This Fleeting World

Beginnings: The Era of Foragers
that are definitely of modern humans
Topics for Further Study
date from around 160,000 years ago.
Archaeology
However, archaeologists can extract a
Human Evolution
surprising amount of information from
Human Genetics
fragmentary skeletal remains. A close
study of teeth, for example, can tell us
Paleoanthropology
much about diets, and diets can tell us Paleolithic Art and Artifacts
much about the lifeways of early humans.
Similarly, differences in size between the skeletons of males and
females can tell us something about gender relations. By studying fossilized
pollens and core samples taken from seabeds and ice sheets that have built
up during thousands of years, archaeologists have managed to reconstruct
climatic and environmental changes with increasing precision. In addition,
the dating techniques developed during the last fifty years have given us
increasingly precise dates, which allow us to construct absolute chronologies
of events during the entire span of human history.
Although archaeological evidence tells us mostly about the material
life of our ancestors, it can occasionally give us tantalizing glimpses into
their cultural and even spiritual lives. Particularly revealing are the astonishing
artistic creations of early human communities, although precise
Thought Experiment
People try to understand their place in the Universe and don’t always
agree. Consider the view of author Mark Twain (1835–1910), who
wrote that humans would always see themselves as the center of the
Universe—or at least the whole of history. In his 1903 essay, “Was
the World Made for Man?” he wrote, “If the Eiffel Tower were now
representing the world’s age, the skin of paint on the pinnacle-knob
at its summit would represent man’s share of that age, and anybody
would perceive that that skin was what the tower was built for. I
reckon they would.” Now imagine responding to Mark Twain’s essay.
Do we humans always have to see ourselves as the center of the
Universe? Or do you think you could suggest another perspective?
Does it matter how we see our place in the Universe?