Revision summary
Bipedalism, brain growth, and long childhood are biological platforms. Tools, fire, sharing, and language are cultural forces. Washburn and later gene–culture work treat the loop as two-way. Hadar, Laetoli, and Olduvai are the teaching fossils and sites. Lactase persistence shows the loop still at work.
Model answer
Introduction
Human evolution is a feedback loop. Biology opened new behaviour; culture then selected further biology. Neither side writes the whole story.
Body
Biological factors
- Bipedalism freed the hands, as Australopithecus at Hadar and Laetoli footprints show.
- A larger brain, reduced canine, and longer childhood appear with Homo habilis and Homo erectus.
- Endurance walking, sweat cooling, and a changed birth canal are somatic answers to savanna and later to cooked food, as Wrangham argued.
Cultural factors
- Stone tools from Olduvai and Attirampakkam extend the diet and the home range.
- Fire, shelter, and later language turn learning into a second inheritance, which Tomasello calls cumulative culture.
- Food sharing and alloparenting, stressed by Hrdy, let big-brained infants survive.
Feedback
- Washburn called tools a cause of bipedal refinement, not only a result.
- Gene–culture cases today, such as lactase persistence, show the same loop still running.
Flow diagram
flowchart TD BIO[Bipedal brain childhood] --> CUL[Tools fire teaching] CUL --> SEL[Further selection] SEL --> BIO
Conclusion
Biology supplied bipedalism, brain, and delayed growth. Culture supplied tools, fire, and teaching. Human evolution is their joint product.
Quick related
Students also ask
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How did Morgan explain the evolution of marriage, family and Socio-Political organization, and how did other evolutionists disagree with his explanation?
Next question in the 2015 paper (Q2). View answer →
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Did culture begin only with Homo sapiens?
No. Oldowan tools and later Acheulian already show extra-somatic adaptation.
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Is brain size the only biological factor?
No. Pelvis, thermoregulation, dentition, and life history all shifted.
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