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Chinese, Yue / Cantonese

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Chinese, Jin

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Persian, Dari

Persian, Western

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Pashto

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Burmese

Chinese, Hakka

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Bihari, Bhojpuri

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Bihari, Maithili

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Anthropology

<OpenstaxParagraph>
	<OpenstaxTerm><OpenstaxEm>Homo erectus</OpenstaxEm></OpenstaxTerm> is the longest-surviving species in the genus <OpenstaxEm>Homo</OpenstaxEm>. For almost two million years, <OpenstaxEm>H. erectus</OpenstaxEm> existed and evolved. Also known as the “Upright Man” or Java Man, <OpenstaxEm>H. erectus</OpenstaxEm> was first found in Indonesia in 1891 by Eugene <OpenstaxTerm>Dubois</OpenstaxTerm>, a professor of anatomy at the University of Amsterdam. At a site called Trinil, he found a skull cap and a femur. He named the specimen <OpenstaxEm>Pithecanthropus erectus</OpenstaxEm>. The most current dates for <OpenstaxEm>Homo erectus</OpenstaxEm> are 1.2–1.6 million years ago. <OpenstaxEm>H. erectus</OpenstaxEm> exhibits a cranial capacity averaging 900 cc and several distinguishing characteristics. These characteristics include a slightly projecting nasal spine, shovel-shaped incisors, a nuchal crest (a ridge in the back of the skull that supported strong neck muscles), very thick skull bones, and pronounced brow ridges. They also had longer legs, evidence that they were utilizing energy much more efficiently when walking and becoming effective hunters. We also see a diminishing of the protruding jaw (or prognathism) that was so prominent in the australopithecines.
</OpenstaxParagraph>
<OpenstaxFigure id="fig-00006" src="https://openstax.org/apps/archive/20240226.174525/resources/f56a0fa16b49be6b5e455aac08d08eab726f07fb" alt="A skull with no lower jaw." mediaType="image/jpeg" width="745" height="800" />
<OpenstaxFigureText width="745">
	<strong>Figure 5.10</strong> This Homo erectus cranium exhibits a number of defining features, including a projecting nasal spine, thick skull bones, and pronounced brow ridges. (credit: Daderot/Wikimedia Commons, Public Domain)
</OpenstaxFigureText>
<OpenstaxParagraph>
	There is evidence that <OpenstaxEm>H. erectus</OpenstaxEm> was using fire around 1.7–2.0 MYA, which would make it the first or one of the first hominins to do so. Ancient hearths, charcoal, and charred animal bones have been found in <OpenstaxTerm>Zhoukoudian</OpenstaxTerm>, China. This evidence suggests that <OpenstaxEm>H. erectus</OpenstaxEm> was hunting, cooking, and eating meat. Also found at Zhoukoudian are a number of fossil skulls that were once thought to display evidence of cannibalism. However, recent research evidence suggests that the remains of these <OpenstaxEm>H. erectus</OpenstaxEm> were prey to animal scavengers such as hyenas (Boaz et al. 2004).
</OpenstaxParagraph>
<OpenstaxParagraph>
	The Smithsonian Institution has created an <a href="https://openstax.org/r/human-evolution-interactive-timeline">interactive tool</a> that visually illustrates the interrelationships between an increasingly variable and colder climate, encephalization, bipedalism, and new technologies and tool use. These correlations align with fossil evidence indicating changes in diet and caloric requirements in response to a colder and changing climate, which ultimately fueled a growing brain. The “<OpenstaxTerm>expensive tissue hypothesis</OpenstaxTerm>” proposes that maintaining a brain is metabolically expensive and that, in order to meet the energy requirements of a larger brain, our digestive system became smaller and shorter, making it more suited for higher-quality, nutrient-dense food such as meat (Aiello and Wheeler 1995). The list below summarizes some of the key evolutionary changes seen in <OpenstaxEm>H. erectus</OpenstaxEm> from 2 MYA to possibly as recent as 50,000 years ago, which provide further support for these correlations (Dorey 2020).
</OpenstaxParagraph>
<OpenstaxOl>
	<OpenstaxLi>
		There is a progressive increase in brain size in <OpenstaxEm>H. erectus</OpenstaxEm>, from about 550 cc to 1,250 cc.
	</OpenstaxLi>
	<OpenstaxLi>
		There is evidence of increased use of fire and of eating cooked meat at <OpenstaxEm>H. erectus</OpenstaxEm> sites. <OpenstaxEm>H. erectus</OpenstaxEm> would have needed as much as 35 percent more calories than previous hominins (Fuentes 2012).
	</OpenstaxLi>
	<OpenstaxLi>
		The eating of softer foods as a result of cooking meat and plants alleviated the need for large chewing teeth and jaws. Over time teeth became smaller, which resulted in thicker enamel.
	</OpenstaxLi>
	<OpenstaxLi>
		There is a gradual decrease in prognathism, and as in <OpenstaxEm>H. habilis,</OpenstaxEm> skulls provide evidence of smaller teeth and jaws, which would have made room for larger brains.
	</OpenstaxLi>
	<OpenstaxLi>
		<OpenstaxEm>H. erectus</OpenstaxEm> is taller than any other previous hominin, with longer legs that provided the ability to run great distances and chase prey. New research is shedding some additional light on the possible benefits of running in early hominins The fossil evidence suggests that endurance running is a derived adaptation of the genus <OpenstaxEm>Homo</OpenstaxEm>, originating about two million years ago, and may have been instrumental in our evolution (Bramble and Lieberman 2004).
	</OpenstaxLi>
</OpenstaxOl>

5.2.3 Homo erectus : A Success Story

1 What Is Anthropology?

1.1 The Study of Humanity, or "Anthropology Is Vast"

1.1.1 The Heart of Anthropology: Central Narrative and Commitments

1.1.2 Central Commitment #1: Exploring Sociocultural Diversity

1.1.3 Central Commitment #2: Understanding How Societies Hold Together

1.1.4 Central Commitment #3: Examining the Interdependence of Humans and Nature

1.2 The Four-Field Approach: Four Approaches within the Guiding Narrative

1.2.1 Biological Anthropology

1.2.2 Archaeology

1.2.3 Cultural Anthropology

1.2.4 Linguistic Anthropology

1.2.5 How the Four Fields Work Together: The Example of Race

1.3 Overcoming Ethnocentrism

1.3.1 Enculturation and Ethnocentrism

1.3.2 Primitivism and Orientalism

1.4 Western Bias in Our Assumptions about Humanity

1.4.1 Primitivism and Orientalism in Popular Culture

1.4.2 The Bias of Backwardness

1.5 Holism, Anthropology’s Distinctive Approach

1.5.1 Society as an Integrated Whole

1.5.2 Sources of Contradiction, Conflict, and Change

1.6 Cross-Cultural Comparison and Cultural Relativism

1.6.1 Relativism Is Not “Anything Goes”

1.6.2 Morality, Activism, and Cultural Relativism

1.7 Reaching for an Insider’s Point of View

1.7.1 The Challenge of Representing Others

1.7.2 Collaborative Methods of Representation

1.7.3 Working across Cultures toward Common Goals

1.7.4 Suggested Readings

2 Methods: Cultural and Archaeological

2.1 Archaeological Research Methods

2.1.1 Archaeological Techniques

2.1.2 Archaeological Dating Methods

2.2 Conservation and Naturalism

2.2.1 Early Efforts

2.2.2 Salvage Anthropology

2.2.3 Museum Collections

2.2.4 Interpretation and Voice

2.3 Ethnography and Ethnology

2.3.1 The Development of Ethnography and Ethnology

2.3.2 Perspective and Interpretation in Ethnography

2.4 Participant Observation and Interviewing

2.4.1 Participant Observation

2.4.2 Interviewing Informants

2.4.3 Ethical Considerations

2.5 Quantitative and Qualitative Analysis

2.5.1 Differences between Quantitative and Qualitative Information

2.5.2 Modeling

2.5.3 The Science of Anthropology

2.6 Collections

2.6.1 Archives

2.6.2 Three-Dimensional Collections

2.6.3 Ownership

2.6.4 Suggested Readings

3 Culture Concept Theory: Theories of Cultural Change

3.1 The Homeyness of Culture

3.2 The Winkiness of Culture

3.3 The Elements of Culture

3.3.1 Culture Is What We Make

3.3.2 Culture Is What We Do

3.3.3 Culture Is What We Think

3.4 The Aggregates of Culture

3.4.1 Symbols

3.4.2 Ritual

3.4.3 Social Structure

3.5 Modes of Cultural Analysis

3.5.1 Evolution, Adaptation, and Historical Particularism

3.5.2 Functionalism

3.5.3 Structuralism

3.5.4 Ontology

3.6 The Paradoxes of Culture

3.6.1 Paradox 1: Culture Is Continuous, but It Changes

3.6.2 Paradox 2: Culture Is Bounded but Mobile

3.6.3 Paradox 3: Culture Is Consensual but Contested

3.6.4 Paradox 4: Culture Is Shared, but It Varies

3.6.5 Suggested Readings

4 Biological Evolution and Early Human Evidence

4.1 What Is Biological Anthropology?

4.1.1 Looking to the Deep Past

4.1.2 Exploring What It Means to Be Human

4.2 What’s in a Name? The Science of Taxonomy

4.2.1 Defining the Science of Taxonomy

4.2.2 Defining a Species

4.3 It’s All in the Genes! The Foundation of Evolution

4.3.1 The Units of Life

4.3.2 Gregor Mendel and the Laws of Heredity

4.3.3 Mendelian Inheritance in Humans

4.4 Evolution in Action: Past and Present

4.4.1 Early Evolutionists and the Fixity of Species

4.4.2 Charles Darwin’s Role in Changing Views of the Natural World

4.4.3 Understanding Darwin’s Theory of Natural Selection

4.5 What Is a Primate?

4.5.1 What Is a Primate?

4.5.2 Primate Behavioral Variation

4.5.3 Explaining Primate Success

4.5.4 Primate Classification and Taxonomy

4.6 Origin of and Classification of Primates

4.6.1 Understanding Concepts of Time

4.6.2 Fossils and Dating Methods