To begin with, much has been said about the evolution of the human race. A lot of scientific discoveries have been based on the need to describe the origin of humans. It is believed that about two million years ago in the Rift Valley plains of Africa the first human ancestor was born (Kluckhohn, 2017). Following new discovery it has been noted that these creatures had took to the characteristic of humans whereby they travelled, made tools, hunted, tamed fire and in addition they are believed to be the creator of the first human society.
The video speaks of early humans such as the first ape-like humans to walk upright on two legs and had a small brain and one famous one was ‘Lucy’. She was 3 foot & 8 inches tall with a brain the size of a chip in the grasslands of Africa. The later species named ‘Turkana Boy’ had longer legs and a bigger brain and that marked a very huge evolution from the Ape body to the Human body. It was 5ft & 3 inches tall, had a face similar to that of humans except for the skull and the forehead which was a bit lower.
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The video assumes a number of things. First, nearing the end, it claims Turkana boy stopped hunting and went back to his family to be taken care of by the females. This is an assumption that females stayed at home taking care of the homestead while the men went out hunting. The video also makes an assumption that the fossils discovered around the world could be used as a representative of the people living at that time which is not necessarily true as they could have been the exceptions/ mutations and scientists would not know since they do not have other similar fossils to compare to. Another major assumption is that the early humans were first in Africa simply because the earliest fossils yet to be discovered have been in Africa. Turkana boy’s death is also assumed to have been through a tooth infection but this is hard to tell from an alleged abscess on the jaw of skeleton thousands of years old.
The artistic representations of Homo erectus in the film may be a bit biased. The representations depict Homo erectus as being of a darker skin tone similar to that of Africans with lots of hair which is guided by theories and nothing factual. It could be a fact that humans have always had little hair on their bodies and may have had varying skin tones from dark to light but this is not depicted in the video. The walking style of the Homo erectus is also exaggerated to make it look primitive to fit into the early human narrative. Looking at the video, one feels that any fossil finds are usually analyzed to fit into an already set theory and this already corrupts any historical fossil finds.
The video may serve to expose the type of people that may have existed thousands of years ago but with only a few fossils discovered of these early humans, it is only an assumption scientists make of how these fossils could be proper representatives of the people of those times. The video is full of assumptions which views any fossils dated as being earlier than others to be the origin of something which may not be the case. The video also comes out as very conclusive which may be challenged by people who do not believe in the evolution theory of mankind.
References
Kluckhohn, C. (2017). Mirror for man: The relation of anthropology to modern life. Routledge.
