Tuesday, July 18, 2023

origin of modern humans in the Middle Stone Age Africa of Diverse Habitats! Patriarchal Agriculture Buddhist origins

 

Extant H. sapiens share species specific traits, such as cranial globularity, a small face retracted under the frontal bone, a chin and features of pelvic shape and the inner ear [93]. However, these features do not appear together in the same individuals until sometime between 100 and 40 ka [4,100]. This indicates that, owing to the diverse evolutionary processes involved, all the behavioural and physical traits that define us today did not appear as a package, and therefore were did not appear at the same time or place [4,17]. Furthermore, although the early H. sapiens fossils found to date are typically associated with open ecosystems (table 2), given the diverse and dynamic nature of vegetation across Africa (figure 1c), it seems likely that early populations experienced, and exploited, a range of different environments. This is perhaps reflected in the technological shift (shaping to core flaking), and the increasing diversity of tools, that emerges with the MSA during this period as H. sapiens equipped themselves to deal with a range of environmental challenges.

From the Last Interglacial (ca 125 ka) onwards, the MSA (figure 1d) based material culture record evidences new features, including the regional diversification of technology, the likely use of ornamental pigments, the collection and intentional perforation of shells (interpreted as for personal ornamentation), and the use of diverse bone tools (e.g. [4,118]). These manifestations of a seemingly more complex material culture are also pan-African, and do not seem to emerge from one region and spread. Various studies have attempted to make sense of this apparent shift in the archaeological record. While older theories have tended to focus on the possibility of unexplained brain mutations, more recent studies suggest that demographic and climate factors probably play a role. For example, climate and vegetative resource change can regulate population size and density which can, in turn, structure changes in cultural innovations and their persistence [119,120]. Similarly, during the MSA in southern Africa innovation in the region has been linked to the formation of refugial populations that emerged in response to increased rainfall and associated vegetative change [121]. A key point is that while these innovations appear in the MSA archaeological record and persist, often for thousands of years, they also disappear for even longer periods of time. This may be linked to a saw tooth pattern of population growth and collapse, fragmentation and coalescence (e.g. [121]). At the same time, the archaeological record begins to evidence the emergence of behaviours linked with ecological managements, ranging from water storage technology [122] to the widespread burning of landscapes [123], which perhaps suggests that humans began to increase the diversity of ecosystems they exploited.

 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full/10.1098/rstb.2020.0483

 we consider here simply the two main modes of climate (pre- and post-300 ka) and identify broad changes related to vegetation and hominins around this breakpoint. In concert with the shifting moisture balance across Africa ca 300 ka, the relative proportions of open ecosystems (abundance of grass) shifts at many sites (figure 1c); with the topographically more complex landscape of eastern Africa increasing in relative abundance, and diversity, of vegetative resources after this time. These shifts probably created new selective pressures and challenges for hominins. We note that the geographical shift in the relative availability vegetative resources across the continent is broadly concomitant with the end of the long phase of Homo erectus and the appearance of new species of Homo and the development of MSA technology. It is also interesting to note that forest phases are recorded around the time of the earliest H. sapiens fossils found in northern Africa (ca 315 ka), but that these phases subsequently diminish. The diverse and widespread nature of the evidence from the archaeological record suggest that the process of evolution throughout this period probably occurred through multiple phases of separation and recombination of populations on the human lineage. This hypothesis is supported by the record of past vegetation change which suggests that, while some regions might become more or less preferable through time, that mosaics of vegetation persisted across the continent that would have provided opportunities for hominins to obtain diverse vegetative resources.

 a low latitude climate mechanism which changed rainfall, and consequently vegetation, patterns probably had a significant impact on the core habitation areas, population structure, and the evolution of our ancestors. The widespread distribution of hominins across a variety of ecosystems and climates suggests that the full diversity of Africa's varied landscape—from semi-arid regions to tropical forests—should be considered as potentially playing a role in the evolutionary and developmental processes.

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10816-021-09546-2 

The Eemian interglacial (Last Interglacial; ~ 130,000–116,000 BP) is the most recent (before the Holocene or current interglacial) in a series of Pleistocene interglacials – warm-temperate periods between glaciations (Schreve, 2019) – with a climate and vegetation comparable to the Holocene over major parts of Europe (Svenning, 2002). On a finer scale, however, there were differences: the Eemian interglacial witnessed a higher sea level than the Holocene, making for a somewhat more Atlantic climate in western and central Europe than during the Holocene (Zagwijn, 1989). The Late Pleistocene extinction of various larger mammals occurred after the Eemian interglacial, and the absence of specific large herbivores such as elephant and rhinoceros during the Holocene may have decreased overall herbivore impact on vegetation during the current interglacial (Svenning, 2002). Study of Eemian vegetation structure may provide insights into the specific differences between the two interglacial periods and the factors responsible for these differences. At the same time, these differences make it challenging to understand the role of Neanderthal hunter-gatherers in this period.

 https://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/1311/1311.6857.pdf

 We found that most major paternal lineage expansions coalesced in Neolithic
Time. The estimated effective population sizes through time revealed strong evidence for 10- to 100-fold increase in population growth of males with the advent of agriculture. This sex-biased Neolithic expansion might result from the reduction in hunting-related mortality of males.

 However, mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) analysis in worldwide populations found that most major maternal lineage expansions began after Last Glacial Maximum (LGM, about 15 kya) but before the first appearance of agriculture, and the increase of population size was likely the driving forces that led to the advent of agriculture (5, 6, 7, 8).

  the 1000 Genomes Project has sequenced whole Y chromosomes from more than 500 males (14), which provides a wonderful chance to estimate population sizes through time from a set of globally distributed populations without ascertainment bias and helps to solve the long dispute between agriculture and initial population expansion in Neolithic Time

 Thus, the time estimation of lineage coalescence showed that paternal population growth could be mainly attributed to Neolithic expansion

  LGM. The estimated timing of this male growth phase fits perfectly with archaeological evidence for the advent of agriculture in
each region (Table S2). We then calculated the rate of population growth per year (5). The fastest population growth for most European, Asian and MXL maternal lineages occurred about 9-11 kya (Fig.2, Table S2), corresponding to the initiation of a stable, global warming period after LGM. We also found a sharp increase in maternal population size at 33-35 kya in Asian populations, which might reflect the population explosion after initial peopling of this continent. However, the fastest growth intervals for global male populations range from 1.5-3.3 kya, which are 1-3 ky later than the advent of agriculture (Fig.2, Table S2). During this period, agriculture became mature
and intensive, and can sustain a rapidly growing population.

 https://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/1311/1311.6857.pdf

 The arrival of domesticated animals at Ifri Oudadane, Morocco at 7.3 ka correlates to a decrease in arboreal pollen and grasses and an increase in maquis (shrub) vegetation (Morales et al., 2013). At nearby Ifri n’Etsedda, Morocco between 7.4 and 6.8 ka (Linstädter et al., 2016), and Tin-a-Hanakaten, Algeria at 7.2 ka (Aumassip, 1984), similar turnovers to non-arboreal pollen taxa at the expense of arboreal pollen are documented when domesticated animals are first identifiable in the archaeological record.

 https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/20530196221140145

 recent archaeological investigations demonstrated that intensive uses of plant resources, including wild ancestors of sorghum (Sorghum arundinaceum) by 10 ka the Nile River Valley (Venkateswaran et al., 2019) and domesticated cereals and pulses (Hordeum vulgare, Triticum monococcum/dicoccum, Triticum durum, Triticum aestivum/durum, Lens culinaris and Pisum sativum) appearing by 7–6 ka at Ifri Oudadane, Morocco (Morales et al., 2013), in the Butana Group at the confluence of the Blue and White Nile rivers (Out et al., 2016; Winchell et al., 2017).

https://anthrosource.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/etho.12387 

 . For example, in many societies, athletes/warriors and priests/monks are social roles restricted to the male gender and often reserved for people who have the resources and time to do such long-term transformational practices. The regulation of who can or must see or perform which practices and when is a powerful means of control that forms a key element in the relationship between practices and social structure.

 The site of MGD attracted MSA human activity only after the formation of a meandering, seasonal stream, which locally opened the landscape after 26 ka. These findings are in line with previous interpretations emerging from our earlier works in the Karonga area, which demonstrated that MSA foragers favored mosaic/riparian landscapes (Thompson et al. 2012, 2018; Wright et al. 2014, 2017; Nightingale et al., 2019).

Data presented in this paper enable us to further expand these reconstructions. The in situ terminal MSA occupation at MGD, dating after 26 ka, is one of the latest intact MSA assemblages known from Africa (Mercader et al., 2012; Barton et al. 2013, 2016; Bader et al., 2018). This indicates that MSA exploitation of gallery forested riparian environments perpetuated into the latest Pleistocene. Our findings reveal that MSA hunter-gatherers might have chosen MGD and BRU not only due to the presence of riparian environments but also because these localities were positioned at the confluence of river and wetland areas, which serve as important corridors for the dispersal of biota (Wantzen et al., 2008). Therefore, MGD and BRU likely offered a wider range of resources to MSA people crucial for their foraging and tool production.

 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277379122002694

 ).One such image, for instance, is the twelve-spoked wheel of time or life. Thus, the age of the Buddha becomes one of the most pivotal epochs63
in Indian history. It marked the shift from tribal oligarchies to centralized monarchies and empires, growth of urbanization, growth of trade, increasing craft specialization, beginning of a monetary sector in the  economy, development of bureaucratic institutions and emergence of specially two new classes: the rich merchants and the professionals or royal advisers. Some thinkers started questioning the significance of64
performing ever bigger and more complex sacrifices, prompting them to seek the key to efficacious rites in knowledge of their meaning, By the end of the Vedic period, brÈhma‡ical thinkers in the Upani–ads among other seers and ascetics, were deprecating ritual action and extolling the power of the though...one of the fundamental contributions of Buddhism in the sphere of ahimsa was that
the image of the wheel (cakra) as a symbol of sacred warfare (most famously the chariot wheel) was
changed into a symbol of sacred peacemaking (the šdhamma wheel› or dharmacakra

  https://www.du.ac.in/du/uploads/departments/BuddhistStudies/Study%20Material/Dr%20Nirja%20Sharma

 ORIGIN AND NATURE OF ANCIENT INDIAN BUDDHISM
K.T.S. Sarao

 /204/11052020_204_ORIGIN%20AND%20NATURE%20OF%20ANCIENT%20INDIAN%20BUDDHISM.pdf

 

 

No comments:

Post a Comment