Most animals are social. They come together in groups for protection, to raise their young, and to find food. Humans are no different. They, too, form groups. Originally, this was to help them survive. Today, most of the groups we belong to are based on common interests or beliefs. 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.

Early humans joined together in groups to increase their chances of surviving. Yet, by creating these groups, they also began developing human cultures.

The Human Cultural Experience

Culture is a hard word to define. In general, it refers to the set of ideas, beliefs, and practices that are created or learned by members of a group to solve challenges. Early humans lived in the Paleolithic Era, also known as the Old Stone Age. This era started around 2.6 million years ago. It ended around 11,700 years ago. The purpose of culture during this era was to help people survive. Challenges that were part of this culture included:

• How to produce and distribute food and find or make shelter
• How to deal with nature
• How to communicate with other group members
• How to manage conflicts between group members and with strangers
• How to design and use tools
• How to organize labor

Paleolithic humans often organized themselves into family groups. These groups usually had no more than 25 people in them. Making group decisions was fairly easy when a group was that small. However, Paleolithic humans often combined different family groups. The result was a larger social group with as many as 100 people. In these larger groups, it was more difficult to make decisions. It also was harder to get people to work together. Group members had to decide on the best ways to organize the group in order to remain safe and find enough food.

Shared Human Experiences

Paleolithic human communities created similar ways of dealing with their challenges. Farming had not been created yet. Therefore, all Paleolithic peoples hunted and gathered for food. 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 involved driving animals toward a cliff or throwing nets. We know women participated in these types of hunting in more recent eras.

Among modern hunting and gathering cultures, men and women handle childcare. Raising children is considered a highly important task. Therefore, it may also have been shared by Paleolithic men and women. Hunting and gathering made language necessary. People needed names for different animals and plants. They needed to tell others where to find and how to hunt certain animals. They needed to tell others which plants were poisonous or could cure an illness. Language allowed this information to be passed down from one generation to the next.

Language also allowed early humans to think about more than just survival. It allowed them to share and pass on their beliefs about the natural and spirit worlds.

Sometimes, practices or beliefs developed by a group living in one region were adopted by groups living elsewhere. The Venus of Willendorf figure shown below is an example of this. Very similar-looking figures have been found all across Afro-Eurasia. This shows that beliefs and practices were communicated and shared by many communities.

Paleolithic communities shared the same challenges. They all created cultures to deal with these issues. However, each culture was somewhat different. These differences were based on a number of things, including differences in geography and climate. Different areas also had different kinds of plants and animals.

The farther apart two human groups were, the greater the differences between them. For example, a group living in the rainforests of central Africa would pass down information about local plants and animals. The tools they developed would be made of the materials found around them. Their stories about nature would be very different from those of a group living in the mountains of Mesoamerica. Their language would be completely different, too.

Today, there are still major differences between cultures. People in different parts of the world have very different beliefs, practices, and experiences. Sometimes this leads to hate, and even war. Overall, however, cultural differences are a good thing. They make the world a far more interesting place. Every culture is both special and precious.