Biological factors influence human evolution.

Human development historically could not take place in isolation from the surrounding reality. This process was influenced by the biological factors of human evolution, the same as they influenced the rest wildlife. However, studies show that only biological factors are clearly not enough for anthropogenesis, social factors were also required.

The early stages of human evolution are characterized by the predominance of biological factors. Of decisive importance was the natural selection of individuals with better adaptability to constantly changing environmental conditions.

There was a selection and individuals who showed the ability to produce primitive tools, without which the extraction of food and protection from enemies became problematic.

At later stages, selection was already carried out on the basis of herding and related forms of communication. In the environment, only groups of individuals could continue to exist, capable of jointly resisting surprises and adverse factors.

At certain stages, the biological factors of human evolution included individual selection, which was based on the selective death of individual individuals and contributed to the formation of human morphophysiological features, such as upright posture, a large brain, and a developed hand.

Man already had a difference from the surrounding animal world in that he could speak, developed thinking and the ability to work. So in the process of anthropogenesis was formed modern man.

The biological factors of the historical-revolutionary process of the formation of man were exactly the same for all living nature. They became especially important in the early stages of human development. Charles Darwin wrote a lot about the role of biological factors for human evolution.

The biological factors of human evolution have created the prerequisites for the occurrence of hereditary changes in him, which determine, for example, eye and hair color, height, and also the body's resistance to environmental influences.

Man's dependence on nature was especially felt in early stages his evolution. Only individuals who were characterized by endurance, physical strength, dexterity, quick wits and other useful qualities could survive and leave offspring for procreation.

The beginning of the improvement of labor tools significantly reduced the role biological evolution. Technogenic evolution has forced a person not to wait, as they say, for alms from nature. He no longer adapted painfully and slowly, but he himself consciously changed the very surrounding nature and forced it to satisfy his needs. To do this, people used powerful tools.

However, the biological factors of human evolution have not completely lost their influence on animal world in general, and per person in particular. Nature is still the cause of the ongoing evolution of man.

Human evolution began over 10 million years ago and continues to this day. Social and biological factors of anthropogenesis acted on the formation of the modern human species.

Factors

Man is a biological species that emerged from the biosphere and created an artificial environment, which was called the noosphere. That's why human development depends on two factors:

• biological - natural and identical for all kinds of living beings;
• social - due to society, norms of behavior, labor, culture.

Initially, only biological factors acted on human evolution. However, as evolutionary complexity increases, separate species of a person and society (tribe) as a whole, social factors began to play a significant role.

Anthropogenesis is sometimes called anthroposociogenesis, emphasizing the importance of social life in human evolution.

Biological

Mankind, like any other species, was formed under the influence of the driving forces of evolution, which include:

• variability;
• natural selection;
• mutations;
• isolation;
• struggle for existence.

In the early stages of anthropogenesis decisive role played by natural selection. Through the powers natural selection humanity has acquired character traits distinguishing it from other great apes. Evolution was largely facilitated by a change in lifestyle due to climate change and terrain.
Thanks to natural selection, mankind has acquired:

• developed brain;
• grasping brush;
• upright posture;
• bare skin (the hair is preserved only on the head).

  

  Rice. 1. Differences between humans and chimpanzees.

  It is believed that the ancestors of man were driopithecus living on trees. With the disappearance of forests, they had to gradually go out into the savannas and adapt to new conditions, which contributed to further evolution.

  

  Rice. 2. Dryopithecus.

  Social

  The development of human abilities was influenced by the social factors of anthropogenesis. First of all, collective labor is distinguished, namely hunting. Man is a rather weak creature to hunt large and dangerous prey alone. Therefore, the rallying of the tribe, the distribution of tasks, the establishment of relations contributed to a successful hunt.

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  Rice. 3. Collective hunting.

  Also social factors are:

  • speech - ability to communicate;
  • thinking - development logical thinking, application of experience, training;
  • creation - the ability to create objects, works of art, solve non-standard tasks;
  • public lifestyle - manifestation of altruism, care, respect for socially significant individuals.

  The main advantage of mankind over other animals is the presence of speech. With the help of a system of words, people can communicate, solve complex problems, explain feelings, emotions, their physical state. This increases the speed of information exchange and decision making.

  Social factors are characteristic only of human evolution, despite the fact that many animals lead a social lifestyle.

  What have we learned?

  Considered the main factors of anthropogenesis. Human evolution is influenced by biological and social factors. The leading biological factors of human evolution include variability and natural selection. The social factors inherent only in the evolution of man are labor, thinking, creativity, speech, and the social way of life.

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The monkeys did not start walking right away. Environmental change - the transition from forests to live in open areas caused some of them to have a tendency to upright posture, which was maintained and improved over millions of years in the process of the struggle for existence and natural selection. Bipedalism limited the motor activity of great apes, which led to the fusion and immobility of the bones of the sacrum. And this, although it made childbirth somewhat difficult, made it possible to see the approaching danger from afar, and freed up hands for making tools.

At the beginning of the process of forming a person, his hands were not yet well developed and performed only simple movements. Thanks to mutational variability, the struggle for existence and natural selection, individuals with modified hands were preserved, capable of performing labor operations. It took millions of years for the first great apes to be able not only to use ready-made objects (stones, sticks) as tools, but also to learn how to make them. The creation of tools led to the emergence of ever greater differences between the hands of humans and monkeys and reduced its dependence on the external environment. This is exactly what F. Engels had in mind when he noted that man was created by labor.

Living in a community played an important role in the process of turning apes into humans. Any individual with a tool could not alone resist the attack of predatory animals. Therefore, the most ancient and ancient people began to live in communities. Thus, they defended themselves from predatory animals, hunted, raised children. The elders of the community taught the young members how to make tools, how to hunt, keep fire, and find edible plants and animals.

Ancient people formed primitive communal relations, namely, care for the wounded and sick members of the community, the funeral of the dead. The community consisted of 50-100 people. Living in the community was of great importance. Communities survived that were able to resist in the struggle for existence, hunt well, provide themselves with food, take care of each other, help reduce mortality among the elderly and children, overcome unfavourable conditions residence. The rest of the communities perished.

With the development of the labor process, the usefulness of mutual assistance became more and more obvious. The experience that people have accumulated by knowing environment, nature in general, was passed down from generation to generation and improved. Living in a community allowed its members to communicate with each other using sounds, gestures and facial expressions. Gradually, the gore-tan and mouth apparatus, which were not developed in monkeys, as a result of hereditary variability and natural selection, turned into a speech organ in humans. material from the site

Man and higher animals react to external objects and events with the direct participation of vision, hearing and other sense organs. Unlike higher animals, humans have a second signaling system. A person perceives external signals through words. This is a sign that qualitatively distinguishes the higher nervous activity of man and animals from each other. Thanks to speech, joint work developed public relations that strengthened human interaction.

In the process of the emergence of man, the consumption of food cooked on fire also played an important role. Hunting and fishing made it possible to eat not only vegetable, but also mixed food, which in itself was the reason for the reduction in the length of the intestine. The consumption of fire-cooked food over the millennia gradually eased the load on the masticatory apparatus, as a result of which the rib of the upper bone, which connects the powerful masticatory muscles in monkeys, lost its biological significance.

1. What social factors were the main driving forces of anthropogenesis?

The social factors of human evolution were revealed by F. Engels in the book "The role of labor in the transformation of apes into humans" (1896). This is labor, its social character, speech, consciousness and thinking. Labor began with the manufacture of tools. Animals can use tools, but they cannot make one tool to create another.

The social nature of labor:

a) The herd way of life is transformed into a social way of life through joint work.

b) Labor increases cohesion, promotes protection, hunting and raising offspring.

c) Common labor led to the development of articulate speech. Changing the larynx and mouth apparatus makes them suitable for speech. A second signaling system appears, allowing you to reproduce the world with the help of words.

Speech and thinking:

a) Joint work leads to the development of the brain, as a result, the tools of labor become more complicated. As a result of labor, the hand develops, which leads to the development of the part of the brain responsible for the development of speech.

b) The development of speech weakened the action of biological factors of development and increased the influence social factors.

c) If the morphological and physiological characteristics of a person are inherited, then the abilities for collective work, activity, thinking and speech are not transmitted. These specific qualities of a person historically arose and improved under the influence of social factors and develop in each person in the process of his individual development only in society thanks to upbringing and education.

2. What stages (phases) are distinguished in the process of becoming a person? Name the representatives of each stage, characterize them. material from the site

Stage, time of appearance of the symptom	Representatives	signs
Branch of the Vet-Vee hominids, circa 5 Ma B.C.	Australopithecus	Homeland - South East Africa; brain volume no more than 600 cm 3, massive jaws, upright posture, thumb well developed, use of natural objects as tools, hunting, gathering
Prehominid stage, 2–3 Ma BC	skillful man	Homeland - East Africa, South Africa, South Africa East Asia; brain volume: 500-800 cm 3 , tool making, cooperation during hunting
The oldest people, 1-2 million years BC	Straightened Man: Pithecan Trope Sinanthropus	Motherland - Southeast Asia, Europe; brain volume: 800-1400 cm 3, maintaining fire, simple shapes collective activity, primitive speech Homeland - East Asia; brain volume 700-1200 cm 3, dressed in skins, lived in caves, had more modern tools, used fire
Ancient people, 250 thousand years BC	Homo sapiens: Neanderthals	Homeland - Europe, Africa, Asia, lived in caves in groups; brain volume 1400 cm 3, they used fire and stone tools, the first burials, speech like le-pet
Modern (new) people, 50 thousand years BC	Cro-Magnon, Modern Man	Homeland - Europe, Asia, Australia, America; brain volume: 1600 cm 3, housing, more modern tools, clothing, art, real speech, thinking, agriculture. Painting on cave walls, making jewelry, domesticating the first animals. Distribution everywhere, development of agriculture, industry and culture

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Man differs from animals in the presence of speech, developed thinking, and the ability to work. How was modern man formed? What are driving forces anthropogenesis?

Anthropogenesis (from the Greek. anthropos - man and genesis - origin) - the process of historical and evolutionary formation of man, which is carried out under the influence of biological and social factors.

Biological factors, or the driving forces of evolution, are common to all living nature, including man. These include hereditary variability and natural selection.

The role of biological factors in human evolution was revealed by Ch. Darwin. These factors played a big role in the evolution of man, especially in the early stages of his formation.

A person has hereditary changes that determine, for example, hair and eye color, height, and resistance to environmental factors. In the early stages of evolution, when a person was highly dependent on nature, individuals with hereditary changes that were useful in given environmental conditions (for example, individuals distinguished by endurance, physical strength, dexterity, quick wit) mainly survived and left offspring.

The social factors of anthropogenesis include labor, social lifestyle, developed consciousness and speech. The role of social factors in anthropogenesis was revealed by F. Engels in his work "The role of labor in the process of transformation of apes into humans" (1896). These factors played a leading role in the later stages of human development.

The most important factor in human evolution is labor. The ability to make tools is unique to man. Animals can only use individual objects to get food (for example, a monkey uses a stick to get a treat).

Labor activity contributed to the consolidation of morphological and physiological changes in human ancestors, which are called anthropomorphoses.

An important anthropomorphosis in human evolution was bipedalism. For many generations, as a result of natural selection, individuals with hereditary changes conducive to upright posture have been preserved. Adaptations to upright posture gradually formed: an S-shaped spine, an arched foot, a wide pelvis and chest, and massive bones of the lower extremities.

Upright walking led to the release of the hand. At first, the hand could perform only primitive movements. In the process of labor, she improved, began to perform complex actions. Thus, the hand is not only an organ of labor, but also its product. A developed hand allowed a person to make primitive tools. This gave him significant advantages in the struggle for existence.

Joint labor activity contributed to the rallying of the members of the team, necessitated the exchange of sound signals. Communication contributed to the development of the second signaling system - communication with the help of words. At first, our ancestors exchanged gestures, separate inarticulate sounds. As a result of mutations and natural selection, the oral apparatus and larynx were transformed, and speech was formed.

Labor and speech influenced the development of the brain, thinking. So for a long time, as a result of the interaction of biological and social factors, human evolution was carried out.

If the morphological and physiological characteristics of a person are inherited, then the ability to work, speech and thinking develop only in the process of upbringing and education. Therefore, with prolonged isolation of the child, he does not develop at all or develops very poorly speech, thinking, and adaptability to life in society.