Conclusion

Over thousands of generations, African hominins evolved from other primates, leading to new genera such as Australopithecus and Homo. The latter genus encompassed a range of now-extinct hominins, including the bipedal, toolmaking, fire-using Homo erectus, who migrated far from their native habitats to fill other landmasses. They did so in waves, often in response to worldwide cycles of climatic change. Homo sapiens, with bigger brains and consequently greater cognition, emerged in Africa about 300,000 years ago and migrated out of Africa beginning 180,000 years ago. With greater adaptive skills, they were better prepared to face the elements when a cooling cycle returned, and eventually they became the only surviving branch of the tree of human ancestors. Homo sapiens used language and art to engage in abstract, representational thought and to convey the lessons of experience to their neighbors and descendants. As modern humans stored and shared knowledge, their adaptive abilities increased.

Although modern men and women shared an African heritage, these individuals adapted over many millennia to the environments they encountered as they began to fill the earth’s corners and practice hunting and gathering ways of life. Some settled near lakes and took to fishing, while others roamed the northern steppes hunting large mammals. No matter where they went, their dependence on nature yielded broadly similar social and cultural structures. It took another warming cycle for people ranging from Africa to the Americas to begin putting down their hunting weapons and start domesticating animals and plants.

The changeover to settled agriculture was not uniform worldwide. As communities became more settled, the world’s regions began to vary as humans learned to modify nature to fit their needs. The varieties of animals that they could domesticate and the differing climatic conditions and topography that they encountered shaped the ways in which people drifted apart in spite of their common origins. What these settled communities shared, however, was increasing social hierarchy, including the unequal status of men and women.