ch 15 CHAPTER 15 WHEN WE CROSSED THE RUBICON

CHAPTER 15 WHEN WE CROSSED THE RUBICON - our Kindle Notes For:

The Secret of Our Success: How Culture Is Driving Human Evolution, Domesticating Our Species, and Making Us Smarter

Joseph Henrich

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crossing the threshold into a regime of cumulative cultural evolution, which has driven human genetic evolution ever since.
Note:LA SOGLIA

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tools of sufficient complexity that no single individual could have invented
Note:INVENZIONI DEL CERVELLO CUMULATIVO

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Genetic evidence indicates that our lineage split from the line leading to chimpanzees between 5 and 10 million years ago.
Note:SPLIT DALLA SCIMMIA

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After about 4 million years ago, the bones tell us that an ape that walked on two legs with a brain somewhat larger than a chimpanzee appeared in Africa.
Note:LA SCIMMIA BIPEDE

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About 3.4 million years ago in Ethiopia, somebody was using stone tools to cut and scrape the meat off a cow-sized ungulate (like a horse or zebra) and a goat-sized bovid (think baby antelope).
Note:PRIMI STRUMENTI

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By 2.6 million years ago, the first stone tools appear in the paleoarcheological record. Known as Oldowan tools (after Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania),
Note:STRUMENTI SOFISTICATI

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By around 2.4 million years ago, a bigger-brained (about 630 cm3) bipedal ape appeared in Africa. These apes, and there may have been more than one species, are typically considered the first members of our genus, Homo, so I’ll refer to them collectively as Early Homo.
Note:CERVELLO INGRANDITO... NASCE HOMO

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In Africa and then rapidly across Eurasia, a new species of the genus Homo was on the move with bigger brains (800 cm3); a much more modern physique, including a narrower pelvis and longer legs; and often fancier stone tools. For simplicity, I will refer to all varieties of this guys—whether in Asia, Africa, or Europe—as Homo erectus.
Note:HOMO ERECTUS... BIGGER BRAIN

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Things accelerated from 1.6 to 1 million years ago, as new techniques and materials increasingly appeared among the remains of erectus societies. Hand axes, including those from the same site, go from mostly worked on one side (unifacial) to being worked on both sides (bifacial).
Note:NUOVI ATTREZZI

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Of course, this is not to imply that these ancient humans were like us, but merely that they had crossed the Rubicon and embarked on a genetic evolutionary trajectory that was primarily driven by culture and its products.
Note:COEVOLUTION... IL RUBICONE... IL CORPIO CAMBIA IN RELAZIONE AD ATTREZZI CHE SONO UN PORTATO DELLA CULTIRA

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Homo erectus changed sufficiently, including a brain expansion to 1200 cm3, to justify a new species name, Homo heidelbergensis. This period revealed the first evidence of projectile weapons,
Note:UN NUOVO ERECTUS

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The upshot of all this is that, based on current evidence, Australopiths probably began to aggregate cultural information more intensively than any other living ape
Note:AUSTROLOPITECO

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Early Homo, expanding his brain and reducing his teeth and jaws. By 1.8 million years ago, however, the threshold had probably been crossed, and cumulative cultural evolutionary products were driving the genetic evolution
Note:1.8... PIÙ CERVELLO MENO DENTI... LA FRONTIERA È SUPERATA

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By 750,000 years ago at Gesher Benot Ya'aqov, there’s little doubt that we are dealing with a cultural species who hunts large game, catches big fish, maintains hearths, cooks, manufactures complex tools, cooperates in moving giant slabs, and gathers and processes diverse plants.
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