Scott Florio
His 107
06/21/2014

Midterm 1. In August 1856, quarry workers in the Neander Valley of northern Germany discovered the remains of an ancient human unlike any other seen on earth. These remains were that of a primitive human with a large bulging brow and that was far older than any other remains ever discovered. This discovery caught the interest Johann Fuhlrott a schoolteacher and amateur student of natural history who made a very controversial statement, that humans are a product of evolution rather than creation. Three years later British natural historian Charles Darwin published his book, On the Origin of Species, which is a detailed explanation of evolution, and his theory on, “Natural Selection,” the idea that only the strong survive. Throughout human history we see a new type of evolution where people start to adapt their environments to suit them instead of adapting to the environment. This is the period where people started to use technology in order to make their lives easier and to take better control of their fate. Early technology may not look very impressive by today’s standards but thousands of years ago the use of tools changed the entire course of the world. This gave people the ability to gain better control of their surroundings and made life much safer from the elements and predators. Originally people were hunter-gatherers, roaming the world in order to find food by migrating and following their food sources, like the aborigine’s in the Australian outback. Once humans gained the knowledge of agriculture this life style was all but lost. People now had the ability to farm and keep livestock, which allowed them to create the first civilizations and increase their knowledge on creating technologies. Temporary structures gave way to permanent structures and people adapted to living in the same places all year round. Social