The Human Tree: The Shortest History of Human Evolution You Will Ever Read
On the northern tip of Newfoundland, Canada is the Lanse-Aux-Meadows UNESCO National Historic Site [1]. Dating back to 1000 C.E., it is the location of the only verified Vikings settlement in North America. Among the many fascinating things to see there, there is one special site that really makes it worth a visit.
The site exhibits a large metal sculpture symbolizing the “Meeting of two worlds” — when Indigenous people of North America first met European explorers (the Vikings). But it is more than just a site where two cultures first interacted — it is the location where humans, as a species, have come full circle after 200,000 years of evolving and migrating around the globe!
Think about it. Only within the last 100 years or so have we learned that human history goes back at least 200,000 years. We originated in Africa and gradually spread out around the world over this long period of time — both east and west — eventually covering the entire globe. The point at which the decedents of our original ancestors meet again occurred a mere 1000 years ago on the northern tip of Newfoundland. Kind of mind-blowing, isn’t it?
This fascinated me so much, I had to dig into our evolutionary history to gain a deeper appreciation of how we, as a species, managed to come full circle after all this time. A thousand years may seem like a long time to us, but it is only 0.5% of the 200,000 years of known human history — a very recent event in our long evolutionary history. As anyone who studied anthropology, archeology and early human history knows, there is so much written on this subject that it is easy to get lost in it. But there are a few critically important aspects of our evolutionary history that are worth highlighting, which frankly, may be quite timely for our global society today.
While it is easy to get wrapped up in the many micro-level details of our history, the thing that fascinated me the most is the overall evolutionary pattern — the ‘Big Picture’. I am a visual and graphical type of thinker, and felt a desire to create big picture that depicts in some way our long evolutionary history. So this inspired me to think about it a little differently. Perhaps an image of some sort would help to convey a message about our common origins and how we homo-sapiens have come to be who we are today.
This is where I thought of the concept of the ‘Human Tree’ as a graphical metaphor for capturing the essence of who we are, how we got here, and most importantly, a reason for us to celebrate our diversity after such a long evolutionary journey of all cultures and societies around the globe. So, for those thirsty for a quick read of human history in a nutshell, here it is. This may just be the shortest history of human evolution you will ever read!
The Human Tree
The idea for human evolution as a tree is simply an extension of how the evolution of all life on Earth is often portrayed as a Tree of Life. A very fitting metaphor is that of the Acacia tree, given it is a species quite common in the African region where we originated [2], and its structure of long branches and a rich canopy mimics our evolutionary pathways in a number of ways.
Our origins are represented as the main trunk from which we branched out into different environments and evolved into different cultures. Along the way we diversified genetically, organized into different levels of society and expanded geographically from early settlements to empires to nation states to today’s emerging global world — represented by the canopy of the tree symbolizing our global population explosion over the past century.
Like any tree, the Human Tree did not grow overnight. Scientists generally recognize a sequence of distinct evolutionary periods that cover the full span of human history [3]. Scientists use a variety of terms and time spans are used to describe these periods — enough to make it very confusing for most people. So to keep things simple I refer to four major periods, or phases of growth and evolution of ourselves as a species: Archaic-Primitive, Ancient-Agrarian, Modern-Industrial and Global-Informational.
With each major period, many changes occurred with our relationship to the natural environment, our geographic range and settlement patterns, and how our societies were organized. Even more significant is how, like any other species adapting to new environments, we too evolved and adapted in many ways during each period— physically, emotionally, mentally, and existentially. Let’s take a closer (but still very brief) look at each period.
Archaic-Primitive
During the Primitive period, we evolved from being scavenging primates to learning to develop tools and skills that enabled us to become hunters and gatherers. This turned the table on the predator-prey relationship we previously had with nature. We were no longer the prey — we became a top predator. With these new skills we gradually migrated northward from Africa and conquered new environments in Europe and Asia — and then on to the South Pacific and eventually across the Pacific ocean to the Americas.
This initial period of migration took more than 100,000 years, and throughout that time we learned to adapt to new environments around the planet and survived some of the most severe circumstances (like ice ages). This is quite significant because for the first time in Earth’s 4.6 Billion year history, no other species has been able to evolve and adapt to the full range of our planets’ environments.
“For the first time in Earth’s 4.6 Billion year history, no other species has been able to evolve and adapt to the full range of our planets‘ environments.”
An interesting thing about our history during this time is although we separated into different branches as we migrated around the world, we were all very innovative in developing advanced hunting skills, making tools, fabrics and pigments, and eventually learned to cultivate our own crops and domesticate wild animals for food [4]. This eventually enabled us to establish permanent settlements about 10,000 years ago which brought about the beginning of the Agrarian period.
Ancient-Agrarian
For the most part, agrarian civilization succeeded in securing our most basic needs: food, clothing, shelter, and a buffer of protection from the natural world. Our populations to began to grow and we started to build up surpluses of food and supplies and generate wealth. Having secured our basic needs, we had more time to pursue other quests that were more intellectual, social and existential[4].
Our cognitive capacities expanded further and enabled us to think more expansively about ourselves and the world we lived in. We became aware that there was much more to the world than what we simply saw or touched, and wondered how the forces of nature operated. Initially, we attributed these forces to beings we could not see — gods and goddesses, or as a whole God, or a Supreme Being (of which there are many names depending on our different cultures and languages) [5].
Along with this existential advancement, there was also a need to establish laws to control the behaviour of our growing populations. Hierarchical social and political structures formed. We used mythic knowledge we believed came from the gods or God as the basis for enforcing social law and order. It was most often the wealthy that held the most power in exercising these laws over the majority.
As societies advanced, there was further growth of more formalized economy and trade among settlements and regions. Along with this, those who held wealth and power often fought for territorial control, resulting in the establishment of kingdoms and empires covering large geographic areas. As empires grew they became more difficult to control due to their large geographic extents and rising factions competing for power within empires, which in turn gave way to the rise of nation states beginning about 1000 years ago.
We can view this change in political structure as a further branching out of the larger branches in the Human Tree into smaller branches, as most nation states were geographically smaller than the empires from which they had their origins. The rise of nation states meant that political power became more localized, and societies and cultures diversified further in relation to nationalist identities.
Modern-Industrial
Even long before the decline of empires, some regions of the world were were making major advances on the intellectual front, including the Egyptians, Greeks, Arabians, Romans, and Asians. While many of these regions continued to advance, western Europe went through a period known as the Dark Ages after the decline of the Roman Empire. This was a time when the Roman Catholic Church held power over Europe and suppressed free intellectualism. But as with Roman Empire before it, the Roman Church eventually lost its grip, and a new period of intellectualism began that challenged the authority of the Church on a multitude of subjects.
This period triggered dramatic change in innovation and science in western Europe, and eventually led to widespread industrialization and a dramatic rise in population growth. With an increase in technology and wealth, and the need for more land and resources, western European countries began exploring and colonizing other regions of the world. For good or bad, this period of colonization resulted in the creation of nation states that now virtually cover the whole land area of the globe (except Antarctica), and along with it, industrialization spread around the world.
As with tribes and empires before them, nations continued to fight over territory and resources. But in the industrial era, these wars took on a much larger scale. With industrialization came more powerful warfare that eventually led to the first and second World Wars of the early and middle 1900’s — culminating in the use of nuclear weapons in the 1940’s. From this difficult period came the realization that if we continued this way, we would risk annihilating ourselves to extinction if we did not find a more diplomatic means for settling nationalist differences.
Global-Informational
The aftermath of the two world wars brought the birth of the United Nations — the first ever global level human organization beyond the nation state. It was also the birthing period of the modern computer (ironically, invented to assist Britain and her allies defeat the Germany in WWII). The birthings of both the United Nations and the modern computer, along with rapid development of multiple modes of international travel, marked the beginning of the global level informational society that we know today.
The later half of the 20th century was a formative period for these emerging changes, but their real force did not come into play until around the year 2000 with the widespread use of the Internet for information and knowledge exchange among all people the world. With people from almost every culture, language, and nationality now connected through the internet, we have been learning more about each other than ever before. Combined with international agreements on a whole range of global and international development issues, expanding free trade, and the ability to travel more freely around the world, we are gradually beginning to live in a more global level society.
So Here We Are…..
Our human history in a nutshell gives us a bigger picture of how we evolved to where we are today. The meeting between the Vikings and Indigenous people on the northern tip of the Newfoundland truly is a remarkable event. It signifies the closure of a very long period of global migration of our species, and the beginning of the initial growth of the global canopy.
In a mere 1000 years since that time, our global population has grown to nearly eight billion people, represented by the leaves in the canopy of the Human Tree. Although we are all culturally and genetically rooted in our respective branches, we are beginning to intermix in such a way that the canopy is now taking on more of a network-like structure.
It has been said that diversity is the spice of life. If so, we are in for an exciting future as cultures, races, and languages from around the world continue to mix over the coming decades and centuries. As we begin to break down cultural barriers and stereotypes, I think it is possible to see new forms of governance to follow — but this is just my hunch. But in a strange way, enriching our human diversity will only occur once there is widespread recognition and acceptance of our common origins — and recognizing how much more we have in common than what we see on the surface. Remember that for most of history, different cultures were at war with each other, and still are. But we didn’t know this stuff 100 years ago! Perhaps one of the greatest benefits of this view is how we can now see beyond our differences by recognizing our common origins, and we start seeing each other first from the inside-out rather the outside-in.
While all this sounds potentially promising, our recent global level of human organization, information exchange and economic wealth came with a price. Cleaning up the negative impacts left by human activity on the planet as a whole over the past 200 years now stands as one of our most significant challenges for the future. This issue is intricately tied to the inequitable distribution of wealth among regions. Although significant progress is being made on a number of fronts, these disparities continue to cause instability within and among many regions and nations and inevitably affect our ability to effectively address our environmental, socio-economic and existential crisis.
The Human Tree will not likely grow much more than 10% larger than it is now. So how can we continue to thrive in a more equitable way without compromising the planetary ecosystem upon which we depend? This is the existential question of our time — one which we are only beginning to explore some possible answers.
“So how can we continue to thrive in a more equitable way without compromising the planetary ecosystem upon which we depend?”
We may not know what direction the world will take in the coming decades, but whatever direction it is, it is clear that we must start with a broader understanding of ourselves as an evolving species on this planet — a species that with all its diversity has both a common history and a common future. I strongly believe having a big picture perspective on our evolutionary history is a necessary starting point. In future articles I will dive a little deeper into how this bigger picture can help guide us as we navigate our way forward.
Stay tuned!
Brian Gregory 2023 ©
Endnotes:
[1] See: https://parks.canada.ca/lhn-nhs/nl/meadows
or https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/4/
[2] We are just one of many human species that branched out during these early times. There were at least eight other human species, all of which became extinct. But we (homo-sapiens) managed to survive and evolve further than our ancient relatives. This is a fascinating subject. Here are some links to explore:
https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn9989-timeline-human-evolution/
https://bigthink.com/the-past/other-human-species/
[3] e.g. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prehistory
https://www.illustrationhistory.org/history/time-periods
[3] We are just one of many human species that branched out during these early times. There are at least eight other human species, all of which became extinct. But we, homo-sapiens, managed to survive and evolve further than our ancient relatives. This is a fascinating subject. Here are some links to explore:
https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn9989-timeline-human-evolution/
https://bigthink.com/the-past/other-human-species/
[4] See: David Christian. Origin Story. Little Brown Spark. 378 p. https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/36204285
[5] See: Names of God (wikipedia). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Names_of_God#:~:text=In%20addition%20to%20the%20personal,Hebrew%2C%20%22Most%20High%22.
