TheBiologySpace.BioBlog

For the most part the scientists discoveries and conclusions about seafood eating and harvesting seems accurate and has enough plausible evidence. However the idea of earlier humans using “make up” for social interaction seems farfetched and whimsical. Ground up colorful peices of dirt could have been used for reasons other than self decoration. According to Marean they “could have been reddish or pinkish” brown ,wow, very astute.

It think that discovering our ancestors could have learned how to cook seafood was the only thing noteworthy of making the news in regards to human behavior today. Being able to cook is an far more important skill next to “self decoration”.

I believe that these discoveries can betied to our ablility to use ceartian tools in our surroundings to survive as best we can. Rapid brain development made it easier for us to see the variety of purposes certain objects can fulfill like that of a sharp rock (knife today) as a weapon or eating ustensil. As well as the use of colorful substances we can put on our faces to look more attractive or grab more attention.

i believe that the parties can indeed be traced back to human brain development. becuase the social behavior of parties indicates a more advanced mind. becuase think about it how would you enjoy a party if all your guests did was grunt about food the entire night. also parties take planning and forsight. and organization. thus proving a more sophisticated briain funcitons.

I believe that the development of the human mind plays a great role in the development of these social functions. The rapid growth in the development of the human brain leads to a more complex higher level thinking, allowing us to do things which under the same circumstances would not have even been considered.

I believe that scientists can use this evidence as a correlation, not as a direct relationship between these fossil gatherings and advanced brain development. Although, it is apparent with these findings that our ancestors must have had some knowledge of organization, tool manufacturing, and physical awareness, other species of mammals have also proven to be capable of these abilities. We can use these findings as evidence that 40,000 years ago prehistoric humans did have some form of communication and personal lives, which I find ironic in that today we have pre-conceived notions that ancient peoples as simple and feeble-minded.

These findings are definitely interesting but I would have to say that finding early man may have used make up as a tool to send “social signals” is far more important than finding they cooked seafood. This is clearly tied to brain development because the use of make up demonstrates that early man was self aware and realized their appearance was perhaps connected to mate selection.

Well looking into the human mind…one of the neccesities of life is to fit in and to be loved. As humans we have a hierarchy of needs. We need shelter, food and water, secerity, fitting in and belonging, sex, and avoidance of pain. So the fact being that humans wanted to fullfil their means of fitting in and mating and such long ago shows that the human brain has always been complex and superior. And as time has gone on humans have better learned how to fit in, and how to find mates, so the mind has become even more intelligent.

I sort of have a different view relating to this particular subject. I believe that human brains were already significantly developed thousands of years ago…and only the culture and ways of living have changed. Yes, humans have evolved, but not necessarily in a physical way. They have evolved in their ways of seeing the world. In other words, their brain already had the CAPACITY to be able to understand the dynamics of building an airplane….they just had to go through the motions of understanding airflow. So yes, humans partied. What makes us believe that are brains now are significantly different than our ancestors’ brains back then? If we like to have a good time, it would be underestimating our ancestors’ intelligence if we say that they didn’t even have the ability to have a good time. Make sense?

Every time some science magazine comes out with news contrary to our original beliefs on a trivial subject- I just laugh. Just recently, a photographer using a high resolution camera found out that the Mona Lisa had an eyelash, which leads to belief that mayhaps she had a whole set of eyelashes…and maybe, JUST MAYBE – eyebrows. When we learn things like this- things that make ripples, no matter how small in the scientific world, I just chalk them up as no-brainers. Mona Lisa’s eyebrows, we’ve been admiring that lady for a couple centuries now without that bit of facial hair – so the sudden scientific proof makes sense of the perplexing abberation of absent eyelashes on Mona Lisa doesn’t much change the way we look at her. And the ancient humans of bygone millenia, well, it’s a fun fact that they partied down, but this “fun fact” doubly provides a mirror from which we may be able to see ourselves more clearly.

What i’m trying to say is, it’s strange and predicatable, but never ceases to awe me – how, at the descovery of the most nonessential things, excitement breaks out. Humanity’s always trying to find itself, even in the most inconsequential of discoveries, and that to me is a beautiful phenomenon.

I’m not suprised at all that they knew how to party down and look great in makeup. It’s clearly human instinct to preen when searching for a mate, and make-up would do the trick. Granted, the makeup may not look like what we use now, but I definately see why they would want to decorate themselves to ensure the continuation of life processes. It’s instinct, and I just think it’s something that’s inherent in many living things when it comes time to reproduce.

Yes, I think that they can be tied to brain development. After all, we’re still partying away in this century. I think that the early humans may have encouraged party throwing to attract mates (after all, where there’s free food…). There’s free food and mates availible. If early humans were like the ones described in texts that I have read, they must have enjoyed both. I read a book where people compared early humans to today’s humans. They were actually pretty similar (tools, mates, food, etc), except we have less hair. I also didn’t know that our ancestors ate seafood. I thought that they were limited in their tools, like rocks, spears, things like those.

Heh, pretty interesting to find out that humans back then wore makeup and the like. It really does make you think though, were we truly as different as we think we are? When it comes down to it, what truly makes us different is the advance in technology. What would the people who lived in the 1800s think about us posting opinions on some “internet” where the entire world can see? I’m sure these humans that lived so long ago were just living with the “technology” they had at their time.

This is a fascinating article, as it reveals things that we don’t think much of. However, I don’t find it that surprising. After all, I think that many people knew that the ancient Egyptians wore make-up and ate fish, and doesn’t that correlate with about the same time? Even if I am off on that, I don’t think that this stuff necessarily correlates to ‘development of the human mind’. Sure, humans have developed vastly over time, but I think that there were cultural regions that developed as groups, and wearing makeup and eating fish has nothing to do with the significance it has today. I don’t think it is a root of humans, because I think there are many,many other areas that didn’t do those things that we have much similarity to as well.

I, along with everyone else, think that the artificats definetly affected brain development. Especially, the make-up. It proves that early humans were trying to be unique and individual. The early female humans used make-up as a way to stand out and be different from everyone else. This is obviously evident today, some girls use make-up to hide unwanted things, others use it to make good features stand out, and some use it for both reasons. And that is when you know you have used too much make-up because if you touch your face there will be deep finger print. Anyway, this is all a psycological perspective of one’s self, therefore it directly affects brain developement

This shows that humans have always had the same brain capacity as they do now. It’s just that people are smarter today because of advancing science and better communication, therefore more knowledge available. For example, most of us didn’t figure out what’s inside the human body, we just learned it.
Also, this shows that humans tend to underestimate intelligence of other animals, humans from different time periods, and also irrelevant, but other humans. Also, we assume many things. We were shocked to know that people much longer ago used to party. We act as if we were there at the time and have evidence of how people used to live, but it’s all just theories, but we are so sure.

It does not surprise me that cavemen were smarter than scientists thought them to be. after all we are the most intelligent organism. animals communicate with each other by purrs, growls, and tail motions. if they can do it why can’t we. scientists also discovered early humans cooked seafood. they had not learned of fire yet but knew mussels tasted better hot, probably because the shells are hard to get open and from trips down to the beaches they noticed mussels were open on land; out of water.
Tribes have been decorating their bodies with colorful substances, piercing their bodies, and shaping their heads with boards at birth for centuries. and for what reason? well simply for mating purposes. animals have mating calls and dances and humans do too. we are not that different.

Human brain development. A quite interesting subject. There is no doubt that these acts preformed by these prehistoric humans were indeed advanced and added to the development and growth of their brains. However, upon reading this, it does not surprise me. Of course, even the prehistoric humans would do what they could to attract mates even if it meant social gatherings and wearing makeup. It seems to be a human example of sexual selection, which by the way boys and girls was not one of the answers on the first evolution quiz that Stephen and I studied for thanks to Kelsey and Anthony Females wear makeup as a way to compete for the attraction of males and therefore receive a mate.
Darwin has done it again.

I agree i think that what these people did was most definately a sign and can be traced back to the human brain development of people long ago. this kinda excites me i think is neat and to think that we are not as different as we thought that because we have computers that we are more advanced. they lived with the technology that they had obtained back then and the thinking process was not that diffrent. kinda cool.

It’s amazing to think that prehistoric women would make and wear their own makeup in order to attract attention by other mates. I read the complete CNN article and I like the how the article mentioned that these prehistoric women would travel two to three miles to where the muscles, clams and snail were harvested and to bring them back to the cave, which is ironic (and satisfying) because down the time line women were thought of as the “weaker sex” and incapable of mental and physical work, but these prehistoric women handled themselves just fine in a more unstable environment.

throwin a party shows the higher level thinking of an early man.instead cookin our own diner they probably thought that why can we come over and cook together and eat. this also shows that people that great social skills.didnt always kill people and eat them.
also did people as make up.did they take soil or dark coal, i dont get that part

When my friends and I get ready to go out for the night, we all put on cute outfits, make sure our hair is done, our make up is perfect and we’re looking our best. Why? Because everyone will be looking at us. I guess the real, underlying reason is because we are trying to attract as many males as possible in order to have the best choice. This is just a human instinct, one that this article proves has prevailed for many thousands of years. The fact that our ancestors wore make up and gathered together with their friends to party it up isn’t that surprising to me, I mean come on- they’re MY ancestors. It makes sense, though, that the females would want to put on their best make up and do their hair with the biggest bone around to attract the most successful male. It’s just a form of sexual selection- the girl with the most fish will obviously attracts the most hungry guys.