FORMATION OF PREVIOUS SOCIETY AND PREVIOUS DOCTORS (more than 2 million years ago - about 40 thousand years ago)

The formation of human society

The transition from the closest ancestors of man (Australopithecus) to the hominid subfamily (that is, humans) is a long evolutionary process that has been going on for millions of years and was completed, as archaeological research shows, in the Tertiary and Quaternary

In establishing the boundary between the animal world and man, there are two approaches: anthropological and philosophical.

The basis of the anthropological approach is the biological originality of man, his morphological difference from the ancestral forms nearest to him. This difference is determined by the hominid triad:

1) upright walking, or bipedia;

2) free hand with opposing thumb, capable of subtle labor operations;

3) relatively large highly developed brain.

The signs of the hominid triad were finally formed not simultaneously, but at different stages of evolution.

According to modern paleoanthropological data, the first sign of the hominid triad - upright walking - has taken shape. already in the nearest human ancestors - Australopithecus (more than 2 million years ago, at the end of the Tertiary period). The straightforwardness created the prerequisites for the development of work and, therefore, was a decisive sign of hominids. In other words, in the process of evolution, upright walking was ahead of the development of work: first, Australopithecus became erect, and then hominids (that is, people) began to create the first tools (in contrast to L. Morgan’s point of view: free your hands for weapon activities).

The second sign of the hominid triad - the developed brush - formed at the turn of the lower and middle Paleolithic, by the time of the genus Homo (300/200 thousand years ago).

The formation of the third trait - the highly developed brain - was even longer over time: the brain mass approached the modern stage of the late paleoanthropes (about 50/40 thousand years ago), while the development of its structure continued throughout the history of the genus Homo . Thus, the formation of the hominid triad, and, consequently, of the human of the modern species, the neoanthropus (Homo sapiens), was finally completed about 50/40 thousand years ago (see Tables 2 and 3).

The basis of the philosophical approach to determining the criteria of a person and his isolation from the animal world is the social essence of a person — his gun (or labor) activity, thinking, language, social relations.

In the process of evolution, sociogenesis and anthropogenesis were carried out in the dialectic interaction of social and biological labor and natural selection directed by labor.

One of the most important problems of anthropogenesis is the question of the place of formation of man - the ancestral home of humanity.

C. Darwin (Darwin Ch., 1809— 1882) suggested that the African continent, where the anthropoids — the chimpanzee and the gorilla — are the closest to humans, is the original homeland of humanity. Archaeological research in recent decades confirms the idea of ​​an African ancestral home of humanity. Nevertheless, in modern historical science there are two hypotheses: monogenism and polygenism. According to the hypothesis of monogenism (which most researchers adhere to), humankind originated from one limited focus of the globe - the highland regions of Eastern and Southern Africa (some scientists attribute this process to the increased background radiation in highland Africa as a whole).

The polygenism hypothesis allows for the existence of several centers of human formation - in Africa and Asia.

About 1 million years ago, in the period of the early (lower) Paleolithic (see Table 2), the total number of people on Earth, according to rough estimates by specialists, did not exceed 125 thousand.

In the era of the Middle Paleolithic (Neanderthal phase of human evolution), the initial ocumene (human habitat) expanded significantly: people of the Neanderthal species mastered vast territories of Europe (except for the northern ones), steppe and forest-steppe regions of Siberia, and possibly the Japanese islands. ". About 300 thousand years ago, the total number of people on Earth reached about 1 million.

In the era of the Upper Paleolithic (40/12 thousand years ago), the man of the modern species mastered new, less favorable lands in Europe and Asia, penetrated into Australia (35/30 thousand years ago) and New Guinea (c. 26— 12 thousand years from modern-7 STI), settled North and South America (about 20/12 thousand years ago). The main way of settling America is the Bering land (Beringia), which at that time closed the Bering Strait. About 25 thousand years ago, the human population exceeded 3 million, and at the dawn of class formation (about 8 thousand years BC), the entire population of the globe was, as experts believe, about 5 million people.

The rudiments of healing

In its development, human society passed two main stages: the era of the most ancient people - arkhantrop (about 2 million years ago - 300/200 thousand years ago) and the era of ancient people - paleoanthropes (Neanderthals) (about 300/200 thousand years ago - 40/35 "thousand years ago).

The most ancient people (arkhantropy) were upright and led a nomadic or semi-nomadic way of life. They manufactured the simplest tools of labor from stone, wood, and other natural materials; engaged in gathering, fishing and hunting, created the first dwellings and mined the fire by carving and rubbing, began to maintain it in the hearth. The artillery activity contributed to the formation of primitive articulate speech, the beginnings of language, the development of thinking and primitive consciousness among the arkhantropists.

The idea that the most ancient people ate (and for the treatment of diseases) only plants, I was very outdated. Archaeological studies of recent years have shown that the nearest ancestors of the most ancient people, Australopithecus, along with gathering, were engaged in hunting for small and large animals, that is, were omnivores. Consequently, thousands of years of empirical experience and daily work practices of the most ancient people allowed them to learn the healing and toxic properties of plants, minerals and animal parts and use them in the fight against their ailments.

The most ancient people have already shown collective concern for sick relatives. Find E. Dubois on about. Java (see Fig. 2) confirms this conclusion: without the support of a collective of relatives of a seriously ill individual, in all likelihood, a lame, s. Limited possibilities of self-defense would inevitably have to die in the early stages of the disease; however, he lived for many years, being a cripple. Consequently, the formation of social relations took place at the earliest stages of development of human society.

The beginnings of hygienic skills, in all likelihood, also began to form already at arkhantropov in the process of habitation of cave dwellings and the use of fire. However, at this stage of the history there were still no burials and associated religious ideas, the cult of the dead and magical acts. This is explained by the fact that the abstract thinking of the arkhantropists was not yet sufficiently developed.

The ancient people (paleoanthropes) - the ancestors of man of the modern species - lived in caves, in the open in constant camps and in artificially constructed dwellings. They created a high stone culture; engaged in purposeful collective gathering, fishing and driven hunting; supporting the fire in the hearth, they used it for cooking and in the hunt for large predators, whose skins were used to make clothing and insulate dwellings. Due to this, the Neanderthal man not only survived the sharp deterioration of the climate (in Europe) and the subsequent ice age, but also settled in large areas of Eurasia.

People of the Neanderthal type began to produce the first burial of the dead. The oldest of them (made 70/50 thousand years ago) are found in. Le Moustier and La Ferresti caves (in France), in Kiik-Koba in Crimea (now CIS), in Shanidar cave (in the territory of Irak) and other areas of the expanding ecumene (see Table 3). The appearance of graves testifies to the development of ancient people (the period of transition from the primitive human herd to the early primitive tribal community) of the initial abstract ideas about posthumous life, the cult of the dead, rites - that is, the formation of abstract thinking and the final separation of man from the animal kingdom as social creatures. . This is also confirmed by a significant decrease in cannibalism and more frequent finds of skeletons of seriously ill ancient people who could only survive under the protection of a group of relatives and receive a sufficient amount of food that they themselves did not produce. For example, in the La Chapelle cave (in France), a skeleton of a male paleoanthropist who died at the age of about 45 years old was found to be a complete cripple "(deforming spinal arthritis, mandibular arthritis and a hip fracture). In the cave. Shanidar found nine skeletons hard Sick ancient people buried in the period, from 70 to 44 thousand years ago.

The bones of the male skeleton Shanidar-1 (Fig. 3), which lived about 45 thousand years ago, have serious damage to the lateral wall of the left orbital cavity (as a result of which this ancient man was probably blind to his left eye), which healed the fracture foot bones with severe arthritis of its joints; his right arm was injured or deliberately amputated above the elbow many years before his death, leading to severe bone degeneration. The abrasion of the outer part of the front teeth indicates that, having survived an amputation, this person used his teeth for many years instead of his lost right hand. Being a complete cripple, he lived among the relatives who assisted him and died at the age of about 40 years (which is much higher than the average life expectancy of primitive people).

Archaeological and paleopathological studies in Shanidar Cave, conducted under the direction of the American archaeologist R. S. Solecki RS, also provided the first reliable information about the targeted use of medicinal plants by primitive man. Analysis of numerous soil samples from the burial of a man of Sha-nidar-IV showed that he was buried on a bed of tree branches and medicinal flowers of eight species. Among them were yarrow (Achil-lea), centaury (Centaurium), baptismal (Senecio), ephedra (Ephed-ra), Altea (Althaea). from the Malvaceae family (Malvaceae), a plant of the Muscary genus from the Liliaceae family (Liliaceae), and others. All of them were linked into bunches and laid out at the torso level and at the base of the feet. Plants of these species still grow in northern Iraq. Moreover, some of them were found in the mountains of Zagros, at a sufficiently large distance from the Shanidar cave. Apparently, the relatives specifically visited the slopes of distant mountains, deliberately collecting these medicinal plants.

The discovery of “flower people” (as R. S. Soletsky called them) was made in 1960, this is the first and so far the only reliable evidence of the use of medicinal plants by ancient hominids of the Neanderthal type. It is also undoubted scientific evidence of social relations that developed in the late paleoanthropes, at least 60 thousand years ago, that is, almost 20 thousand years before the selection of a man of the modern species - Homo sapiens