The Origin of Us- Spread of Humans, Ancient African Languages, Stone Tools and Cognition

One of the enduring questions of human origins is when, where and how we "Behaviorally Modern Humans" emerged and why and how we eventually replaced all the other human-like species. This series takes a fresh look at the situation today with a critical examination of the available evidence from multiple sources. Ofer Bar-Yosef (Harvard Univ) leads off with a talk about Evidence for the Spread of Modern Humans, followed by Christopher Ehret (UCLA) on Relationships of Ancient African Languages, and Iain Davidson (Univ of New England, Australia) on Stone Tools and Cognition: Lessons from Australia. [7/2013] [Show ID: 25389]

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[vinnytaranova]

All of this information about our origin is extremely interesting to me and I really appreciate that you make it available to us.
Thank you UCTV.

[FOWST]

That was really funny inbetween. Bar-Yosef was killing it.

[lloydbeattie]

this well put together, to just understand how our mind works and we are capable, of working objects to our use, and passing this information on to others, just what iv been looking 4;-)

[niall]

Great information, I loved all 3 lessons

[skidelrymar]

i liked the entire lesson. really brilliant. and Prof. Ofer Bar Yoseff is my hero!!

[davidgreen]

Speaking from a genetics background, I find it fascinating how researchers a decade ago were so quick to attribute things, according to artefacts. I wonder how these scientists would have adjusted their conclusions if they had the current DNA evidence?

[macawism]

If I heard correctly, it was implied that Australian indigenous people used stone tools to make dugout canoes. In fact, they ad sewn bark canoes and only got dugouts in the last couple of centuries from Makassar…

[KipIngram]

I guess I've gotten spoiled by the recent deep genetic analyses I've been learning about, and how "undeniable" those results are - I find the language stuff discussed by the second speaker thoroughly interesting, but it's hard for me to think any particularly high level of certainty can be associated with those conclusions. It feels like we're trying to assume that the former languages were highly consistent and sensible, and I just don't think that's how language works. It seems like a messy and disorganized thing to me. I find those conclusions speculative at best.

[tovarischkrasnyjeshi]

Pharyngeals in Arabic and related languages come from ejectives towards PAA. Even so, they've been observed to evolve out of -ATR harmony processes (such as in dialects of Arabic) as well as directly from dorsal fricatives/approximates in e.g. German dialects (some dialects' Parisian R went even farther back) or Portuguese.



Clicks are likely clusters of non-pulmonic consonants. Their rarity has more to do with the rarity of non-pulmonic consonants forming clusters as syllable structure collapses a la Sino-Tibetan into Mandarin, which is what's happened in the Khoe-San areal region.

Languages don't get more simple outside Africa. Indo-European has bizarre word structures. The Caucasian languages have more consonants than 99% of languages and they're 3 separate families. Just because syllable structure is reduced in languages like Hmong Khmer doesn't mean that a voiceless m is more simple. Most of the North American languages have rich consonant inventories including glottalics; Salishan is a language that "is characterised by agglutinativity and syllabic consonants. For instance the Nuxalk word clhp’xwlhtlhplhhskwts’ (IPA: [xɬpʼχʷɬtʰɬpʰɬːskʷʰt͡sʼ]), meaning "he had had [in his possession] a bunchberry plant", has thirteen obstruent consonants in a row with no phonetic or phonemic vowels."

[WmGood]

As an amateur collector and enthusiast of stone tools from all over the world it seems to me that there are too many similarities between all stone 'cultures' that make dating them and surmising behavior modes almost impossible. All stone tool types can be found on all continents with some variation. For example, the Acheulean 'tear-drop' axes. I have some of the same make I've found in Texas that have to be less than 12, 000 years old but side by side with African and European axes they are virtually the same. In Texas I've also found cobble choppers also similar to those of Africa and of course flint tools and projectile points almost identical to European.

[conniead]

Lots has happened since this video was made. A major is the discovery of a previously unknown hominim they call Denisova, after the name of the cave in the Altai Mountains (Russia) where the few bits were found at the 50, 000 year old level. Last I heard they still didn’t know if Homo Sapiens met them. They know they interacted with Neanderthals and have found skeletal remains of one mixed offspring. They have found that Melanesians have about 6% Denisova. Way down in Oceana on an isolated island. 🤯 And in Mesoamerica and the Amazon basin. 🤯🤯. Not among the indigenous north or south of there, so far. 🤯🤯🤯. I haven’t heard anything about their tools but part of a green stone (jadite maybe) finely tooled bracelet with a hole drilled in it was found at that level. One of those things Stone Age hominids are not supposed to have been able to make.
I gather there were some commentators who went kind of “racist”. We are ALL Homo Sapiens. Same race. If you paid attention to what was going on where Homo Sapiens cultures advanced quicker you would realize it had little to do with ethnicity. The amount of trade and interaction with other cultures (cultural appreciation) has been key. A person comes up with a different way of doing something and it changes what the culture does. Then someone from someplace else either learns how to do it personally or from trade. It spreads. Someone else adapts it to their environment. If there is a lot of this going on fairly regularly then those cultures advance faster than other Homo Sapiens that have settled far away. Plain and simple. The wheel, I gather, was created in a culture in Southwestern Asia that used a grinding wheel to grind grain. They wouldn’t have developed a grinding wheel if they hadn’t been farmers with a lot of grain to grind for trade or food for a larger population. Climate had a lot to do with trade and when Homo Sapiens could move into a region. The Sahara is now estimated to be only about 5, 000 years old. Tribes and cultures that were where it was once wet had to move. Those that headed South were effectively cut off from easy interaction with other cultures, except along the Nile. The quick rising of the Ocean levels about 14, 000 years ago by 250-500 feet not only drowned many a coastal culture but isolated hundreds, if not thousands. Couldn’t walk to Australia or any of the new “islands”. What is now the British Isles were no longer attached to the Continent. Then shit froze again for about 300 years. About 50% of the world’s flora and fauna went extinct between 14, 000-12, 000 years ago. They estimate about 75% extinction in North America. Almost all of the large mammals gone. Those that survived did not last long because they had been on hunter/gatherer’s food list. The loss in game may have been part of why farming and domestication of smaller animals happened. Climate makes a huge difference in where you can farm. Farming takes more tools. Where farming wasn’t practical they tended to stick to subsistence hunter/gathering or nomadic herding. Neither usually needed a lot of tools or permanent living structures.
Getting the drift?

[josefizquierdo]

I've found a variety of stone artifacts, created by Native Americans, in my own backyard, which used to be a pond. I've found a couple of them in my vicinity, too. I live near the Rio Grande in South Texas. 🗿

[jorgikralj]

Why always compare english with french and not with russian or other slavic language?? Zakaj?

[Nasiruddin]

I fear your personal opinion has no validity against truckloads of evidence discovered and categorized by generations of archeologists.

[michaellobello]

When he finally stops talking there will be just a piece of charcoal on the floor with a wisp of smoke rising.

[Mrbfgray]

This argument about the relation of brain size to body size strikes me as tortured. Why would it require a proportionally larger brain to perform basic functions of a dinosaur than a cockroach? Maybe twice or even ten X the size brain but not thousands or a million X. And then one needs to convoluted reasoning again when considering a humming bird.

[harekrishna]

What does he say "manishi showed it" whats that? Oh Dmanisi

[emilylps]

i dont see anything racists, but i love learning sompin new...great vid.

[ivorysand]

Don't project, thanks. If you provide the requested title (and preferably url) I can begin my much needed literature research. An author name, date of publication or name of the journal might be helpful too. The claim goes against established science as it is commonly known in the world today including all the fascinating evidence from linguistics and tool use presented in this video. I really hope your new source is just as intriguing. And please don't use unnecessarily vulgar language, thanks.

[adrianaratsch-rivera]

Hey, the farthest Hawai'ians have a CLICK!!!!