 160,000 years. This wild man had an almost complete external resemblance to modern man - superciliary arches are not very pronounced, a bulging forehead and a smooth face. The species was named Homo sapiens adultu, that is, the oldest people on Earth. Thus, California scientists found that the first people appeared on Earth about 200,000 years ago in Africa, and then spread throughout the planet. At the beginning of the Upper Paleolithic (about 40,000 years ago), their habitat already covered almost the entire planet.
Life of wild people
Despite the fact that almost 2,000,000 years have passed since the appearance of the first man on Earth, archaeologists have accurately recreated his life. So, it is known for certain that initially people lived in small communities, since in the harsh conditions of those times, a person simply survives alone.could not. Even then, everyone had their own rights and obligations, and the booty was common. A stick and a sharp stone served as a weapon and a getter.
The wild man led a nomadic life, constantly moving from place to place in search of food. He set up a camp not far from watering holes, which made it easier to hunt for a future dinner. Since there were no necessary tools for building a dwelling, caves and gorges served as the houses of the community. Over time, more and more waste accumulated around the cave, forcing people to move to another.
Even then, fire was tamed by man, so he was carefully guarded by him in the caves day and night.
The first city on Earth was built in 3400 BC. He was in South America and was called Real Alto. This city is the same age as the Egyptian pyramids. Interestingly, the houses in the city are built with mathematical precision, as if his plan was conceived and drawn in advance.
How did the wild people dress?
What kind of clothes did ancient wild people wear and did they wear them at all? About 170,000 years ago, man first thought about clothing. According to scientists, it was she who helped him go beyond warm Africa and migrate to places with a colder climate. What is most interesting, the study of the evolution of … lice helped to find out. Body lice parasitize only on clothes, respectively, their occurrence is directly related to the first clothes of wild people. Scientists from Florida, having conducted this original experiment, confirmed that ancient people began to wear clothes not 100, but 170 thousand years ago. At the same time, people lost their hairline, which served as a certain protection, 100,000 years before. "It's amazing how they could live so long without hair or clothes," says David Reed, head of the University of Florida science team.
Initially, the clothes of wild people could serve as more magical protection from outside threats than protection from the cold. The first materials for clothing of primitive people are fibers and skins. After they were supplemented with various fasteners - claws, fangs of animals, feathers.
In the mid-90s, burials of teenagers were found in the present-day Vladimir region, whose clothes resembled the clothes of modern northern peoples. While in the Alps in the 90s, an ice figure of a man “Ötzi” was found, whose clothes consisted of animal skins, straw and fresh grass.
Wild people today
We are the children of civilization, but many tribes still live on the planet, which still remain at the same, primitive level of development. Most are the wild people of Africa and the Amazon, for whom time has frozen for thousands of years. Consider the most primitive of them.
- The Sentinelese, who live on the island of Sentinel between India and Thailand, is a fairly large community of about 300 people. They have a unique ability to predict natural disasters. Researchers have been trying to establish contact with them for a long time, but to no avail. They go fishinggathering and hunting.
- Masai. Numerous and aggressive African tribe with a special custom - from childhood they cut and pull the upper lip to insert discs into it. The tribe thrives on polygamy, which, with a small number of men, has become necessary.
- A group of Nicobar and Andamanese tribes are cannibals who live by raiding each other. Some, however, have to carry out acts of cannibalism only on holidays, as the "supply of food" is replenished very slowly.
- And finally, the Piraha, the least developed and most friendly tribe. The Piraha language is considered the most primitive, as it lacks most of the notation. In addition, the tribe is devoid of its own mythology.
Conclusion
As you can see, tribes of wild people still exist today. They eschew modern people and avoid civilization in every possible way, treating researchers with distrust and aggression. However, gradually they become less and less, and one day they will completely disappear from the face of the earth, giving way to civilization.
