752 GENETICS AND EVOLUTION 



food gatherer, living in small, isolated breeding groups, which would 

 favor the occurrence of genetic drift, and lead to the formation of di- 

 vergent groups. 



The Neolithic or New Stone Age culture originated in the Near 

 East, between Egypt and Iran. This culture is marked not only by tools 

 which were carefully ground and polished, but by the beginnings of 

 agriculture and animal husbandry. Man gradually changed from a 

 wandering hunter and food gatherer to a settled food producer, raising 

 grain, making pottery and cloth, and living in villages. The increase in 

 the food supply led to an increase in population, breeding groups be- 

 came larger and interbred with neighboring ones, and the tendency 

 toward genetic drift was greatly decreased. The evolution of social 

 organization from the family groups and clans of the Old Stone Age 

 to the present-day large nations, which is dependent upon man's social 

 behavior, his ability to cooperate with others and to restrain his own 

 behavior, has been an important factor in the evolutionary success of 

 Hotno sapiens. 



Questions 



1. List and discuss the characters of the human body which are remnants of our former 

 adaptation for living in the trees. 



2. Indicate the current belief as to the course of evolution from primitive insectivores 

 to man. 



3. Distinguish between platyrrhine and catarrhine anthropoids. 



4. List the characters which distinguish man from the great apes. 



5. Compare the structures and functions of gibbons, orangs and gorillas. Which shows 

 the best adaptation to arboreal life? 



6. Do you consider any of the ape men or man apes to be the "missing link" in human 

 evolution? 



7. Compare the appearance of Neanderthal and Cro-Magnon men. What became of 

 each? 



8. Why is the structure of the human body said to be "relatively unspecialized?" 



9. Why is it incorrect to say that man came from monkeys? What is the correct state- 

 ment? 



10. What characters distinguish the present races of man? 



11. What is an archeological artifact? Of what use are they in tracing human evolution? 



12. In what ways do the Upper Paleolithic and Neolithic cultures differ? 



13. Why is genetic drift less important in human evolution at present than it was 10,000 

 or more years ago? 



Supplementary Reading 



A. S. Romer's Man and the Vertebrates, H. F. Osborn's Men of the Old Stone Age, 

 Howell's Mankind So Far, and W. E. L. Clark's History of the Primates give fine descrip- 

 tions of prehistoric men. E. A. Hooton gives an amusing and informative discussion of 

 the primates, of human evolution and of the present races of man in Up from the Ape. 

 Read Weidenreich's Apes, Giants and Man for a fascinating account of the ape men by 

 one of the major researchers in the field. The Races of Europe, by C. S. Coon, is an excel- 

 lent treatise of the many subdivisions of the white race. An interesting recent discussion 

 of human heredity and evolution is found in Dobzhansky's Evolution, Genetics and Man. 



