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History of the world economy - Polyak GB

1.2. Economy of the Middle and Late Paleolithic Period

The era of the Middle Paleolithic began about 100 thousand years ago, and the era of the late Paleolithic - about 40 thousand years ago. The era of the late Paleolithic in the XII millennium BC was completed. E.

The emergence of a modern man

The Middle Paleolithic is an event of exceptional importance for the whole of world history - a " reasonable man", Homo sapiens , appeared on Earth. This happened in North Africa or in the Near East. Biologists, studying the genes of people living now in different regions of the world, belonging to different peoples and even races, have established that all people derive their origin from one common root - the first pair of people of the modern type, "Eva" and "Atsama". Versions about the causes of the appearance of "Eva" and "Adam" are expressed very different and often incredible - from the influence of radiation to the intervention of aliens; None of the hypotheses has been proved. However, the external characteristics of this event by scientists have been studied in some detail.

Cro-Magnon man (as it is customary to call the first people of the modern type by the method of the first finding of their remains in the grotto of Cro-Magnon in France) differed significantly from the Neanderthal man. The average height of the Cro-Magnon man was 180 cm, his bones were much thinner than those of his predecessors, physically Cro-Magnon was weaker than the powerful and hardy Neanderthal man. But the structure of the skull was improved: the height of the cranium increased, the frontal bone straightened, and the chin appeared. The volume of the Cro-Magnon's brain, as well as modern people, was about 1400 - 1500 cm3. In the modern crowd the Cro-Magnon would not be anything special, and even the patterns of the papillary lines on his fingers were the same as for us. Brains in the first intelligent people were developed in the same way as in the inhabitants of the Earth of the late XX century. Cro-Magnon became the first creatures to possess not just sound, but already articulate speech.

Economy of the Middle Paleolithic

Speech strongly influenced the everyday life of the Cro-Magnon people, allowing to achieve better organization of work and mutual understanding. This greatly accelerated the pace of development of human society. From this time, the rate of change in people's lives will constantly increase - this was inherent in the very nature of a reasonable person. The most important factors were the ability of the mind to know the world and the desire to improve it.

The largest discovery of the Cro-Magnon people, made at the very beginning of the Middle Paleolithic, was the artificial extraction of fire. The fire was extracted by rubbing two pieces of wood or by cutting a spark from a flint. The mastery of fire finally separated man from the animal world and meant a turn in economic life.

Beginning to improve stone equipment, in particular, there is a rather complex technique of retouching; Instruments of labor become more distinct and differentiated.

So, in the Middle Paleolithic period, there were two types of people on the ground, a dead-end, represented by Neanderthals, and a promising one, represented by the Cro-Magnon people; Most likely, they mutually exterminated and interbred with each other. Gradually, the descendants of "Eve" and "Adam" supersede their predecessors. The era of the Neanderthals was nearing completion - at the end of the Middle Paleolithic their fires were extinguished.

Stone processing at the end of the Stone Age

Population of the Late Paleolithic

40 thousand years BC. E. On Earth there were already some people of the modern type. The total density of the population was still very small at that time and was about 0.1 people per 1 km2. And although by that time the man had already settled most of the earth's land, the entire population of the world hardly exceeded 2-4 million people.

Population growth sharply limited the full dangers of life and hard everyday work. Long hunger strikes led to high mortality among children and the elderly. The early marriages of girls became a frequent cause of infertility, and the celibacy of young men was common because of the polygamy of the elderly. Finally, there was a practice of conscious birth control, when the interval between births was at least three years. If children were born more often, they were killed. One of the twins was also often killed.