Introduction

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 similar to other animals in that they form groups, such as families or clans, to help the species survive. We still do this today, though often the groups we belong to do not serve to ensure our survival. Instead, they are more 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. Your parents might support causes by becoming members of an organization like Greenpeace. Maybe one of your parents owns a business and has joined the local chamber of commerce or Rotary club to meet with other business owners in their community. 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, shelter, and other important aspects of survival
• How to develop ways to communicate
• 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 often organized themselves into family groups with about 25 or fewer people in them. Making decisions about how to cope with challenges might have been relatively easy when the group was limited to 25 family members. However, Paleolithic humans often joined several family groups together, to form a larger group with as many as 100 people. In these larger groups, it was more difficult to make decisions and to coordinate members. The members of the group 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 because they faced similar issues wherever they lived. 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. Stereotypical representations of Paleolithic people often portray men going off to hunt 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 beyond infancy is a highly valued and culturally 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 certain animals or plants in order to tell others where to find them, how to prepare them, or the best way to capture them. Communication was also necessary for safety: to keep the fire burning at night to ward off animals, or 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 what plants were poisonous, or which ones might help to cure an illness, was passed down orally from one generation to the next. Additionally, language played a crucial role in allowing humans to share and pass on 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 below is an example of this. Figures with the same general appearance, all dating to the Paleolithic era, have been found in multiple areas across Afro-Eurasia. This indicates that beliefs and ideas were communicated and shared by many communities.

While Paleolithic communities shared the same challenges and all created cultures to deal with these issues, each culture was somewhat different. These differences were based on a number of factors, such as the geography or climate of the area where the group lived, and the resources available. 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 might develop tools and techniques based upon their local resources. Information would be passed down about certain varieties of food and the best ways to construct tools and weapons to hunt local game. Their language, means of survival, and stories about nature and creation would be very different from those of a group that lived on the coasts of Southeast Asia, or in 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 add a wonderful diversity to the world. They are something to be celebrated.