{"id":3427,"date":"2019-11-19T11:26:24","date_gmt":"2019-11-19T15:26:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=3427"},"modified":"2022-03-11T11:38:25","modified_gmt":"2022-03-11T15:38:25","slug":"history-of-human-evolution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/history-of-human-evolution\/","title":{"rendered":"History of Human Evolution: How Bad Genes Became Assets"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>In <em>Sapiens, <\/em>Yuval Noah Harari uses concepts from physics, chemistry, biology, and history to tell the story of us, <em>Homo sapiens<\/em>, and the history of human evolution.<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The history of early human evolution is punctuated by advances in language and technology, and the evolution has been both biological and social. Some social advantages started out as biological disadvantages. We\u2019ll look at each revolution and how it dramatically redirected the course of human history.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">History of Human Evolution: <strong>Shared Characteristics of Humans<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The evolution of mankind has been both biological and social. Let\u2019s look at what all the human species had in common.<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Characteristic #1: Large Brains<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>One of the biggest evolutions of human species evolution had to do with the brain. Mammals that are 130 lbs typically have a brain that\u2019s an average of 12 cubic inches. In contrast, the brains of early humans were 36 cubic inches. Today, our average brain size is 73-85 cubic inches, and the brains of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/homosapiens-and-neanderthals\/\">Neanderthals<\/a> were even bigger than ours.<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It seems like large brains would give us and our fellow humans an obvious advantage over other animals, but it wasn\u2019t necessarily an asset to early humans.<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><em>The Disadvantages of a Big Brain<\/em><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>Big brains take a lot of energy to fuel. <strong>Our brains make up 2-3% of our body weight, but use 25% of our energy.<\/strong> (The brains of our ape siblings only use 8% of their energy.)<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This drain of energy caused two main problems:<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><strong>Problem #1: <\/strong>Humans had to spend a lot of time searching for food (they needed a lot of calories to feed their hungry brains).<\/li><li><strong>Problem #2: <\/strong>Their muscles atrophied because their bodies had to divert energy from muscles to feed the brain.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>When you\u2019re in the middle of the food chain, trying to catch small animals and keep out of the way of big ones, <strong>using your energy to power your brain instead of your muscles isn\u2019t the smartest strategy.<\/strong><br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We still don\u2019t really know why we evolved such large brains when there was little use for them in the early history of human evolution. It was a bad use of our energy.<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Characteristic #2: Walking Upright<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Like having a big brain, walking upright seems like an unequivocally positive trait to us today, in part because we still walk upright and can\u2019t imagine moving any other way. There were both advantages and disadvantages to walking upright.<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Pros:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><strong>A better view: <\/strong>When you\u2019re standing, it\u2019s easier to see the lion hiding in the grass or the prey oblivious to you.<\/li><li><strong>The ability to use tools: <\/strong>When you don\u2019t need your arms for moving around, they\u2019re freed up for other tasks, like signaling to others and using tools. As we evolved more nerve endings and agile muscles in our hands, our tools became more sophisticated.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Cons:<\/strong><br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><strong>An unstable skeleton: <\/strong>Because we\u2019re built to walk on all fours like most mammals, our skeletal structure doesn\u2019t easily support our large heads. Consequently, we get back and neck aches.<\/li><li><strong>Narrow hips: <\/strong>To walk upright, women (and men) evolved narrower hips, but this was bad news for childbirth. As women\u2019s hips were getting narrower, babies\u2019 heads were getting bigger.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Narrow hips especially had far-reaching consequences for the history of human evolution, creating a domino effect that led to helpless babies. This was because the women who survived the dangerous activity of childbirth (and continued to pass on their genes through subsequent births) were the ones who gave birth early in the fetus\u2019s gestation, when the baby\u2019s head was smaller and undeveloped.<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Consequently, women evolved to give birth earlier when the fetus is less developed. This means that <strong>human infants are undeveloped and helpless compared with other animal infants.<\/strong> For instance, a colt can start to run soon after birth, and a kitten finds food on its own after a few weeks. But human children are dependent on their parents for years.<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The fact that human children were vulnerable for years after birth meant that human adults had to care for and protect them for years. Like having a big brain, this wasn\u2019t an obvious advantage for early human evolution. Humans needed their energy for activities like escaping the jaws of larger, stronger animals.<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><em>The Consequences of Having Premature Babies<\/em><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>Despite the risks involved in caring for vulnerable infants, their existence created unique social situations for humans. These situations and the resulting societal bonds may have contributed to the rise of human dominance in the animal kingdom. This was a consequence of the unique evolution of mankind.<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There were two unique results of human children being born prematurely:<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Result #1: The \u201cIt Takes a Village\u201d Mentality: <\/strong>Because children were so helpless, mothers relied on family members and neighbors to raise them. Many other animal genera (plural of \u201cgenus\u201d) didn\u2019t have the need to form these social bonds.<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Result #2: The Potential for Socialization: <\/strong>Children born relatively helpless are (relative) blank slates. As such, their societies can shape them through education and socialization to be whatever they want them to be. Whereas other mammals are born like glazed earthenware coming out of the kiln (if you try to reshape them, they\u2019ll break), humans are born like molten glass, easily formed and reformed.<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Evolution of Mankind: <strong>Last Man Standing<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>We shared much in common with our fellow humans. How did we rise from the middle of the food chain to the top? And how did we become the last humans standing?<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Fire<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>The domestication of fire changed the game, giving humans power over the natural world that no other animal possessed. Fire was a source of light. It was warmth in the cold months and a weapon in moments of conflict. You could even use fire to burn through impassable underbrush, changing the landscape to fit your needs.&nbsp;<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The most important use of fire was cooking. Cooking food made it easier to digest. Since digestion was easier, the long intestine became shorter. This development was especially important. Big brains and big intestines both use a lot of energy. By allowing humans to better digest food and evolve shortened intestines, fire may have indirectly contributed to the brain getting a greater share of the body\u2019s energy. As the brain got more energy, it got bigger.<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When humans mastered fire, they finally gained a key to developing dominance over animals that were stronger and faster than they were. This was a major moment in the history of human evolution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Why Are We the Only Humans Left?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Sapiens wasn\u2019t the only species that used fire. Why did it come to dominate?<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The current evidence leaves us with two options to explain the disappearance of other humans.<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><strong>Option #1: <\/strong>Due to their superior tools and collaboration skills, Sapiens were better hunters and gatherers, and as they migrated to new geographic areas, <strong>they out-competed the human species that originally called that area home. <\/strong>Neanderthals, who were less resourceful, had trouble feeding themselves, and they slowly died out.<\/li><li><strong>Option #2: Genocide.<\/strong> Modern Sapiens have fought wars with others because of their differences in skin color, culture, and religious beliefs. Would Sapiens be any more tolerant of humans of an entirely different species? Or maybe it was their familiarity that motivated Sapiens to kill their fellow humans. Perhaps other humans, particularly the Neanderthals, were too similar to Sapiens. Neanderthals were a threat to a species that wanted to dominate the animal kingdom.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>What made Sapiens the superior species that pushed other humans to extinction? Harari argues the most likely answer is language. We\u2019ll cover that next.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>The Cognitive Revolution<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>One of the biggest most moments in the history of human evolution was the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/cognitive-revolution\/\">Cognitive Revolution<\/a>. 2.5 million years ago, <em>Homo sapiens <\/em>was just one of eight human species. The first major revolution for Sapiens was the Cognitive Revolution 70,000 years ago. Before that point, Sapiens weren\u2019t particularly special and weren\u2019t superior to the other seven human species. The Cognitive Revolution involved the development of three new abilities, all related to language, that helped Homo sapiens outpace their fellow humans.&nbsp;<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Ability #1: Flexible Language<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>One reason the language of Sapiens was different was that it was more complex.<\/strong> Rather than communicating simple ideas the way green monkeys do (\u201cCareful! A lion!\u201d or \u201cCareful! An eagle!\u201d), the language of Sapiens could warn someone about a lion, describe its location, and plan how to deal with it. This allowed them to plan and follow through on complex actions like avoiding predators and working together to trap prey.<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Ability #2: Gossip<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>A second distinction of the Sapiens language was its ability to convey gossip. We think of gossip as a bad thing, but <strong>using language to convey information about other people is a way to build trust. <\/strong>Trust is critical for social cooperation, and cooperation gives you an advantage in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/struggle-to-survive\/\">struggle to survive<\/a> and pass on your genes. Sapiens could form groups of up to 150 people. They didn\u2019t need to know every group member personally to trust them. In a battle, a small group of Neanderthals was no match for a group of 150 Sapiens.<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Ability #3: Fictions<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>A third benefit of the Sapiens\u2019 language was how it was used to create fictions, also known as \u201csocial constructs\u201d or \u201cimagined realities.\u201d<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Being able to communicate information about things that don\u2019t exist doesn\u2019t seem like an advantage. But <strong>Sapiens seem to be the only animals who have this ability to discuss things that don\u2019t have a physical presence in the world, like money, human rights, corporations, and God.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Collective Fictions<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>In and of itself, imagining things that don\u2019t exist isn\u2019t an asset\u2014you won\u2019t aid your chances of survival if you go into the forest looking for ghosts rather than berries and deer.<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>What\u2019s important about the ability to create fictions is the ability to create <\/strong><strong><em>collective <\/em><\/strong><strong>fictions, fictions everyone believes. <\/strong>These collective myths allow people who\u2019ve never met and otherwise would have nothing in common to cooperate under shared assumptions and goals.<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Although imagined, these myths are crucial. <strong>Without collective fictions, the systems built on them collapse.<\/strong> And as we\u2019ll see, most of our modern systems are built on these imagined realities. These myths are powerful, and the fact that they\u2019re not rooted in objective reality doesn\u2019t undermine them.<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Collective fictions allowed early Sapiens to cooperate within extremely large groups of people, most of whom they\u2019d never met, and it rapidly changed their social behavior.<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Genetic Evolution Versus Social Evolution<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The history of human evolution has been both genetic and social. Usually, it takes a genetic mutation to significantly change behavior, and that takes hundreds, if not hundreds of thousands, of years.&nbsp;<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For example, common chimpanzees live in hierarchical groups led by the alpha male, whereas their relatives the bonobos live in egalitarian groups led by females. Chimps can\u2019t suddenly decide that they too want to live in an egalitarian society. Their social behavior is ingrained in their genes. Such a change would have to come from their DNA.<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Until the Cognitive Revolution, the social and technological evolution of Sapiens also depended on changes in DNA. <strong>But the Cognitive Revolution\u2014and the language, collective fictions, and cooperation it brought with it\u2014allowed Sapiens to evolve much faster than other humans.<\/strong> We can now change our social structures, interpersonal behavior, and economic behavior within decades, rather than over hundreds of years.<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Example: The Power of the Pope<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>We can see how the advent of \u201cfictions\u201d made social evolution independent of biological evolution in the example of the Pope. Social evolution is a major aspect of human species evolution.<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the societies of our chimp relatives, the alpha male uses his position of power to mate with as many females as possible, ensuring that he passes his genes to the next generation. In the animal world, this is the primary, instinctive goal\u2014to survive long enough to pass on your DNA and keep your ancestral line alive. The sole purpose of gaining power is to help you survive and procreate.<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, <strong>in modern human societies, power is divorced from procreation and institutions are passed along not through genes but through fictions.<\/strong><br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For example, Catholic priests, Buddhist monks, and Chinese eunuchs all hold sway over their societies. They\u2019re also meant to be celibate. Their celibacy isn\u2019t the result of limited resources or a lack of females. It\u2019s also not the product of a genetic mutation.<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There\u2019s no genetic basis or survival need for the Catholic Church, but it hasn\u2019t died out. It\u2019s passed from one generation to the next via stories rather than genes. Social evolution has been a major part of the history of human evolution.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In Sapiens, Yuval Noah Harari uses concepts from physics, chemistry, biology, and history to tell the story of us, Homo sapiens, and the history of human evolution. The history of early human evolution is punctuated by advances in language and technology, and the evolution has been both biological and social. Some social advantages started out as biological disadvantages. We\u2019ll look at each revolution and how it dramatically redirected the course of human history.&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":3517,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[57],"class_list":["post-3427","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-history","tag-sapiens","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.3 (Yoast SEO v24.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>History of Human Evolution: How Bad Genes Became Assets - Shortform Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The history of early human evolution is punctuated by advances in language and technology. Learn how this evolution has been both biological and social.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/history-of-human-evolution\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"History of Human Evolution: How Bad Genes Became Assets\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The history of early human evolution is punctuated by advances in language and technology. Learn how this evolution has been both biological and social.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/history-of-human-evolution\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Shortform Books\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-11-19T15:26:24+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-03-11T15:38:25+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/sapiens-history-of-human-evolution.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"898\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"326\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Amanda Penn\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Amanda Penn\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"10 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/history-of-human-evolution\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/history-of-human-evolution\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Amanda Penn\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/01b0e4c9ddb993e51d03808839d538b0\"},\"headline\":\"History of Human Evolution: How Bad Genes Became Assets\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-11-19T15:26:24+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-03-11T15:38:25+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/history-of-human-evolution\/\"},\"wordCount\":2138,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/history-of-human-evolution\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/sapiens-history-of-human-evolution.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Sapiens\"],\"articleSection\":[\"History\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/history-of-human-evolution\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/history-of-human-evolution\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/history-of-human-evolution\/\",\"name\":\"History of Human Evolution: How Bad Genes Became Assets - Shortform Books\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/history-of-human-evolution\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/history-of-human-evolution\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/sapiens-history-of-human-evolution.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-11-19T15:26:24+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-03-11T15:38:25+00:00\",\"description\":\"The history of early human evolution is punctuated by advances in language and technology. 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