The Spirit in Human Evolution - Waldorf Research Institute

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to the usual evolutionary pattern of successful species with wide distribution, namely that they arise in a single place and spread out from there. As Gould puts it, “No one envisions proto-rats on all continents evolving together towards improved ratitude.” 13 Nevertheless, how the Great Leap Forward, 14 as Jared Diamond calls it, occurred, is an unresolved evolutionary question. I will now examine what anatomy and behavior reveal to us of the Modern stage of becoming human. The “Ariadne’s Thread” I will endeavour to follow, into and back out of the labyrinth, will link various aspects of the emancipation principle working through the human spirit. It is this approach which is the main anthroposophical contribution to the subject. Fig 8.2 A diagram showing the correlation between genetic and linguistic genealogies (after Cavalli- Sforza). _________________________ 13 Gould, S.J., “In the Mind of the Beholder,” in Natural History, February 1994, pp14–23. 14 Diamond, J., The Rise and Fall of the Third Chimpanzee, 1991. 244
A Modern Anatomy Anatomically modern people have widely variable body shapes as is apparent every time one sits in the London Tube (subway), and yet we all have sufficient similarities to distinguish us from all previous human or hominid species. The differences between short, stocky Pygmies and the extremely tall, slender Nilotic peoples whose traditional homelands are only a few hundred kilometers from each other in central equatorial Africa, highlight the fact that plasticity is a major characteristic of Modern anatomies. Many, though not all, of these differences are due to climate and other biogeographic factors. These traits may evolve relatively quickly, as the case of the Pygmies demonstrates. It appears that the development of the Pygmy physique is a relatively recent adaptation to living in a rain forest environment. The rain forests of central Africa are thought to have been first inhabited as recently as 10,000 BP and the Pygmies may have moved into the forests at a time when agriculture began in the surrounding plains. A further example of the rapidity of human physical adaptation is the enormous variation among the Native North American peoples, most of whom are assumed to have evolved from small founder groups of migrants from Asia within the past 15,000 years. In even less time, the Inuit/Eskimo peoples have evolved their recognizable cold-adapted short, squat body-shape to conserve body heat and broad nose to protect the brain by warming incoming air. If further proof of Modern abilities to adapt physically in relatively short evolutionary times is needed, we have the many examples of skin color and hair type, both of which have a close relationship to climate and particularly the amount and intensity of sunlight. 15 Skin Deep Dark skin provides protection against high levels of ultraviolet radiation through sunlight. Obviously this is an advantage in the tropics. In northern latitudes, however, it is a distinct disadvantage because dark pigmentation inhibits the formation of vitamin D 3 in the skin which is critical to calcium metabolism and bone building. Lack of vitamin D 3 during pregnancy can lead to a drain on the mother’s resources. In childhood this can lead to conditions such as rickets in which normal growth is limited, causing girls to develop small pelvises, which in turn can lead to a high risk of death during childbirth. On the other hand too much sun without pigment protection can be harmful: sunburn, depletion of various vitamins and nutrients leading to loss of fertility, and skin cancer. There is, however, no absolute correlation between black pigmentation and geographical regions of high ultraviolet radiation levels. Tasmanian peoples, now sadly extinct, were almost as dark skinned as their tropical Aborigine relatives despite living for millennia in a climate comparable with Northern Europe. The peoples of the Central American Andes do not have dark skins despite living in an area of the highest ultra-violet levels. Behavior certainly plays a role in this. Most peoples including such desert specialists as the Khoisan, avoid the noonday sun or wear protective clothing like the Tuaregs in the Sahara. Indeed, apart from the extremes of fair Scandinavians and very black peoples of Ethiopia or the Negritos of Southeast Asia, most peoples tend to _________________________ 15 For a full discussion of the nature of human physical adaptation and in particular skin color, eye color, hair types, facial features, body hair and adaptations to high altitudes, see Jonathan Kingdon, 1993, Chapter 6. 245
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The S pirit in Human Evolution M a
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Published by: The Association of Wa
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Foreword The Evolution of a Book A
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and education studies to university
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12 in evolution and creationism by
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not the case development could not
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to expression in the developing ind
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The distinction is important. For a
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Chapter 1 Self-Knowledge, Truth and
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distinction between knower and know
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have taken from our earliest beginn
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The biologists, anthropologists and
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Later still the young person will w
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science reveals such a universe. As
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Changing Views of Change How did th
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in the twentieth century, despite t
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Psychologists and therapists are fa
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human origins amply demonstrates. T
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careers being made from the discove
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to the human being and not only as
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in breaking a human cell down into
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I have to admit that reductionist t
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species, at some age, season or yea
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The classic (because extreme but by
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phylogenetic history of humankind,
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Mind Matters The reader will have n
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iology by Ernst Mayr to describe go
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Stories Despite the universal rejec
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follows: the evolutionary stream fr
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cultures … ought to produce creat
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66 animal, by stating what the one
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This is a harsh judgment, and I wou
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I have no judgment as to what exten
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The impotence of Darwinian theory i
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etheric forces, in contrast to the
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obviously has a deep evolutionary h
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This is the very heart of the probl
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complex phenomena and having a sens
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part of the organism itself. This c
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interaction between groups of neura
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When human beings are only beginnin
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world, during which the “new cont
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external reality of the senses, but
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of such ancestors as seemed best fi
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Chapter 4 First Steps Over a period
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Fig 4.1 Time chart showing the curr
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Planet of the Apes Ten million year
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apes and thus ideal conditions for
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“lake.” It is highly likely tha
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Fig 4.5 Lucy: a reconstruction of t
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genetic processes. The organism may
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evolved rapid digestion of high pro
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other mammals who were originally t
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Therefore the possibility of one fo
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evolution? Is not this not spiritua
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to experience the separation of sub
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Chapter 5 Lucy, Flatface and Friend
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Small, Clever, and Alert If we assu
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than in the elephant expresses the
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Fig 5.1 Comparison of what several
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Fig 5.2 Comparison of australopithe
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is, the smaller animal would make m
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Bifacial Chopper Hammer Stone Disco
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Fig 5.6b Examples of pebble tools A
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Fig 5.7 Diagram showing an example
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early Homo. Australopithecines arou
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anches of trees out of sight of the
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Now it is true that, at the level o
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How did this increase come about? W
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expansion of brain size, especially
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That is exactly what the spirit doe
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to such environmental pressures, th
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Apes have the least birthing proble
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Space does not permit fuller discus
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Eternal Embryo It was that widely r
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Though infant fossils from earlier
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The degree of juvenilization seems
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Fig 5.12 A schematic representation
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that animals pass through the equiv
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What we know of human life historie
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The Nature of Imitation The actual
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Chapter 6 Working Man Making fossil
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Fig 6.1 The Trinil thighbone (right
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Fig 6.3 These fossils skulls have a
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New Dates for Out of Africa In 1989
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Whatever the dates or the route, th
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for niches. Then later in drier cyc
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As mentioned above, in apes birthin
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With the onset of the wet season, d
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Making or Just Using Fire? A “mid
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mental pictures and all the concept
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The studies show an almost perfect
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ather than the core which was disca
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Page 195 and 196: Language: a Formative Principle The
Page 197 and 198: Fig 6.10 A drawing showing a compar
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Page 203 and 204: extremely simple, others highly com
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Page 207 and 208: Most of these processes involve rep
Page 209 and 210: Charles Darwin was the first to poi
Page 211 and 212: Language and Culture As we have see
Page 213 and 214: Chapter 7 The Ancients: an Overview
Page 215 and 216: Not only have the remains of some 3
Page 217 and 218: Fig 7.3 A range of fossil skulls in
Page 219 and 220: The Levallois Technique A quite dif
Page 221 and 222: immediate environment. We experienc
Page 223 and 224: Darwinian psychology or socio-biolo
Page 225 and 226: The Archaics: refers to hominids in
Page 227 and 228: Paleolithic cultures. At High Lodge
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Page 233 and 234: The Impact of the Ancients on Their
Page 235 and 236: Perhaps the most compelling evidenc
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Page 239 and 240: Chapter 8 The Moderns Over the last
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Page 249 and 250: Certainly the genetic evidence sugg
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Page 263 and 264: paintings in the Chauvet Cave in th
Page 265 and 266: Fig 8.11 The “portrait” carving
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Page 269 and 270: The Fall But this emancipation was
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Page 273 and 274: Fig 8.13 A collection of handprints
Page 275 and 276: A C B D E Fig 8.15b A compilation o
Page 277 and 278: Fig 8.16 A detail from the Panel of
Page 279 and 280: The circumstances of the finds in t
Page 281 and 282: The Gravettian/Pavlovian Phase (27,
Page 283 and 284: A C B D Fig 8.25 Venus or Gaia figu
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Page 287 and 288: Fig 8.30 The shaft scene from Lasca
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We have absolutely no way of knowin
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however they were distinguishing th
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Fig 8.38 Map showing the areas of S
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Western Asia, but otherwise both Mo
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species, as I have shown in the exa
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portion of his brothers behind on t
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too did hominids. The higher, or mo
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Chapter 9 Postscript Day by day imp
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Glossary Abbreviations: BP = before
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flora: the plant life in a given ec
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Moderns: informal term referring to
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Bibliography Further Reading The li
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Edelman, G.M., 1992, Bright Air, Br
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www.modernhumanorigins.com a very u
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