Presentation on the world around us on the topic “At the Dawn of Humanity” (grade 4). At the dawn of humanity

1. Follow the pictures to see how the person changed. Write down how modern man differs from his ancestors.

Modern man's forehead has become higher(higher or lower) because the volume has increased brain. The jaws of people who have learned to keep fire decreased (decreased or increased), since there was no longer a need to chew pieces of raw meat.

2. Highlight in blue those qualities that were more necessary for animals - human ancestors, in green - for ancient people, in red - for modern people.

3. What keeps us from exhibiting animal habits?

education, traditions of society, law

4. How was man able to get his own food?

Thanks to courage, dexterity, the ability to negotiate with other people and act together.

5. Circle in red those tools that you could make or find in 1 hour, in blue - in 1 day, in green - you could not make without training. Write which of these tools were used by human ancestors, ancient people and modern people in the prehistoric period.

6. Show with arrows the features of Homo sapiens that distinguish him from ancient man. Sign the drawings.

7. Why do you think modern man has a sharper chin than his ancestors?

A person no longer needs to tear large pieces of meat, including raw meat, with his jaw.

Nicholas Wade has written a bold, impeccable, insightful book that summarizes all the latest and most relevant scientific data on the origins of man.
Lionel Tiger, Professor of Anthropology, Rutgers University

The best book I have ever read, an incomparable book about the origins of humanity.
Edward Wilson, professor emeritus at Harvard University, author of The Existence of Meaning

This is a wonderful work that summarizes all the most important and current research in the field of genetics and anthropology. Excellently written too.
The Scientist

What is the book “At the Dawn of Humanity: The Untold History of Our Ancestors” about?

Why the book "The Dawn of Humanity: The Untold Story of Our Ancestors" is worth reading

• Nicholas Wade follows the path of evolution and introduces the reader to historical events and facts: when the human branch separated from the chimpanzee branch, the emergence of language, the exodus of the first modern people from Africa, the war with the Neanderthals, sedentism and domestication, the emergence of society and religion.
• In the book, the author describes discoveries made in recent years, provides the results of scientific research and discoveries that have become undoubted scientific breakthroughs.
• The book is ranked 12th in the Paleontology section and is also one of the top 100 anthropology books on Amazon.

about the author

Nicholas Wade — science journalist, received a BSc from King's College, Cambridge University. Writes for Nature, Science, and the New York Times on defense, space exploration, medicine, technology, genetics, molecular biology, ecology, and politics. Author of several books. Winner of the National Society of Science Writers “Science in Social and Political Journalism” award.

Translator Nikolay Mezin

Scientific editor Sergey Yastrebov

Editor Yulia Bystrova

Project Manager I. Seregina

Proofreaders S. Chupakhina, M. Milovidova

Computer layout A. Fominov

Cover design Yu. Buga

Cover photo iStock

© Nicholas Wade, 2006

This edition is published by arrangement with Sterling Lord Literistic and The Van Lear Agency LLC

© Publication in Russian, translation, design. Alpina Non-Fiction LLC, 2016

All rights reserved. The work is intended exclusively for private use. No part of the electronic copy of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, including posting on the Internet or corporate networks, for public or collective use without the written permission of the copyright owner. For violation of copyright, the law provides for payment of compensation to the copyright holder in the amount of up to 5 million rubles (Article 49 of the Code of Administrative Offenses), as well as criminal liability in the form of imprisonment for up to 6 years (Article 146 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation).

Many times it has been confidently expressed that the origin of man will never be known. Ignorance manages to inspire confidence more often than knowledge, and usually it is not those who know a lot, but those who know little, who most confidently declare that this or that problem will never be solved by science.

Moving back through time, we see that in the first century or two of human history there was no shortage of evidence of its existence. But then everything changes dramatically. At the turn of 5,000 years, written monuments disappear, giving way to wordless artifacts dug out of the ground. Over the next 10,000 years, we see them less and less, and after 150 centuries, at the time of the emergence of the first human settlements, artifacts practically disappear. Until this moment, people led a nomadic life, subsisting on hunting and gathering. They built nothing and left behind almost no lasting creations, except for a few stone tools and amazing rock paintings in the caves of Europe.

Rewinding back another 35,000 years, we reach a point when human ancestors had not yet left their homeland in northeast Africa, but were already showing the first signs of modern behavior. If we assume that the history of modern man begins from there, then it turns out that written sources illuminate only the last 10% of its length, the rest of the history seems to have disappeared into darkness.

Let's go further back in time to the first days of the existence of our biological species, 5 million years ago, when the first ape-like creatures, the distant ancestors of humanity, separated from the species that also gave rise to chimpanzees. The only material trace of the era in which the evolution from ape to man took place is a few stone tools.

It would seem that it would be impossible to know this time in any depth: 5 million years of human evolution and 50,000 years of the prehistoric era are hidden in darkness. However, in recent years, scientists have discovered a completely new data archive. This is a chronicle recorded in the DNA of the human genome, in its different versions scattered across the planet. Genetics has long helped us study the past, but has been particularly successful since 2003, when scientists completed determining the DNA sequence of the human genome.

But how does the genome tell us so much about the past? As a repository of hereditary information that is constantly changing, the genome is like a document that is endlessly rewritten. But the genome, while changing, retains information about all the “drafts” that contain a chronicle of millions of years. Thus, the genome can tell us a lot about different time layers. It has evidence going back more than 50,000 years to genetic Adam, the man whose Y chromosome is present in every male living on earth today. At the same time, the genome can provide clues to mysteries that are only two centuries old (for example, answering the question: did Thomas Jefferson have illegitimate children from his slave mistress Sally Hemings).

The genome helps scientists see a new, much clearer picture of human evolution, nature and history. A stunningly detailed picture emerges from the pitch darkness.

The new reading of human history is based on the foundation laid by paleoanthropology, archaeology, anthropology and many other sciences. It is considered new because all these traditional areas of knowledge today use genetic information and genetics is gradually bringing them together.

This book describes a number of aspects of human evolution, nature and ancient history, highlighted by discoveries in genetics in recent years. Readers who are far from this field of knowledge will probably be surprised at how much varied information the new historical approach contains. There is no video recording of the monkey gradually turning into a human, but this process can be reconstructed as a sequence of significant events. There are no maps showing the migration of the first people from their ancestral home, but scientists can map the route our ancestors took out of Africa and their further movement around the planet. It is even possible to trace the origins of some social institutions that arose among people during the transition from a nomadic lifestyle based on hunting and gathering to modern complex social systems.

Information from the genome allowed paleoanthropologists to determine when a person lost thick body hair and when he gained the gift of speech. The genome helped solve a long-standing archaeological mystery about the coexistence of Neanderthals and modern humans: did they live in peace and interbreed, or did they fight until the weakest was completely destroyed? Genetics has provided anthropologists with evidence of the emergence of various cultural practices, such as herding or cannibalism. And even comparative historical linguistics has been enriched, albeit indirectly, by the information that DNA gives us: the history of language is today reconstructed using family tree techniques developed by biologists for mapping genes.

In the question of the population of primitive people that existed 50,000 years ago and gave rise to all the peoples now inhabiting the Earth, the methods of paleoanthropology and archeology are powerless to reveal anything about our ancestors, who disappeared without a trace. But geneticists, studying the human genome, discover the most amazing facts. They can estimate the size of this group of early people. They can tell where in Africa they most likely lived. They can name the date, albeit very approximate, of the emergence of human language. And even sooner or later they will be able to restore the sound of the parent language.

There are few examples that more clearly demonstrate the ability of genetics to penetrate the most amazing recesses of the human past than the recent discovery of the historical period when the first sewn clothes appeared. Primitive people have probably been wearing animal skins for millions of years, covering themselves with them like a cloak, but man-made clothing is a relatively recent invention. Archaeologists cannot determine when it originated, since both the fabric and bone needles with which it was sewn are very short-lived.

In the fall of 1999 in Leipzig, the son of anthropologist Mark Stoneking brought a note from school saying that one of the students in the class had become infected with lice. Stoneking, an American scientist who worked at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, read the note with all the attention of a worried parent. However, as a geneticist who had long been interested in the origins of man, he noticed a place in the text where it was said that a louse could not live without the heat of the human body for more than 24 hours.

To use presentation previews, create a Google account and log in to it: https://accounts.google.com

Slide captions:

AT THE DAWN OF HUMANITY Work of a 4th grade student, GBOU secondary school No. 491 Krasnokutsky Alexandra St. Petersburg

WHEN ANCIENT PEOPLE APPEARED Primitive people appeared on Earth about 2 million years ago

GROUPS OF ANCIENT PEOPLE In the harsh and dangerous conditions of those times, it was impossible to survive alone, and primitive people lived in small groups. Each person had his own responsibilities and rights, all the food obtained was common, people defended themselves from predators together, and resolved controversial issues together.

THE FIRST TOOLS OF LABOR The first tools of labor (a sharp stone and a stick) helped improve a difficult life: with the help of a stone it was possible to cut up killed prey, and a sharpened stick was used in hunting, and it could be used to dig up roots.

FOOD The issue of food has always been very acute; people depended on nature. After all, during a drought it is impossible to find berries, and fires can drive away all animals from the sites. Ancient man often changed his habitat, the tribe moved from place to place in search of food. Primitive people tried to set up camps closer to the water, because it was easier to attack herds of animals that came to drink.

LIVING With the help of primitive tools it was still impossible to build a home on their own, so ancient people chose caves and gorges already created by nature. Even fire, tamed by man and carefully guarded day and night, could not save us from the dampness in the caves. But, despite such difficult living conditions, ancient people were much less sick than our contemporaries.

RESPECT In order to hunt together and protect themselves from predators, people lived in tribes. Within each tribe, certain customs and rules of behavior developed. People began to take care of children and did not offend the weak. This is how the first moral norms, the foundations of human society, were laid. However, these norms did not apply to members of other tribes.

MIND Since man's ancestors acquired reason, the successful experience of each person has become the property of the entire society. Social experience has become the main condition for human development

On the topic: methodological developments, presentations and notes

Presentation for the lesson on the surrounding world "At the Dawn of Humanity" 4th grade

This presentation was developed for primary school students and was presented as part of school-wide history week....

Club "Key and Zarya". Working with a fragment of the painting by J. Bassano “God is angry with Adam.”

Classroom (4 hours) practical lesson, game. Work in the Museum House. Working with a fragment of the painting by J. Bassano “God is angry with Adam.” Reading words syllable by syllable. Onomatopoeia....

(p. 25) 1. Follow the drawings to see how the person changed. Write down how modern man differs from his ancestors.

In modern humans, the forehead has become higher as the volume of the brain has increased. The jaws of people who learned to maintain fire became smaller, since there was no longer a need to tear pieces of raw meat with their teeth.

(p. 25) 2. Highlight in blue those qualities that were necessary for animals - the ancestors of humans, in green - for ancient people, in red - for modern people.

(p. 25) 3. What keeps us from exhibiting animal behavior?

(p. 26) 4. Thanks to what did a person learn to get his own food?

Thanks to the tools.

(p. 26) 5. Circle in red those tools that you could make or find in 1 hour, in blue - in 1 day, in green - you could not make without training. Write which of these tools were used by human ancestors, ancient people and modern people in the prehistoric period.

(p. 26) 6. Show with arrows the features of Homo sapiens that distinguish him from ancient man. Sign the drawings.

(p. 26) 7. Why do you think modern people have a sharper chin than their ancestors?

A sharper chin is a consequence of speech development.

(p. 27) Test yourself.

1. Organ system, indispensable for the body -

No system can be replaced.

2. Systems that unite all organs -

Blood, nervous.

3. Who (or what) “takes care” of the skin?

Sebaceous glands.

4. What cells cover the surface of the skin?

Dead keratinized cells.

5. Contracting organs –

Heart and other muscles.

6. The basis of the skeleton.

Spine.

7. Organ system that produces energy -

Digestive.

8. Where do nutrients enter the blood?

In the intestines.

9. What organ system do the kidneys belong to?

To the excretory system.

10. What gas is constantly missing in the body?

Oxygen.

11. In which “cage” are the respiratory organs located?

In the chest.

12. How many times does blood pass through the heart in one circle?

13. How does blood get from an artery to a vein?

Having passed through the blood circulation through the capillaries coming from the organs.

14. Two components of blood.

Plasma and formed elements.

15. Where is our consciousness “placed”?

16. Through what “wires” does the brain receive messages?

On the nerves.

17. A layer of nerve cells at the bottom of the eye.

Retina.

18. What does the second eye, the second ear evaluate?

A triple ear makes it possible to more accurately determine the source of sound. The second eye expands the view and makes vision three-dimensional.

19. Where is the organ of balance located?

20. How does a child eat before birth?

Through the umbilical cord, receiving nutrients dissolved in the mother's blood.

21. How are children protected from the most dangerous diseases?

They get vaccinated.

22. Which animal is similar to humans in body structure?

Great apes.

23. What distinguishes humans from animals?

Consciousness and mind.

24. Norms of human behavior in society.