Big History: The Big Bang, Life on Earth, and the Rise of Humanity

Lecture 22: Paleolithic Lifeways

our species has existed, and the Agrarian era occupies most of the remaining

4%. However, Paleolithic populations were small. Of the 80 billion humans

estimated to have lived since our species ¿ rst appeared, only about 12%

lived in the Paleolithic era, while about 68% lived in the Agrarian era and

about 20% in the Modern era.

We have two main types of evidence on Paleolithic lifeways. Most important

are archaeological remains. Almost as valuable are studies of modern

societies that still use Paleolithic technologies. However, such studies

can be misleading, because today no

foraging societies remain untouched by the

modern world.

Taken together, these forms of evidence

can help us construct tentative sketches

of Paleolithic lifeways. Our Paleolithic

ancestors almost certainly lived in small,

family-size groups, so that relations were

personal, more like those in a modern

family than those in a modern city. Their basic technology can be described

as “foraging” (or sometimes as “hunting and gathering”). Paleolithic humans

used stones, plants, insects, or animals from the environment more or less in

their natural form. What distinguishes Paleolithic foraging from the foraging

of many other animals is that our ancestors foraged using the knowledge

accumulated within each community through collective learning. This meant

they could exploit their environments in a much greater variety of ways.

To survive, foragers needed to use large areas. So Paleolithic communities

were usually small and nomadic, traveling regularly to different parts of their

home territory. In the jargon of economists, this was an “extensive” way of

exploiting the environment—it depended more on using a large area than on

using a small area more “intensively.”

Family groups that traveled together probably met periodically with

neighbors and relatives, usually in special places with enough food for large

gatherings. Here, they exchanged marriage partners, gifts, and of course,

information. We have modern descriptions of what these gatherings may

Modern studies of

foraging societies

suggest that people

often survived on just

3–6 hours of work a day.