Clarification of Answer by
aceresearcher-ga
on
05 Dec 2002 23:22 PST
Greetings, elaine29!
My apologies for not being more specific. For your purposes, "Early
Human Sociology" (rather than Psychology) might return more helpful
references to the reasons early humans formed social / functional
groups. I have endeavored to pull excerpts which narrowly address the
reasons humans formed these groups.
"Ever wonder why humans evolved into social animals with rules and
regulations covering just about everything we do?" by Lee Dye,
ABCNEWS.com (April 9, 2002):
"The need to work together in an effort to slay large animals, and the
necessity of coming up with ways of ensuring that everybody gets a
fair meal, probably set the stage for the social evolution that led
ultimately to the development of language, followed by the cultural
diversity...
If early humans were to succeed at team hunting, they had to develop
ways of communicating with each other. They had to figure out how to
share in the rewards, and they had to decide who was going to do what.
They also needed to know who they could trust, and who was most likely
to sneak off into the bushes with an extra steak."
http://www26.brinkster.com/archived/viewnews.asp?newsID=955715358257
"Chapter 3. Why Cooperate?" from "EVOLUTION'S ARROW: The direction of
evolution and the future of humanity" byt John Stewart (Chapman Press,
2000):
"Almost everything we use and depend on in our everyday life is
produced and brought to us by the coordinated actions of many other
people. Almost everything made by humans is produced cooperatively...
Not only is our physical life completely dependent on cooperation, so
too is our mental life."
http://www4.tpg.com.au/users/jes999/3.htm
"Early Origins" (1997, 1994) from "Transitions" by Biologist
"Seahunt":
"Depending on locally dictated conditions, both parents make a great
investment to raise a child. In addition, for humans, the social
structure allowed extended family and foster family to help educate
and socialize the child. Learning was from the whole social group. The
social group infrequently changed members and the genetics were not
highly variable in the group. It was a stimulating environment
overall. Sometimes it is useful and quite accurate to refer to these
groups as "tribal" as opposed to hunter / gatherer / collector /
scavenger, to describe them by their social form instead of their
resource acquisition strategies."
http://diver.net/seahunt/p/files/p2phis.htm
"Why do humans enjoy music,in terms of an evolutionary advantage?" by
Patricia Ash, biologist, Open University:
"Humans, like chimpanzees and gorillas, are social animals. Advantages
of living in social groups for chimpanzees and gorillas include better
protection from predators, and more effective foraging for food, both
of which promote survival. Group members help each other and build
alliances within the group. Any activity that promoted group cohesion
would therefore have provided evolutionary advantage."
http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/scienceshack/articles/questions/q_ou113.shtml
"A Comparison of Some Similar Chimpanzee and Human Behaviors" by James
Q. Jacobs,
"The need for social and physical contact is also characteristic of
most primates... Many of the roots of human behavior can be traced to
our primate heritage, including survival through cooperation and
mutual assistance... A cooperative resource sharing strategy and group
planning in our common ape ancestors probably fueled reproductive
success and evolution to greater mental capacities related to
communication and language in humans. "
http://www.jqjacobs.net/anthro/paleo/primates.html
"Homo Habilis, Handy Man" from "The Life & Times of Early Man" by Lin
Dunn:
"Small groups banded together for protection and efficiency. The size
of the group depended upon the amount of food available. Groups would
disband and move on, as food required. Scientists are pretty sure that
homo habilis built campfires. But they did not know how to make
fire... Since they did not have fire-making skills, they had to wait
until they found something burning from natural causes... A campfire
had to be carefully watched, because if the fire went out, they did
not know how to start it again. The area around the campfire was
probably used as a sleeping area. A roaring campfire would keep most
wild animals away, as most are afraid of fire."
http://members.aol.com/Donnclass/EarlyMan.html#INTRO
I hope this Clarification provides you with exactly the information
you
needed!
Regards,
aceresearcher
,
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