1. Or we were gatherers and hunters most of our time on planet earth

2.  Some 5 million to 6 million years ago, our ancestors diverged from African apes and the line leading to chimpanzees  20 to 30 different species of hominid or humanlike creatures developed  In eastern and southern Africa

3.  All hominids were bipedal  Bipedal = To walk upright on two legs

4.  In 1976, Mary Leakey uncovered in what is now Tanzania a series of footprints of three such individuals, preserved in the cooling volcanic ash about 3.5 million years ago  Two of the hominids appeared to be holding hands

5.  About 2.3 million years ago, one particular hominid’s brain grew larger  Scientists believe this brain growth was due to extreme and rapid climate change that required the ability to adapt  Homo Habilis or “Handy Man” had evolved

6.  Some 250,000 years ago, Homo sapiens emerged in Africa  And sometime after 100,000 years ago, Homo sapiens began to migrate out of Africa  They eventually settled every habitable region of the world!

7.  95% of humanity’s time on earth  Food-collecting or gathering and hunting way of life  Refers to food-collecting or gathering and hunting way of life  Foraging societies  Small groups, mobile, nomadic

8.  Inability to store food  Few personal belongings due to nomadism  Did not build permanent settlements

9.  Development of spoken language  Ability to make simple tools out of stone  Ability to control and use fire  Ability to adapt to a multiplicity of environments

10.  The Stone Age lasted from 2.5 million years ago to 5,000 or 6,000 years ago  But three phases of the Stone age 1. Paleolithic 2. Mesolithic 3. Neolithic

11.  Paleolithic (“Old Stone Age”) -ending 12,000 years ago and overlapping with the Great, or Pleistocene, Ice Age  Mesolithic (“Middle Stone Age”) -lasting from 12,000 to 10,000 years ago  Neolithic (“New Stone Age”) -beginning around 8000 BCE

12.  Ensuring a steady and plentiful food supply  Food collectors not food producers

13.  Earliest clothes: Furs and animal hides  As time passed, learned to use plant fibers  By 26,000 years ago, some Stone Age peoples were weaving cloth and even dyeing it to add color

14.  Based on family unit  Extended families clustered together  Extended families formed clans bound by ties of kinship  Clans formed bands and tribes

15.  Scarce resources led to the practice of nomadism  Moved on to other areas in search of resources

16.  Worshipped many deities  Made sacrifices to gods and spirits  Buried their dead

17.  Assigned by gender  Men = Hunted  Women = Gathered  But men’s roles were not necessarily seen as superior to women’s roles  This division continued after Stone Age and gave rise to long-standing gender inequality that did favor men

18.  In what significant ways did the Paleolithic period differ from the world we live in today?