I took Anthropology 160 as general elective course in the fall of 2004 to satisfy a required section for my graduation. The course helped me tie down feelings I have had and some facts I have come to know about the human condition and civilization. Here I am going do jot down the notes that I used for the final in the hopes that they may be useful to others.
Homo sapiens, modern humans, have been in existence for about 120 KYA. A lot of our cultural behavior we inherited from other ancestor species. For example, Homo neandertalensis, which existed from 300 KYA to about 30 KYA where probably the first to bury their dead and take care of their aged and infirmed. It is believed that the Homo rudolfensis, which lasted from about 2.2 MYA to 1.6 MYA where the first to use stone tools. As a species, Homo sapiens have not live nearly as long as the neandertalensis or rudolfensis. Also, it is interesting to note that for most of our time here on Earth we have been foragers. Not until about 10KYA did humans start to depend of domesticated animals and agriculture.
Only 14 large animals have been domesticated. Of those 14 animals, 13 have been domesticated in Eurasia and 1 in South America. When I say "large Animals" I mean animals weighing more than one hundred pounds and these include the llama, horse, pig, cow, etc. There are close to 150 candidate large animals and of those only 14 have been domesticated. The social behavior of animals is a major reason why some animals have not been domesticated. Deer and antelope have not been domesticated because their natural tendency is to flee when frightened but sheep and goat tend to seek protection in the flock.
As animals become domesticated they tend to become smaller than their wild counterparts. This is true for most animals. Domestication is a form of artificial selection, unlike natural selection; domesticated animals are breed according to the other needs other than natural selection. Another side effect of domestication is that animals also become stupider than their cousins in the wild. Domesticated plants, such as grains and cereals, usual do the opposite than animals; they grow in size and produce more grains. But because there is less environmental pressure on domesticated plants and animals they have become ever so dependent on humans. For example, maize without the intervention on humans in its harvest would probably go extinct. Dairy cattle and turkeys would not do any better on the wild than maize.
An interesting note on domesticated animals; the horse was first domesticated in central Asia. The horse is one of the big five most commonly adaptable animals. The use of the horse quickly spread throughout the Old World until they were introduced into the New World by the Spaniards. The interesting thing is that the horse had first developed and evolved in the New World and had gone extinct about 10-8 KYA here in the New World. The horse migrated across the Bering Strait from the North America into Asia, where they where domesticated.
A common misconception about evolution is that organisms evolve in complexity. This is not necessarily true. Evolution is not increasing complexity. Evolution also does not respond or depend on a predefined need or requirement. Evolution is not goal driven. Evolution is not linear or goal oriented and therefore not predictable. In the human-centric mind, it is easy to think that the eye developed out of the need to see as some creationists might want to believe. But what need is there for the spleen? What evolutionary need is there for the tonsils? Why did we evolve to get our wisdom teeth pullout? There is a certain fish that live in underground caves for all their lives whose eyes have been seen to evolve from a complex organism into a less complex organism. Another misconception is that all different body parts evolve at the same rates. The evolution of an organism is thought of as mosaic evolution, different parts of the body evolve at different rates and at different times. Einstein said that God does not play dice, but nature is playing craps with our DNA continually.
There was a story a famous biologist that was asked by an interviewer a religiously toned question, something like, "What species would you say that God has preferred?" "The beetle," replied the biologist. 40% of all animal species are beetles. This clearly indicates that there are other more successful species than humans. As I indicated above, humans are relative new comers to the biological history of Earth. Humans have been rather successful at adapting and modifying our environment but we cannot consider ourselves successful in the contrast to other species. There have been species in the have had a lifespan of millions of years. There are species that have more biological mass than humans, elephants, and whales combined. It is also important to remember that the biggest competitor of a species is a member of its own species.
The United States at a competitive 6% of the world population uses 30% of the world's oil, coal, natural gas, and nuclear sources of energy. Iraq currently has about 25% of the world's oil reserves whereas the United States contains about 6%. At one point the United States used to be the breadbasket to the world. Now about 25% of all fruits and vegetables and about 50% of all seafood come from foreign countries. In other words it can be said, "These foreigners harvest and fish our food and sit on top our oil." On average food travels over 1,400 miles before it is eaten. And out of every dollar spent on food, 65 cents go to packaging, delivery, and marketing, 30 cents goes to the companies of fertilizers and pesticides, 5 cents goes to the farmer. Corporate agriculture leads to monocrop production, or the production of a single crop, while the ancient Peruvians domesticated over 3000 varieties of potatoes. Can you say, "Potato Famine?"