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Global Change Textbook Module - Human Evolution and Environment

 

                             From Richard I. Ford

 

My proposed contribution to the book will consist of four chapters.  Each is discussed and outlined below.

 

Chapter 1. The Stages of Hominid Evolution

 

            This chapter will organize the details we have about hominid evolution into stages.  Each will be organized around these topics: anatomical characteristics, geographical occurrences, subsistence, technology, social organization, and ability to symbol.  Each stage will be linked by a time line to show how long each stage lasted and how all changes accelerated from stage to stage.

 

            Stage 1: Australopithecines and their radiation

 

            Stage 2: Homo. It will begin with Homo habilis, introduce tool use (Oldowan) pebble tools, demise of Australopithecines

 

            Stage 3:  Homo ergaster and the First Out of Africa. Beginning of  handaxes. Homo erectus in tropical and temperate regions of Old World. Domestication of fire

 

            Stage 4: Archaic Homo sapiens, the emergence of modern Homo sapiens, the Neanderthal Question, and the Second Out of Africa.  This will set the stage for migrations to Australia, the Arctic, and the Western Hemisphere.

 

 

Chapter 2. The Environmental Consequences of Early Technology

 

            This chapter will examine increased efficiency of the evolution of tools, the conservation of raw material and human energy, the expanded use of resources from the environment, and the use of technology to transform the environment on a continental scale.

 

            Two case studies will be used to illustrate these points.  The first will be use of fire and technology to exterminate the megafauna of Australia when the first hominids arrived by water, ca. 50,000 years ago. Similar events at a more recent time will be mentioned for Hawaii, New Zealand.  The second will be the extinction of megafauna in the Western Hemisphere and the controversy over human agency (PaleoIndians) vs. climatic change.

 

Chapter 3. Agriculture, Colonialism, and  Maladaptation

 

            This chapter has unique material of its own but will also serve as an introduction to the section on population and demography that follow. It will review the reasons for the beginnings of domestication of plants and animals in different parts of the world and the genetic and biological consequences. It will use this information as a basis for discussing changes in human adaptation, the increase in population, changing social arrangements from pedestrian  hunters and gatherers to sedentary farmers.  It will show how more complex societies depend upon larger populations to support more varied social configurations.  It will reveal a correlation between population size and more elaborate social organizations.  It will use a simple social evolution scale from bands (hunters and gatherers), to tribes ( small-scale subsistence farmers) to chiefdoms with social inequality (surplus agriculture) to states (elaborate agriculture and plant breeding) to empires (the conquest of states and the capitol to explore new lands).

 

            It will examine various examples of colonial systems – migration to state sponsored exploration. It will discuss problems related to maladaptaion – environmental destruction or failure to adjust to changing environments.  Examples from Easter Island and the Norse colonies on Greenland will be used. To construct these examples the scientific evidence used by scientists will be highlighted – ice cores, pollen cores, archaeological plant and animal remains. The biological consequences of long distance colonization – introduction of new foods, diseases, pathogens, and organisms will highlight death and biological homogenization.

 

Chapter 4. Environmental Justice: A Double Edged Sword

 

            Environmental justice has two parts, both related to political and economic power. One is injustice when one group imposes without local discussion or permission decisions about the content and structure of the environment where other people live. The impact can be in the United States or abroad. These can range from removing resources - minerals, water – to installing industries that produce harmful pollutants.  It can be dumping toxic waste on property used by people who are unaware of potential health problems. In the United States numerous examples will be used ranging from coal or uranium mining to building chemical plants to the dumping of industrial waste.  Similar procedures happen abroad where environmental laws are weaker or rarely enforced.

 

            The tables can be turned, however.  Previously weak communities can gain leverage to control their political and physical environments without consulting others who might object or be harmed.  This can result from new political authority or economic resources. New water quality laws allow Native American political entities to make regulations that upstream users have to follow. New sources of revenue from casinos can permit them to make decisions about their land without regard to neighbors. With political clout and economic leverage, the disadvantaged can dictate environmental justice to achieve their interests.  Many examples of “turning the tables” exist. This chapter will emphasize how some Native Americans nations have gained political and economic control over their natural resources and determine the policies that apply to their land use.