The Spirit in Human Evolution - Waldorf Research Institute

Fig. 5.11 The motif of uprightness in hominid skulls. A range of hominid skulls from australopithecine to
modern Homo, showing the increasing verticality of the skull and retention of juvenile traits. Each grade
shows types which are closer to the modern human profile and others that are more robust band significantly
further removed from this juvenile archetype (diagram adapted and updated from Schad, 1985).
a change from more apelike to more human forms. Between the typological stages there
is no obvious direct genetic continuity. This second discontinuous rhythm of evolution
could be said to flow in the opposite direction of the first. The second trend works, as it
were, out of the future and creates morphologically ever-younger forms. The first trend,
that which has to do with the maturation process, clearly works out of the past and has
a direct causal nature. Taking the juvenile Homo sapiens-like form as a measure, Schad
transformed Schindewolf’s diagram (Fig. 5.10) to show the nature of these two streams
more clearly (Fig. 5.11).
As we now know, the lineage of modern humans, once thought to be at the top
of the trunk of the tree of life, actually resembles a complex bush. Since all the known
grades overlap with each other, the actual genetic lineage remains largely unclear. It is
likely to have proceeded amongst those hominids nearest the branching points and the
mechanism by which the mutations that led to new speciation occurred was most likely in
that archetypal phase of ontological development, namely in the embryo. Heterochronous
events in the embryonic development, probably caused at the genetic level by the
retardation or acceleration of aspects of growth, led to the morphological changes. At the
cultural/behavioral level, similar variation, in particular prolonging of developmental
stages, enabled hominids to become human by extending the period of protection from
selectionary pressure long enough for the formative forces to free themselves for higher
development.
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