Lesson development for 11th grade biology
Seminar on the topic “Stages of human evolution”
Target : the formation of a materialistic idea of the origin of man
Tasks:
educational:expand, deepen and systematize knowledge about evidence of human origin from animals; stages of human evolution; the role of biological and social factors at different stages of anthropogenesis;
developing: developing the skills of independent work with literature, diagrams, tables, slides, highlighting the main thing and drawing conclusions, speaking in front of a group;
educational: show the inconsistency of the theory of racism
Lesson type : seminar-workshop
Methods: reproductive, partially search, problematic.
Equipment : computer with a projector, presentation, video clip, tables, diagrams, test.
Plan
1 Organizational moment 1 min.
2 Discussion of the features of anthropogenesis 30 min.
3. Summing up 2 min.
4. Independent work. 3-4 min.
5. Conclusions 1 min.
6. Reflection 2 min.
7. Self-analysis. Grading 2-3 min.
8. Video fragment 2 min.
During the classes
In the chain, man became the last link,
And all the best is embodied in him.
Ferdowsi
1. /In the background of a video fragment without sound/
Teacher: One of the most intriguing chapters in the evolution of life on Earth is the origin of man. Nowadays, this section of the doctrine of evolution has become one of the fastest growing; Every decade brings sensational discoveries that force us to significantly complement, and sometimes even revise, existing ideas. The goal of today's lesson is to expand knowledge about anthropogenesis and its present stage.
2. Student: Even in ancient times, man was recognized as a “relative” of animals (Anaximenes, Aristotle). In the first half of the 18th century. C. Linnaeus gave him a place in the order of primates of the class of mammals and gave him the species name Homo sapiens (Homo sapiens) / Stand of C. Linnaeus / At the end of the 18th century. Diderot, Kant, Laplace wrote on this topic, and at the beginning of the 19th century. the hypothesis of the natural origin of man was put forward by J.B. Lamarck /Portrait /in his work “Philosophy of Zoology” considered the original ancestor of man to be a four-armed, highly developed creature that descended from the trees to the ground and gradually turned into a two-armed creature capable of walking upright, but Lamarck’s anthropogenic hypothesis was not successful, just like his evolutionary concept in general. A fundamental contribution to solving the problem of anthropogenesis was made by Charles Darwin in his special work of 1871, “The Descent of Man and Sexual Selection.” Darwin was the first to try to scientifically explain the driving forces of anthropogenesis. /Stand/ Subsequently, a lot of data has accumulated proving the relationship between humans and anthropoids not only by morphological, but also by other characteristics:
A great similarity has been established in the structure of the vocal apparatus (larynx) of humans and chimpanzees;
In the orangutan, the size of the 41st field of the cerebral cortex is significantly increased, and it is this part of the brain in humans that is difficult to differentiate due to developed speech, only in higher apes and humans there is a vermiform appendix of the cecum;
Anthropoid monkeys have the same 4 blood groups;
Puberty occurs relatively late;
The gorilla's gestation period is close to 9 months;
The order of teeth eruption in great apes is similar to that in humans;
Forms of care for offspring are highly developed among anthropoids, and the period of childhood is long;
The genetic material of humans and chimpanzees is 99% identical
Teacher: How did human evolution proceed?
Student: The main stages of anthropogenesis are identified:
Dryopithecus - common ancestors of anthropomorphic apes and hominids. There is a lot of indirect evidence confirming this origin. The ability of the human arm to rotate in all directions thanks to the ball-and-socket joint of the humerus could only have arisen in an arboreal form. Only humans and primates have the ability to rotate the forearm in and out, as well as a well-developed clavicle. In humans and monkeys, skin patterns are developed on the hands and feet, which are found only in arboreal mammals. They are characterized by an arboreal lifestyle, manipulation of objects and gregariousness.
The oldest australopithecinescombined the characteristics of apes and humans. The anatomical structure of the pelvis and legs indicated its vertical position. He used sticks, stones, and large antelope bones as tools. The social way of life allowed them to survive
against predators and attack other animals themselves. It was among them, according to the anthropologist Roginsky, that the process of losing their fur began. A person protects himself from overheating by intense sweating. This device was very effective, but it deprived the body of sodium ions, the lack of which stimulated predation or forced them to look for sources of table salt.
Skillful man -in 1962, in Tanzania, central Africa, the remains of an Australopithecus were found, whose brain volume was more than 600 cm (currently about 2000 cm), but more than that of primitive forms, and most importantly, it made tools. This ancestor of ours was called a skilled man. (pebble culture)
Scientists claim that it is at this stage of anthropogenesis that speech arises, because Joint hunting required communication; gestures alone were not enough.
Homo erectusdiffered from his predecessors in height, straight posture, and human gait. Their arm was more developed, and their foot acquired a slight arch; the spine received some bends, which balanced the vertical position of the body. Brain volume – 800-1200 cm Formation of speech, the most developed lobes of the brain that control higher nervous activity. Collective hunting required not only communication, but also contributed to the development of a social organization that was clearly human in nature, because relied on the division of labor between men - hunters and women - food gatherers and fire keepers.
Neanderthal – brain volume – 1200-1400 cm. High culture of tool making. Improving speech and tribal relations. Strong, resilient, they are the first to adapt to life in a harsh climate. They have rituals, care for offspring, and the transfer of experience. They used fire for cooking - they fried meat, made clothes from skins, which were cleaned of fat and dried over the fire to give them softness and flexibility. This indicates the development of thinking.
Cro-Magnon – type of modern person. Lived in caves or huts at the very end of the Ice Age. They learned to make many tools, used throwing devices, and caught fish with harpoons. They were probably the first to learn how to make needles and sew. They made necklaces from pebbles, shells... Rock paintings that are more than 30 thousand years old were discovered in France and Spain. Drawings of spells, predictions, victory over a predator, and today - greetings from them to us.
Teacher: What main points can be noted in the formation of Homo sapiens?
Student: The formation of Homo sapiens is marked by 2 important moments:
On the one hand, the formation of the morphological type is completed
On the other hand, biological evolution gradually faded and was replaced by social development
From an evolutionary point of view, the emergence of man is the largest aromorphosis, which had no equal in the entire history of life on Earth. The general pattern was the ever-accelerating pace of anthropogenesis. The phylogenetic development of hominids is a striking example of “mosaic evolution”, characterized by an uneven rate of development of organs and organ systems. The progressive evolution of the brain was preceded by upright walking and the associated transformation of the pelvic bones and forelimbs. A characteristic feature of anthropogenesis is the unidirectionality of evolutionary transformations associated with the gradual development of upright walking, an increase in the ability to accumulate and practically use information about the environment, and the improvement of a collective way of life.
Teacher: What motivated this? What points of view do you know about this?
Student: The uniqueness of the process of formation of the biosocial nature of man was determined by the peculiar action of the driving forces of anthropogenesis.
There are different opinions on the issue of the relationship between biological and social factors of anthropogenesis. Some believe that the driving force of anthropogenesis was the unity of action of biological and social factors. Others are of the opinion that these are facts that acted in parallel, but ultimately led to the same result. In addition, there are fundamental disagreements about what factors played a leading role in the evolution of human ancestors. In foreign literature, this is exclusively BZS and selection. The falsification of Charles Darwin's views on the BZS as the cause of anthropogenesis was the source of a reactionary trend in bourgeois sociology - social Darwinism.
The English philosopher evolutionist G. Spencer in 1852 put forward the formula “survival of the fittest” as a law of social development, and therefore called for the elimination of victims in the struggle for existence - the poor and the sick.
Comte de Gobineau argued that the highest race among all human races is the Aryan race, and supporters of racial hygiene believed that intelligence and moral qualities are determined solely by its hereditary inclinations, therefore social position is determined by purely genetic factors.
F. Galton proposed to separate colonial peoples by selecting couples, and to create a noble elite for Europeans. Racists turned Africa, in the words of K. Marx, “into a reserved hunting ground for blacks” and promised blacks heaven in heaven instead of hell on earth.
Most modern researchers believe that closer to the truth is the idea not only of the unified biosocial nature of the driving forces of anthropogenesis, but also of their qualitative change in the process of evolution from the most ancient hominids to modern humans. At the early stages of human evolution, there was a selection of individuals more capable of making primitive tools, with the help of which they could obtain food for themselves and protect themselves from enemies. F. Engels in his work “The Role of Labor in the Process of Transformation of Ape into Man” wrote: “Labor is the first basic condition of all human life, and to such an extent that in a certain sense we must say: labor created man.” At the Australopithecus stage, selection based on individual selective elimination played a decisive role. Gradually, the characteristic property of herding and the relatively developed forms of relationship associated with it became the object of selection. Those who together could withstand unfavorable environmental factors survived. Individual selection contributed to the formation of upright walking, the hand, and the brain, while group selection improved social organization. Joint actions are called biosocial selection. At the first stages of biosocial selection, there were small groups in number, and then expanded to a tendency for better organized settlements or tribes to survive. All levels of biosocial selection were interconnected. The speed and scope of morphogenesis in hominid evolution was possible on the basis of wide genetic variability. The rate of mutational variability, characteristic of all organisms (on average 1 x 10 to the power of -5 mutational changes per gene per generation), could not provide enough material for selection during the creation of man. Consequently, the process of anthropogenesis required other, additional sources of variability.
Teacher: And what could it be? Any opinions?
Student: D.K. Belyaev argues that the increase in mass and complexity of the brain during the evolution of hominids was not limited to the improvement of nervous mechanisms, but was combined with endocrine mechanisms. Using examples, he shows that under domestication conditions there is a sharp destabilization of many body functions, which is also due to habituation to humans. One of the most important features of human evolution was that, as a result of stress reactions when human ancestors communicated with each other, the entire system of neuroendocrine regulations changed, which in turn caused a wide range of variability in a variety of traits. This source of genetic variation played a significant role in the progressive evolution of hominids. Scientists have long assumed that in progressive evolutionary transformations (in the origin of man) it is not so much changes in the genes themselves that are important, but rather changes in their activity. Even a small change in the nucleotide sequence of one single regulator gene can lead to dramatic changes in the activity of many other genes, and this, in turn, can cause radical changes in the structure of the body. Scientists have identified 110 genes whose activity differs between humans and chimpanzees (55 are more active in humans and 55 in our closest relatives). 49 genes have been identified whose activity has changed specifically in the human line (30 genes have increased activity, 19 have decreased). It is interesting that in chimpanzees there were only 9% of transcription factors, and in half of them the activity increased, and in half it decreased. By the way, studies on Drosophila flies also did not show strong changes in the activity of transcription factors. It seems that the enhanced expression of many regulatory genes is a specific feature of the evolution of the human lineage. The meaning of this phenomenon is not yet entirely clear.
Teacher: Senkevich once said in a program that nature will never cease to amaze us, because... Something new is constantly being discovered, something unknown that is not similar to the previous one or simply changed. What can be said about man as an integral part of nature and society?
Student : Man is an integral part of nature at all times. Is its appearance changing, can we expect such changes in the future? Let's look at how evolutionary factors operate in today's society. Firstly, isolation is becoming less and less important, and secondly, the importance of random changes in numbers in human society is sharply weakening. In the 12th-14th centuries, during a plague epidemic, the population could decrease several times over the course of 1-2 years, but now, thanks to the development of medicine, such fluctuations in numbers are not observed. Thus, the importance of population waves as an evolutionary factor also decreases. It’s more complicated with the mutation process and natural selection. In England in 1922, only 22% of cases of blindness were hereditary, and in 1952 already 68% of blindness had a hereditary basis. More and more unfavorable mutations are accumulating in populations: many people are now surviving who probably would not have survived before. The population is increasingly saturated with mutations also because the level of radioactive radiation has increased, the same thing happens when the biosphere is polluted with chemicals that cause mutations. In a developed society, social patterns are stronger than selection. It is social – social patterns that determine the success of a person.
Teacher: Yes, at the present stage social factors have begun to play a leading role, but the life activity of each person is subject to biological laws. The mutation process also retains all its significance as a source of genotypic variability. To a certain extent, a stabilizing form of natural selection operates, eliminating pronounced deviations from the average norm. In the process of social evolution of humanity, more favorable opportunities are created for revealing the individuality of each person and his personal qualities. The social nature of work made it possible to separate man from nature and create an artificial habitat for himself. Each of us has a unique, unique, maybe. the best, unique.
3. Summing up
Teacher: so, we have looked at the features of human evolution. What was the main thing you learned from the information?
Student: 1. Human evolution is an extremely complex, long process: from animals to homo sapiens. Along this path, biological factors gradually lost their importance and were replaced by social factors;
2. In human evolution, it is necessary to highlight 2 key points, 2 moments. The first and most important of them is the beginning of the manufacture of tools, the transition from the stage of animal predecessors of man to the stage of the most ancient forms that form people.
3. The emergence of man and his further evolution took place through the resolution of acute contradictions. Throughout the entire period of its formation, the resolution of the most important contradiction between the morphological structure and its activity took place. It was removed mainly during the selection process and... ended with the origin of a creature that had reached a level of structure that made possible the limitless expansion of its activities without any rearrangements of its morphological structure.
4. Independent work.Test. Human Origins.
Decide whether this or that proposed judgment is correct or incorrect:
Man belongs to the class of mammals
The coccygeal bone in the human skeleton is an atavism
The human appendix is a rudiment
Thick hair in humans is an atavism
5. Humans and apes are closely related organisms. 6.Work activity, social lifestyle, speech and thinking are social factors
7. In the process of becoming a person, there are three stages
8. The driving forces of anthropogenesis are only social factors
Instead of dots, choose the appropriate words:
Theory about the origin of man -….
Homo sapiens belongs to the group...
3. All people inhabiting our planet belong to the species….
A single appearance in a person of signs of an ancestor -...
Speech, thinking, work are factors...
Hereditary variability and BZ are considered factors....
The human race originated from…..Historically established groups of people characterized by common hereditary characteristics…
The first evidence of human animal origin was presented by...
The work “The Role of Labor in the Process of Transformation of Ape into Man” was written by...
The first tools were able to make...
The first hearths and dwellings were built...
The chin protuberance is developed in...
Humanity forms three great races...
5. Conclusions. Teacher: What conclusions can be drawn at the conclusion of the lesson?
Student: The formation of Homo sapiens can be concluded in the words of the Far Eastern poet S. Shchipachev:
Nature! Man is your creation
And this honor will not be taken away from you,
But he brought me to my feet on all fours
And labor made the ancestor a man.
S. Shchipachev
Student: And in the words of R. Rozhdestvensky we can conclude about the unity of races:
For all the oppressed,
The labor of those burned
Difference in skin color -
Doesn't count.
In people - black, white, yellow -
Red blood flows!
R. Rozhdestvensky
6. Reflection: Encouraging students to reflect on the work they have done
Reflective algorithm:
“I” (how I felt, what mood I worked in, whether I was satisfied with myself...)
Has the teaching achieved its goal?
What difficulties arose?
7. Analysis of work (by students)Grading
Thank you all for your work.
Video clip proving the unity of origin of all races (2 min.)
Used Books:
Yablokov A.V. World of evolution. M.: Det. Lit., 1985
Belov A.V., Prokhorov A.I. The world around us. M.: Iz-vo political literature, 1976
Vorontsov N.N., Sukhorukova L.N. Evolution of the organic world: Optional course. M.: Education, 1991
Biology teacher: Berketova S.S.
Agree, in our distant childhood we were all interested in homes in one way or another. We read about them in books and popular science magazines, watched them in movies, which means, willy-nilly, at least once in our lives, but we still imagined how great it would be to swap roles with them for a few hours, finding yourself in that distant world full of the unknown and unprecedented.
However, despite the abundance of information, we sometimes cannot answer seemingly completely simple questions. For example, about how they defended their homes, where and how they got food, whether they made supplies for the winter and whether they had any pets.
The article is aimed at introducing readers to the topic. After reading all the sections carefully, everyone will have a more than detailed idea of what the dwellings of ancient people were like.
general information
To more clearly imagine what happened many centuries ago, let's think about the principle by which modern houses are built and decorated. Many will agree that the choice of material is primarily influenced by climate. In hot countries, you are unlikely to find buildings with thick brick (or panel) walls and additional insulation means. In turn, in the northern regions there are no bungalows and open villas.
The primitive dwellings of ancient people were also built taking into account the weather conditions of a particular region. In addition, of course, the presence of nearby bodies of water and the characteristic features of the local flora and fauna were taken into account.
Thus, modern experts claim that Paleolithic hunters in most cases settled on slightly rough, or even completely flat, terrain, in close proximity to lakes, rivers or streams.
Where can you see ancient sites?
We all know that caves are areas of the upper part of the earth's crust, located, as a rule, in mountainous regions of the planet. Today it has been established that most of them were once the dwellings of ancient people. Of course, regardless of the continent, people settled only in horizontal and gently sloping caves. In vertical ones, called mines and wells, the depth of which can reach up to one and a half kilometers, it was inconvenient to live and organize everyday life, and even very dangerous.
Archaeologists have discovered the dwellings of ancient people in different parts of our planet: Africa, Australia, Asia, Europe and the Americas.
Many caves have also been discovered on Russian territory. The most famous are Kungurskaya, Bolshaya Oreshnaya, Denisova and the whole Tavdinsky complex.
What did the ancient man's home look like from the inside?
There is a fairly common misconception that the caves were warm and dry enough for the inhabitants of that time. Unfortunately, this is not so, but rather the opposite. Typically, rock faults are very cold and wet. And this is not surprising: such areas are warmed up quite slowly by the sun, and it is generally impossible to heat a huge cave in this way.
The humid air prevailing around, which in most cases is barely felt in the open air, tends to condense, falling into a closed space, surrounded on all sides by cold stone.
As a rule, the air in a cave cannot be called stale. On the contrary, there are constant drafts formed under the influence of the aerodynamic effect created by the presence of numerous passages and cracks.
As a result, we can conclude that the very first dwellings of ancient people were small, cool caves with walls constantly damp from condensation.
Was it possible to warm up by lighting a fire?
In general, making a fire in a cave, even with modern means, is a rather troublesome and not always effective task.
Why? The thing is that initially it will take a long time to choose a place protected from the wind, otherwise the fire will simply go out. Secondly, heating a cave in this way is the same as if you set yourself the goal of heating an entire stadium, armed with an ordinary electric heater. Sounds absurd, right?
In this case, one fire is actually not enough, especially considering that cold air will constantly move to your campsite from somewhere inside the stone bag.
Security measures
How did ancient people protect their homes, and was this necessary in principle? Scientists have been trying to get a definite answer to this question for a long time. It was found that in warm climates, sites were usually temporary. People found them by chasing wild animals along the paths and collecting various kinds of roots. Ambushes were set up nearby and the dead carcasses were skinned. Such houses were not guarded: raw materials were collected, rest was arranged, thirst was quenched, simple belongings were collected, and the tribe moved on.
In what is now Eurasia, most of the land was covered with a thick layer of snow. There was already a need for the improvement of a more permanent monastery. The dwelling was often won from the hyena through perseverance, deceit or cunning. During winter cold, the entrances to the cave were often blocked from the inside with stones and branches. This, first of all, was done to prevent the former owner from getting inside.
Section 6. What was inside the house
The dwellings of ancient people, photos of which can often be found in modern popular science literature, were quite simple in their design and contents.
Most often it was round or oval inside. According to scientists, on average the width rarely exceeded 6-8 meters with a length of 10-12 m. Inside, according to experts, up to 20 people could fit. Tree trunks cut down or broken in the neighboring forest were used for beautification and insulation. It was not uncommon for such material to flow down the river.
Often the dwellings of ancient people were not a place in a cave, but real huts. The skeleton of the future house was represented by tree trunks inserted into pre-dug recesses. Later, intertwined branches were placed on top. Of course, due to the constantly blowing wind, it was quite cold and damp inside, so the fire had to be maintained both day and night. By the way, scientists were surprised to discover that tree trunks, which play a key role in construction, were reinforced with heavy stones for safety reasons.
There were no doors at all. They were replaced by a hearth built from rock fragments, which not only heated the home, but also served as reliable protection from predators.
Of course, in the process of evolution, not only people changed, but also their places of residence.
Houses of ancient Palestinians
In Palestine, modern scientists have managed to excavate the most archaeologically important cities.
It was established that these settlements were mainly built on hills and were well fortified both outside and inside. Very often one of the walls was protected by a cliff or a fast water flow. The city was surrounded by a wall.
Like many others, this culture, when choosing a location, was guided by the presence of a nearby source, the water from which was suitable for drinking and for irrigating crops. In case of a siege, local residents built unique underground reservoirs located under the homes of wealthier townspeople.
Wooden houses were considered a rarity. Preference was mainly given to stone and adobe buildings. In order to protect the room from soil dampness, the structure was built on a stone foundation.
The hearth was located in the central room directly under a special hole in the ceiling. Only the wealthiest citizens could afford a second floor and a large number of windows.
Dwellings of the upper Mesopotamia
Not everyone knows that some of the houses here were two- or even several-story. For example, in the chronicles of Herodotus one can find mention of buildings with three or even four tiers.
The dwellings were covered with a spherical dome, which was sometimes very high. There was a hole at the top that allowed air to penetrate inside. By the way, it should be noted that there were almost never windows on the first floor. And there may be several explanations for this factor. Firstly, local residents tried to protect themselves from external enemies in this way. Secondly, religion did not allow them to flaunt the features of their private lives. Only fairly narrow doors and loopholes, located at the level of human height, went outside.
Above, terraces were built on brick pillars, which performed two functions at once. First of all, they were built so that the owner could relax there, hiding away from human eyes. But that's not all. This area made it possible to protect the roof from direct sunlight, and therefore from overheating. On the upper terrace there were most often open galleries planted with flowers and exotic plants.
In this area, clay, reed and bitumen were considered the main building materials. Sometimes special brick or mosaic inlays were made in wooden supports to protect the wood from the ubiquitous ants.
Dwelling of ancient Indian culture
The ancient city of Mohenjo-Daro, located in India, was once surrounded by a powerful wall. There was also a sewer system, which was directed from individual houses into the citywide sewer canal, built under the pavements.
In general, they preferred to build houses from baked brick, which was considered the most durable and therefore reliable. The outer walls were more than massive, and also had a slight inward slope.
Documents about how ancient people built homes indicate that wealthy locals had a gatekeeper's room in their homes. There was almost always a small central courtyard, into which, for the purpose of additional lighting, numerous windows on the first and second floors certainly looked out.
The yard was paved with bricks, and there was a sewer canal right next to it. As a rule, a luxurious terrace was arranged on the flat roof of the house.
Ancient Greek house
Scientists have found that during the Trojan culture, most dwellings were square or rectangular in shape. There may have been a small portico in front. In a room or part of a common room that served as a bedroom, special raised platforms were made for beds.
As a rule, there were two outbreaks. One was needed for heating, the second for cooking.
The walls were also not quite ordinary. The lower 60 cm were laid out of stone, and a little higher raw brick was used. The flat roof was not supported by anything additional.
The poor preferred to live in round or oval houses, because... it was easier to heat them, and there was no need to have several rooms. The rich in their homes allocated space not only for bedrooms, but also for dining rooms and storage rooms.
Like all living beings with the ability to move, a person needs temporary or permanent shelter or housing for sleep, rest, protection from bad weather and attacks from animals or other people. Therefore, concerns about housing, along with concerns about food and clothing, should have, first of all, worried the mind of primitive man. In the essays on primitive culture, we said that already in the Stone Age, man used not only caves, tree hollows, rock crevices, etc. as natural shelters, but also developed various types of buildings that we can see among modern peoples at all levels of culture. Since the time when man gained the ability to mine metals, his construction activities have advanced rapidly, facilitating and providing other cultural achievements.
“When one thinks of the nests of birds, the dams of beavers, the tree platforms made by monkeys, it will hardly be possible to suppose that man has ever been incapable of making a shelter of one kind or another for himself” (E. B. Taylor, Anthropology "). If he was not always satisfied with it, it was because, moving from place to place, he could find a cave, hollow or other natural shelter. South African Bushmen live in mountain caves and make temporary huts for themselves. Unlike animals, which are capable of only one type of building, man creates, depending on local conditions, buildings of various types and gradually improves them.
Since the ancestral home of man was in the tropical region, the first human building appeared there. It was not even a hut, but a canopy or screen made of two stakes stuck into the ground with a crossbar, against which tree branches and huge leaves of tropical palm trees leaned on the windward side. On the leeward side of the canopy there is a fire, on which food is prepared, and around which the family warms itself in cold weather. Such dwellings are built for themselves by the natives of central Brazil and Australians who walk completely naked, and sometimes by modern hunters in the northern forests. The next step in the construction of a dwelling is a round hut made of branches with dense foliage stuck into the ground, tied or intertwined with tops, forming a kind of roof above the head. Our round garden pavilions, covered with branches, bear a strong resemblance to such a savage hut.
Some of the Brazilian Indians put more art into their work, as they make a frame from the tops of young trees tied together or poles stuck into the ground, which they then cover with large palm leaves. Australians also make the same huts in case of a long stay, covering the frame of branches with bark, leaves, grass, sometimes even laying turf or covering the outside of the hut with clay.
Thus, the invention and construction of a round hut is a simple matter and accessible to the most backward peoples. If wandering hunters carry with them the poles and cover of the hut, then it turns into a tent, which more cultured peoples cover with skins, felt or canvas.
The round hut is so small that you can only lie or squat in it. An important improvement was the installation of a hut on pillars or walls made of intertwined branches and earth, that is, the construction of round huts, such as were in ancient times in Europe, and are now found in Africa and other parts of the world. To increase the capacity of the round hut, a hole was dug inside it. This digging of an internal hole inspired the idea of constructing the walls of the hut from the earth, and it turned into a dugout with a conical flat roof made of tree trunks, brushwood, turf and even stones, which were placed on top to protect against gusts of wind.
A major step in the art of construction was the replacement of round huts with quadrangular wooden houses, the walls of which were much stronger than earthen walls, which were easily washed away by rain. But solid wooden walls made of horizontally laid logs did not appear immediately and not everywhere; their construction became possible only with the availability of metal axes and saws. For a long time, their walls were made of vertical pillars, the spaces between which were filled with turf or intertwined rods, sometimes coated with clay. In order to protect against people, animals and river floods, buildings on pillars or on stilts, already familiar to readers, began to appear, which are now found on the islands of the Malay Archipelago and in many other places.
Further, doors and windows were an improvement in human habitation. The door remains for a long time the only opening of the primitive dwelling; later, light holes or windows appear, in which now in many places bull's bubble, mica, even ice, etc. are used instead of glass, and sometimes they are only plugged up at night or in bad weather. A very important improvement was the introduction of a hearth or stove inside the house, since the hearth not only allows one to maintain the desired temperature in the home, but also dries and ventilates, making the home more hygienic.
Types of dwellings of cultural peoples: 1) the house of an ancient German; 2) home of the Franks; 3) Japanese house; 4) Egyptian house; 5) Etruscan house; 6) ancient Greek house; 7) ancient Roman house; 8) old French house; 9) Arabic house; 10) English mansion.
The types of wooden buildings of different times and peoples are extremely diverse. Buildings made of clay and stone are no less diverse and even more widespread. A wooden hut or hut is easier to build than a stone one, and stone architecture probably evolved from the simpler wooden one. The rafters, beams and columns of stone buildings are undoubtedly copied from corresponding wooden forms, but, of course, on this basis one cannot deny the independent development of stone architecture and explain everything in it by imitation.
Primitive man used natural caves for living, and then began to build artificial caves for himself where soft rocks lay. In southern Palestine, entire ancient cave cities, carved into the rocks, have been preserved.
Artificial cave dwellings still serve as shelter for humans in China, northern Africa and other places. But such dwellings have a limited area of distribution and appear in places where people already possessed fairly high technology.
Probably the first stone dwelling was the same as those found among Australians and in some other places. Australians build the walls of their huts from stones picked up from the ground, not connected in any way. Since it is not everywhere possible to find suitable material from uncut stones in the form of slabs of layered rocks, man began to fasten the stones with clay. Round huts made of rough stones held together with clay are still found in northern Syria. Such huts made of rough stones, as well as those made of clay, river silt and mud along with reeds, were the beginning of all subsequent stone buildings.
Over time, the stones began to be hewn so that they could be fitted one to another. A very important and major step in the construction business was the cutting of stones in the form of rectangular stone slabs, which were laid in regular rows. Such cutting of stone blocks reached its highest perfection in ancient Egypt. Cement for fastening stone slabs was not used for a long time, and was not needed, these slabs adhered so well to each other. Cement, however, has long been known to the ancient world. The Romans used not only ordinary cement made from lime and sand, but also waterproof cement, to which volcanic ash was added.
In countries where there was little stone and a dry climate, buildings made of clay or mud mixed with straw were very common, since they were cheaper and even better than wooden ones. Sun-dried bricks made of fatty clay mixed with straw have been known in the East since ancient times. Buildings made from such bricks are now widespread in the dry regions of the Old World and in Mexico. Fired bricks and tiles, necessary for countries with rainy climates, were a later invention, improved by the ancient Romans.
Stone buildings were originally covered with reeds, straw, wood, the roof frame is now made of wood, wooden beams have only recently begun to be replaced with metal ones. But for a long time people have thought of constructing first false and then true vaults. In a false vault, stone slabs or bricks are laid in the form of two staircases until the tops of these staircases meet so much that they can be covered with one brick; Children make such false vaults from wooden cubes. Similar false vaults can be seen in the Egyptian pyramids in the ruins of buildings in Central America and in the temples of India. The time and place of invention of the true code is unknown; The ancient Greeks did not use it. It was introduced into use and perfected by the Romans: all later buildings of this kind originated from Roman bridges, domes and vaulted halls. A person’s home serves as a complement to clothing and, like clothing, depends on the climate and geographic environment. Therefore, in different areas of the globe we find a predominance of different types of housing.
In areas with a hot and damp climate, inhabited by naked, half-naked or lightly dressed people, the dwelling is intended not so much for warmth, it plays the role of protection from tropical downpours. Therefore, the dwellings here are light huts or huts, covered with thatch, bamboo, reeds and palm leaves. In hot and dry areas of deserts and semi-deserts, the settled population lives in clay houses with a flat earthen roof, which provides good protection from the sun's heat, while nomads in Africa and Arabia live in tents or tents.
In more or less humid areas with an average annual temperature of 10° to + 20°C. in Europe and America, thin-walled stone houses, covered with thatch, reeds, tiles and iron, predominate; in Korea, China and Japan, thin-walled wooden houses, covered mostly with bamboo. An interesting variation on the latter area are Japanese houses with movable interior partitions and outer walls of mats and frames that can be moved aside to allow air and light in and allow the occupants to jump outside in the event of an earthquake. In thin-walled houses of the European-American type, the frames are single, stoves are absent or replaced by fireplaces, and in the Chinese-Japanese east - by heating pads and braziers. In the dry areas of this region, the settled population lives in the same stone houses with flat roofs as in dry tropical countries. Huts are used here in spring, summer and autumn. Nomads live here in winter in dugouts, and in summer in felt tents or yurts, the frame of which is made of wood.
In areas with an average annual temperature of 0° to +10° C, maintaining warmth in the home plays a decisive role; Therefore, the brick and wooden houses here are thick-walled, on a foundation, with stoves and double frames, with the ceiling topped with a layer of sand or clay and with a double floor. Roofs are covered with thatch, planks and shingles (shingles), roofing felt, tiles and iron. The area of thick-walled houses with iron roofs is also the area of urban high-rise buildings, the extreme expression of which is the American “skyscrapers” of dozens of floors. Nomads of semi-deserts and deserts live here in dugouts and felt yurts, and wandering hunters of the northern forests live in huts covered with reindeer skins or birch bark.
The zone with lower annual temperatures is characterized in the south by warm winter wooden houses covered with planks, and to the north, in the tundra region, among polar nomads and fishermen - portable tents or tents covered with deer, fish and seal skins. Some polar peoples, for example, the Koryaks, live in winter in pits dug in the ground and lined inside with logs, over which a roof is erected with a hole that serves for the exit of smoke and for entering and exiting the dwelling via a permanent or ladder.
In addition to housing, a person erects various buildings for storing supplies, for housing pets, for his work activities, for various meetings, etc. The types of these structures are extremely diverse, depending on geographical, economic and living conditions.
The dwellings of nomads and wandering hunters are not fenced in anything, but with the transition to settled life, fences appear near the estate, near areas occupied by cultivated plants or intended for corralling or grazing livestock.
The types of these barriers depend on the availability of a particular material. They are made of earth (ramps, ditches and ditches), wicker, poles, boards, stone, thorny bushes and, finally, barbed wire. In mountainous areas, for example, in the Crimea and the Caucasus, stone walls predominate, in the forest-steppe zone - fences; in wooded areas with small plowed spaces, fences are made of poles and stakes, and in some places of boulders. Barriers include not only estate or rural fences, but also wooden and stone walls of ancient cities, as well as long fortifications, which in the old days were erected to protect entire states. These were the Russian “guard lines” (total length 3600 km), which were built in the 16th-17th centuries to protect against Tatar raids, and the famous Chinese Wall (finished in the 5th century AD), 3300 km long, protecting China from Mongolia .
The choice of a place for human habitation is determined, on the one hand, by natural conditions, i.e., relief, soil properties and proximity to sufficient amounts of fresh water, and on the other hand, by the opportunity to obtain a livelihood in the chosen place.
Settlements (individual houses and groups of houses) are usually located not in lowlands or basins, but on hills with a horizontal surface. So, for example, in mountain villages and cities, individual streets are located, if possible, in the same plane in order to avoid unnecessary ascents and descents; therefore, the lines of the houses have an arcuate shape and correspond to isohypses, that is, lines of equal height. In the same mountain valley there are many more settlements on the slope that is better illuminated by the sun than on the opposite one. On very steep slopes (over 45°), human dwellings, with the exception of caves, are not found at all. Sandy loam or light loamy soil is best for human habitation. When constructing housing, avoid soil that is swampy, clayey or too loose (loose sand, black soil). In populous settlements, soil deficiencies that impede movement are eliminated by means of bridges, sidewalks and various pavement structures.
The main reason determining the emergence and distribution of human settlements is fresh water. River valleys and lake shores are the most populated, and in interfluve spaces, dwellings appear where groundwater is shallow and the construction of wells and reservoirs does not present insurmountable difficulties. Waterless spaces are deserted, but are quickly populated with artificial irrigation. Among other reasons that attract human settlements, mineral deposits and roads, especially railways, play an important role. Any accumulation of human dwellings, a village or a city, arises only where a knot of human relations is tied, where roads converge or where goods are transshipped or transferred.
In human settlements, houses are either scattered without any order, as in Ukrainian villages, or they stick out in rows, forming streets, as we see in Great Russian villages and villages. With an increase in the number of inhabitants, a village or city grows either in width, increasing the number of houses, or in height, i.e., turning one-story houses into multi-story ones; but more often this growth occurs simultaneously in both directions.
A lot of time has passed since people used only natural shelters for their lives. Man developed, his way of life changed. The first human dwellings appeared, which he built specifically for his residence.
What were the first houses made of?
Today everyone is accustomed to the fact that it is possible to purchase any material for building a house. You can even order material from the other side of the world. Just pay for the services - they will deliver with pleasure. But it was not always so. Just as there was not always mail, steamships and railways for transporting goods.
In those distant times in question, peoples lived separately from each other. There was practically no trade. And the materials for building the dwelling had to be used from those that were in abundance nearby. Or those that could be adapted for construction without significant effort.
The building material used also influenced the shape of the first dwelling. Therefore, different parts of the planet have formed their own special types of human habitations. Despite their existing diversity, they also have significant similarities. But these similarities are due to the ease of making housing. Why complicate things when you can make them simple?
In steppe, semi-desert, and tundra areas, dwellings appeared that were made like huts. They were made from branches of bushes and trees and covered with grass, animal skins and other materials. They were built in North America, Central Asia, and Siberia. Such housing was called: wigwam, yurt, tent, and so on.
In semi-desert, desert areas, houses were built from materials that were underfoot. There were no others. This is a well-known material – clay. The walls of buildings were erected from it, and vaults were made. If wood could be found, the base of the roof was made from it and covered with reeds, grass or other materials. Such housing was called adobe housing.
If straw was added to the clay, then such houses were called adobe. Usually these were small structures rectangular or round in plan. Their height was small - the height of a person. Such housing was built in Central Asia and Africa.
In mountainous and rocky areas, stone was used for construction. In fact, what else can a house be built from here? Walls were built from it. The roof was made of wood or also of stone. An example of such a structure is the Georgian saklya. In addition, caves continued to be built in the mountains. Only for this purpose cavities were specially cut out in the rocks.
And such caves over time looked more and more like ordinary rooms and apartments. For example, in Italy there are entire ancient cities in the rocks. In some areas, entire secret cities were built in caves to protect against conquerors. In the Turkish region of Cappadocia, well-preserved underground cities were recently discovered, in which thousands of people could hide and live.
In forest and taiga areas, where wood was abundant, houses were built from it. Here we can mention the chopped Russian hut, the Ukrainian hut. In Europe, wood was also used for construction. These are the so-called chalets, which means a shepherd's house. In general, forests in one form or another were used for construction by many peoples of the world in different parts of the world.
Well, where there was no forest, and a thick layer of ice prevented access to the clay, the buildings were made from it. This custom existed in Greenland. There, dwellings were built from dense snow or ice. These houses were called igloos.
On the other side of the globe, where, unlike Greenland, it was necessary to escape not from the cold, but from the heat, light structures were built. In the deserts of Arabia they lived in tents, and in Africa - in buildings woven from branches. It was not hot in such buildings. They were well ventilated around the clock.
Types of human housing depending on lifestyle
The way of life of peoples also had a significant influence on the appearance of his home. In those distant times, there were two ways of life for people. Those who were engaged in agriculture led a sedentary lifestyle. They lived in their area permanently. And, accordingly, their houses were reliable and massive. Such houses were sometimes even successfully used to protect against uninvited guests.
Unlike farmers, pastoralists and hunters led a nomadic lifestyle. They had no need to build reliable heavy houses. After all, they had to be moved from place to place from time to time. Therefore, lightweight collapsible buildings were built. A little later, some peoples began to use not only collapsible houses, but houses that could be moved on wheels.
The history of human development has lasted no more than five million years, but people did not always have such comfortable homes as they do today. Surprisingly, primitive people did not see the home as a means of shelter from bad weather or cold; oddly enough, hominids did not pursue such a goal. If we look at other representatives of the animal world, we will see that they all also have homes, even birds make nests, and rodents make burrows.
The first type of human dwelling is considered to be a cave. Caves have been found in many parts of the globe and indicate that life was in full swing in them. Most historians cite traces of fires as evidence of life in caves; many of them burned for tens, hundreds and thousands of years, warming the inhabitants with their warmth and protecting their dangerous predators. Each cave was inhabited by several dozen people, so they can be called the first communal apartments invented by people. It would seem that the facts indicating that the cave was the dwelling of primitive man are indisputable, but in recent years a group of historians has appeared who claim that the cave acted as a cult place. There is evidence of it as a place where deceased ancestors and skulls were kept. There were often cases of construction of dwellings at the entrance to the cave, but not in them themselves.
In support of this assumption, one can cite the irrefutable fact that not every region of the earth has caves, but nevertheless, people settled almost everywhere, including in steppe zones where there were no rocks and caves. The same sources tell about huts, which were initially located on trees, and then lowered to the ground, as the first dwellings. The frame was made of branches, and they were surrounded by the skins of wild animals. Such dwellings were small - only 2-2.5 meters in diameter. The dwellings of primitive man were not permanent, since people were forced to constantly move from one place to another in search of plant and animal food.
Later, during the Glacial Age, dugouts and semi-dugouts appeared. They were already dwellings in the full sense of the word. After the glacier began to retreat, large woolly animals, which were the main object of hunting, began to follow it. It was they who brought the primitive inhabitants of Eurasia to places with a harsh northern climate. Here people were forced to build permanent dwellings and take refuge in them from the local cold. However, not only in the north did permanent dugouts and semi-dugouts begin to appear - they began to be built throughout the entire ecumene. These dwellings were built depending on climatic conditions for 5 or more years. They stopped being used when the support pillars on which the roof was supported rotted. Now briefly about these types of housing.
Half-dugouts. A tunnel was built to a depth of half a meter, then thick tree branches or bones and tusks of mammoths were driven into the ground - they acted as walls, insulated with skins and leaves. In the center there was a hearth, lined with stones, and the entire surface of the floor was covered with a thick layer of sand and acted as one large bed.
Dugouts. A pit was built, sometimes up to a meter deep. The walls were no longer made of branches, but of logs. The vault was supported by vertical pillars along the perimeter of the dwelling. The roof was covered with tree bark, then turf was laid and a thick layer of earth was placed on top. There were no windows, there was only one exit, most often “looking” towards the river. On average, 20-25 people lived in such a room. It is clear that there was no talk of any comfort: inside it was dark, stuffy and damp.
Thus, we came to the conclusion: the fact that proves to the whole world that the cave was the dwelling of primitive man is not entirely accurate. People settled at the entrance to the cave, and used it for other purposes. Regarding all kinds of huts, it turned out that these are the buildings that have been built by man since ancient times, and for some peoples they still act as the main dwelling.
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