Most animals are social creatures. They come together in family groups or herds for protection, to raise their young, and to find food. Humans are no different. They, too, form groups, originally to help them survive. We still do this today, though the groups we belong to are now mostly social in nature. For example, you might be a member of your school’s art club or play a sport. You and your family might be members of a local church, mosque, or synagogue. Humans are most certainly social animals and we tend to bond in groups over shared interests or experiences. Early humans were very similar, but their main goal in joining together in groups was survival. Yet, by creating these groups, they also began developing human cultures.

The Human Cultural Experience

Culture is a difficult word to define. Some define it as the way of life of people. However, if we use that broad definition, then everything that people do can be counted as culture. Others use the term culture to describe the arts. For our purposes, we’re going to use historian Bob Bain’s definition. For him, culture is the set of “ideas, beliefs, and practices that are acquired, created, or learned as a member of a group to manage human challenges.” For early humans living in the Paleolithic Era, or “Old Stone Age,” these challenges might include:

• How to maintain order and manage conflicts between group members and with strangers
• How to produce and distribute food and arrange for shelter and other important survival needs
• How to communicate with other group members
• How to deal with nature
• How to organize labor to ensure survival
• How to build relationships between old and young, men and women, and parents and children in one’s group
• How to design and use tools

Paleolithic humans lived in an era that started around 2.6 million years ago and ended around 11,700 years ago. During this era humans often organized themselves into family groups. These groups generally had no more than 25 people in them. Making group decisions was relatively easy when a group was that small. However, Paleolithic humans often combined different family groups to create a larger group with as many as 100 people. In these larger groups, it was more difficult to make decisions and coordinate activities. Group members had to decide on the best ways to organize the group in order to ensure food, safety, and ultimately survival.

Shared Human Experiences

Different Paleolithic human communities created similar ways of dealing with their challenges. All Paleolithic peoples foraged (hunted and gathered) because that was the only way to get food before the creation of farming. But who did what kind of foraging is difficult to tell from the remaining skeletal or archeological evidence. Paleolithic men are often portrayed as hunters while women and children wait for the men to bring meat. But much hunting was done by driving herds of animals toward a cliff or throwing nets over them. These are types of hunting we know women participated in during more recent eras. We know that Paleolithic infants were nursed by their mothers or other women who had recently given birth. But among modern hunting and gathering cultures, childcare is a highly valued and important task shared by everyone. Therefore, it may also have been for Paleolithic groups.

Hunting and gathering also required communication between humans. Paleolithic human groups developed names for different animals or plants. They needed to do this in order to tell others where to find them, how to catch them, and how to prepare them. Communication was also necessary for safety. People had to be told to keep the fire burning at night to ward off animals. They had to learn how to interact with other groups in the local area. Decisions had to be made about the best way to raise children and how to teach them the necessary survival skills. Information about which plants were poisonous or might cure an illness was passed down orally from one generation to the next. Additionally, language played a crucial role in allowing humans to share beliefs about the natural and spirit worlds.

Communities that lived close to one another usually spoke similar languages. Sometimes, a particular set of skills or even an entire culture was invented by members of one language network in one region and then shared or adopted by others. The Venus of Willendorf figure shown here is an example of this. Paleolithic-era figures with the same general appearance have been found all across Afro-Eurasia. This indicates that beliefs and ideas were communicated and shared by many communities.

Paleolithic communities shared the same challenges and they all created cultures to deal with these issues. However, each culture was somewhat different. These differences were based on a number of factors, such as the geography or climate of the area where a group lived, and the resources available to them. The farther apart two human groups were, the greater the differences between them. For example, a foraging group that lived in the rainforests of central Africa would develop tools and practices based on their local resources. Information would be passed down about local plants and local kinds of game. The group’s language, means of survival and stories about nature and creation would be very different from those of a group living in, for example, the mountains of Mesoamerica.

Today, there are still major differences between cultures. A wide variety of beliefs, practices and experiences can be found around the world. Sometimes these differences lead to arguments, violence, and distrust. Overall, however, cultural differences are what make us unique. They contribute to the rich variety of human life and are something to be celebrated.