CULTURE

 Is defined as “that complex which encompasses beliefs,

practices, values, attitudes, laws, norms, artifacts,
symbols, knowledge, and everything that a person learns
and share as a member of society” (Tylor, 2010).
BIOLOGICAL CAPACITY FOR CULTURE
1. Our Thinking capacity
2.Our Speaking capacity
3.Our Gripping capacity
4.Our walking/standing capacity
 1. OUR THINKING CAPACITY
The primary biological component of humans that allowed
for culture is the developed brain. It has the necessary parts
for facilitating pertinent skills such as speaking, touching,
feeling, seeing and smelling.
 Frontal lobe and the motor cortex- it is function for cognition and
motor abilities.
 Parietal lobe- allows for touch and taste abilities.
 Temporal lobe- allows for hearing skills.
 Occipital lobe- allows for visual skills.
 Human have a larger brain, weighing 1.4 kg. Due to the size of
human brain, they able to create survival skills that helped them to
adopt to their environment.
Chimpanzees have a brain weighing only 420 g.
Gorillas weigh 500g g.
 OUR SPEAKING CAPACITY
As the brain is the primary source of humans’ capacity to
comprehend sound and provide meaning to it, the vocal tracts
acts a the mechanism by which sounds are produced and
reproduced to transmit ideas and values.
o The vocal tract of a human is longer than a chimpanzee. A longer vocal tract
means that there is a longer vibration surface.
o The tongue of human is also more flexible than that of a chimpanzees,
allowing for more control in making sounds
o Homo Neaderthalensis (Neanderthals)- our nearest relative, was also found
to have the same bone, which functions similarity as ours.
 3. OUR GRIPPING CAPACITY
The hand of human has digits (fingers) that are straight, as compared with the curved ones
of the other primates.
Characteristics of human hand
 Power grip- enables humans to wrap the thumb and fingers on an object. It has the
capacity to hold tools firmly for hunting and other activities.
 Precision grip- enables human to hold and pick objects steadily using their fingers. This
capacity is crucial for tool-making activities.
 OUR WALKING/STANDING CAPACITY
Primates have two forms of locomotion: bipedalism and
quadropedalism,
 Bipedalism- is the capacity to walk and stand on two feet.
 Quadropedalism- uses all four limbs.
 OLDOWAN INDUSTRY
 A stone tool industry, is characterized by the use of “hard water-worn creek cobbles
made out of volcanic rock”.
Percussion flaking, which is a process involving the systematic collision of a hammer stone
with a core stone
 This industry is the evidence found by Mary and Louis Leakey at Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania.
 This industry is known to have been used by Homo Habilis.
 ACHEULIAN INDUSTRY
 Homo Erectus developed a more complex industry from what they inherited
from Homo Habilis.
 Homo erectus created hand axes that were shaped in both sides and with
straighter and sharper edges.
 This industry was named after Saint Acheul, a patron saint in Southwest
France, as these artifacts were discovered in the area.
 MOUSTERIAN INDUSTRY
 This industry was developed by Homo Neanderthalensis (Neanderthals) in
Europe and West Asia between 300,000 and 30,000 years ago.
 This industry was named after a site in France called Le Mousteir, where
evidence was uncovered in 1860.
 Combination of Acheulian industry and Levalosian.
 AURIGNACIAN INDUSTRY
 This industry was mainly present in Europe and Southwest Asia.
The term Aurignacian was derived from Aurignac an area in France
where the evidence for this industry was found.
 Users of this industry used raw materials such as flint, animal
bones and antlers.
 MAGDALENIAN INDUSTRY
This industry saw at the end of the Paleolithic as it tranformed
to the Neolithic period. The industry named after La Madelien
site in Dordogne, France.
 The raw material is the fire, which allowed for a more precise.