MODULE 01: ANTHROPOLOGICAL FOUNDATION OF EDUCATION

LESSON 01 HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT

Prerequisite Skills: Understanding of the meaning of anthropology and its correlation with the learning
process of man
Instructor: Daton Jonathan B. Palitayan, Jr.
Level: MAED 1
Allotted Time: Three Hours

Overview: This module presents significant findings of anthropologists, archaeologists, ethnologists, and historians
to clarify and certify the historical background of both genetic and environmental anthropology.

Objectives: At the end of the lesson, the students are expected to:
1. understand the different findings and theories of anthropologists, ethnologists, and archaeologists
concerning the evolutionary process of man; and
2. explain how the learning process of an individual is affected by the physical and cultural evolution of man.

Pretest:

A. Discuss concisely the significant findings and theories of the following anthropologists, ethnologists, and
archaeologists concerning the evolutionary process of man:
1. Herodotus 8. Lewis Henry Morgan
2. Ibn Khaldun 9. Sir Edward Burnett Tylor
3. Christian Jurgensen Thomsen 10. Franz Boas
4. Edouard Armand Isidore Hippolyte Lartet 11. Margaret Mead
5. Charles Robert Darwin 12. Claude Gustave Levi-Strauss
6. Gregor Johann Mendel 13. Robert Fox
7. Herbert Spencer

B. Define concisely the following:

1. law of segregation
2. law of independent assortment
3. “survival of the fittest”
4. Historical Particularism
5. Diffusionism

Learning Focus:

The origin of man can be traced both speculatively and scientifically from the time when other humans
dropped importance to its existence and survival. Anthropologists, archaeologists, ethnologists, and historians alike
gave no specific dates - only speculations and postulations - concerning the first appearance of man on earth. The
fact has nothing to do with the Jewish narrative story of creation that the modern man descended from Adam and
Eve (as two distinct singular persons of different sex) since humans existed simultaneously in several places at the
same time as proven by different tribes, clans, races, physical features, and mode of living and survival.
Anthropologists conjectured that humans have been toolmakers for at least 2.5 million years ago. Nonetheless,
such calculation of years served as reference that man inhabits the land up to the present era.
Most of the written sources dealing with Central Asia stemmed from the surrounding sedentary ancient
civilizations like Chinese, Greek, Latin, Arabic, and Persian.

HERODOTUS (c.484-425 BC)

He was a Greek historian and known as the Father of history of human civilization for he founded the Greek
and Roman historiographical tradition. He was born in the ancient city of Caria - later Halicarnassus (now Turkey)
under the Persian Empire - the dominant culture in the East during the 4th century Before Christ (BC). The city of
Halicarnassus where Herodotus lived had sheltered harbor and key position on the sea routes, great wall circuit,
public buildings, and secret dockyard and canal under the rule of Mausolus, the husband of his sister Artemisia.
Several opportunities encouraged Herodotus to travel widely and he visited Egypt, Libya, Syria, Babylonia, Susa in
Elam, Lydia, Phyrgia, Macedonia, Danube, Scythia, and Mediterranean for many years that provided him firsthand
knowledge on different peoples, cultures, human organizations, laws and events, and military history of the region
throughout Middle East. He wrote the history of the Greco-Persian Wars (499-479 BC) and noticed among Greeks
- the dominant culture of the West at that time - that they shared a common language, religion, and way of thought,
and the same feeling about what they were fighting for. He believed that the universe is governed by Fate and
Chance and nothing is permanent in human affairs. Everything is in the process of becoming. Herodotus was
considered as the leading source of original information not only for Greek history but for Egypt as well. He
compiled all the inquiries, observations, experiences, and studies into an omnibus of sources known as historia that
later served as excellent reference for different fields of interest like history, anthropology, sociology, archeology,
and the like.

IBN KHALDUN (1332-1406)

Born in Tunis in the region of Tunisia to a Spanish-Arab family that played an important political role in
Southern Spain and became the greatest of the Medieval Islamic historians. He received his formal education in
the Qu'ran, Arabic poetry, and Islamic law. He wrote Kiatab Al-Ibar or Universal History that guided the history of
Muslim North Africa and the Berbers (desperate barbaric ethnic groups in North and West Africa). He taught at the
University of Al-Azhar and his important contribution was the Muqaddimah (first systematic study on history and
society). He believed that societies are held together by the power of social cohesiveness, which can be
augmented by the unifying force of religion. Social change and the rise and fall of societies follow laws that can be
empirically discovered and that reflect climate and economic activity as well as other realities. In other words,
religion in Khaldun's view is the strongest motivator to unite the members of society.

COLONIZATION AND CONQUEST (1400-1900)

Several European scholars, philosophers, and theologians during the Middle Ages believed and speculated that
man is a perfect creation and masterpiece of Yahweh, the God of the Hebrew people. Hence, all men are born equal.
Enlightenment thinkers and philosophers during the 17th and 18th century postulated and rationalized the origin and
nature of man based on reason rather than the Judeo-Christian scriptures. They contended that men were born
unequal in all things.
The contemporary study of anthropology dawned during the exploration and colonization of lands by the
European conquistadores in the Americas, Africa, Asia and the Pacific. The first contact of the colonizers, during the
14th to 19th century, to the countless and variety of local inhabitants triggered some scholars to study, understand,
and deliberate the diversity of man and cultures. The accumulations of lands, wealth, and people (for slavery) around
the world by the European Imperialists like Portugal, Spain, Belgium, the Netherlands, and England that extend their
economic (gold), religion (God), and political control (glory) to America, Africa, Asia and the Pacific stirred new
interest in probing different indigenous cultures. The increase of global trade and industry during the 18th century led
to vast cultural alterations and social upheavals throughout the world.
 At the beginning of the 19th century, several scientific observations such as stone tools that were indicated by
several anthropologists scrutinized the humanity's past.

CHRISTIAN JURGENSEN THOMSEN (1788-1865)

Born in 1788 at Copenhagen, Denmark. He was the curator of the National Museum of Denmark Who classified
and arranged the Scandinavian antiquities. Being an archeologist, he developed three-partite epochs prior to the
modern era of technology such as Stone Age (earliest period of human history, in which tools and weapons were
made of stone), Bronze Age (period of cultural history that succeeded the Stone Age and was characterized by the
use of tools made of bronze), and Iron Age (the period following the Bronze Age during which iron was used in
making tools and weapons) in Europe. This tripartite scheme served as the basis for chronological pattern in other
parts of the globe postulated by the succeeding generations of archeologists.

STONE AGE is commonly divided into three different and separate eras, namely, Paleolithic, Mesolithic, and
Neolithic. Paleolithic era refers to the origins and development of early human culture from the time of man's
appearance on earth around 600,000 or 700,000 years back. During this period, early humans were food gatherers in
which their community depends on hunting wild birds and animals, fishing, or gathering wild plants, fruits, nuts, and
berries for sustenance. Tool making by the Paleolithic people may be classified into four different cultures and
traditions, such as, pebble-tool tradition, hand-axe tradition, flake-tool tradition, and blade-tool tradition. Mesolithic era
was considered as the period between the Paleolithic and Neolithic period and the so-called Middle Stone Age. Tools
during Mesolithic period were recognized because of its flaked stone and often include microliths. The years that
covered this epoch was postulated about 8000 BC to 2700 BC. Mesolithic cultures highly differ from the previous
stage because diverse communities were able to adapt to their changing environment and climate. Hunting, fishing,
and food gathering were more effective due to their improved experiences. Neolithic period or the New Stone Age is
the last stage of cultural evolution and is the technological development of earliest man. Human tools were efficiently
designed, shaped, grind, and polished for more sophisticated uses. During this epoch, humans learned to raise crops
and keep domestic livestock for their subsistence. Thus, many no longer practiced hunting and gathering of wild
plants and fruits. They established their permanent dwellings and communal-political organization. Food gathering
was shifted to food production and hunting was altered to animal domestication. Earliest farmers raised barley and
wheat and kept sheep and goats and supplemented later by cattle and pig. Neolithic technologies appeared in
several places like southwestern Asia (9000 BC), Greece, Israel, Syria, Lebanon and Jordan (7000 BC), Mexico and
Central America (6500 BC), and Huang Ho Valley and Southeast Asia (3500 BC).

BRONZE AGE implies the period in human civilization in which metal was used. The beginning of this period was
varied as far as different regions and cultures are concerned. The Bronze Age in China and Greece commenced at
the end of 4000 BC, in the Middle Hast began in 3000 BC, and in Britain started around 1900 BC. This stage of
human civilization is known as Copper-Stone Age (Chalcolithic), which refers to the combination of copper and
stone. Tools and weapons were made of copper through metal casting preparation by the Mesopotamian culture.
The era was also marked by the invention of the wheel and the ox-drawn plow.

IRON AGE is the final technological and cultural stage in the tripartite epoch prior to modern period. The iron upon
its discovery around 1000 BC replaced the copper and bronze. This metal for the most part implements for weapons
and sophisticated tools. Iron took the place of bronze at different times in different cultures.

EDOUARD ARMAND ISIDORE HIPPOLYTE LARTET (1801-1871)

He was the first French paleontologist, geologist, and archaeologist who discovered fossil remains in
southwestern France in 1834. He found pieces of evidence of the concurrent existence of pre-historic human and
extinct animals, and the earliest arts of man as well. Lartet presented that the Stone
Age consisted of successive phases of human culture. In one of the caves in France that their group excavated
was discovered unexpectedly a large fossil mammal tooth from the period of Ice. Such discovery triggered Lartet to
focus his study on fossils from the Tertiary period (from 65-1.6 million years) and Quaternary period or known as the
Ice Age (from 1.6 million years to present time). Other fossils found from the caves were those of elephants' remains,
monkeys, sea cows, and even birds. Lartet believed that Ice Age mammals and humans live during the era
simultaneously.

CHARLES ROBERT DARWIN (1809-1882)

He was a maternal grandchild of Erasmus Darwin, a freethinking physician, physiologist, and poet before the
French Revolution that started from 1789 to 1799. At a young age he hated rote memorization of Classics at the
Anglican school. His father sent him to Edinburgh University to study medicine but he learned very little. Robert
Edmond Grant, a radical evolutionist and disciple of the French biologist Jean- Baptiste Lamarck, became his mentor
teaching him lessons concerning the growth and relationship of primitive marine invertebrates that held the key to
unlock the mysteries of creatures' complexities. At the age of 22, Darwin joined the crew of the HMS Beagle
Expedition on December 27, 1831 as a naturalist. Such voyage gave him a great opportunity to observe the various
geological formations in different continents and islands along the way, and a chance to make contact with
"untamed" humans in Tierra del Fuego in December 1832 where he wrote that there was a great difference between
the savage man and civilized people, discovered huge bones of extinct mammals, and admired the existence of
different species of flora and fauna in the continents and islands they docked like Cape Verde islands, South
America, Galapagos islands, Falkland islands, and the Pacific. He was impressed on how the forces of nature
shaped the earth's surface in the course of time. Darwin's travel caused him to believe that life is like a branching
tree that implies free origin and destination rather than a series of escalator postulation. Several biologists and
geologists patterned their doctrines after Darwin's natural selection and evolution that early humans adapted to the
constant changes of the environment. Black-breed was considered as lower and inferior compare to the white-breed
humans that are superior. Inbreeding and crossbreeding caused any living organism to evolve, develop, and change
to a more sophisticated being. In The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex (1871), Darwin explained
authoritatively and annotated the evolution of human races, morality, civilization, and origins among the Old World
monkeys.

GREGOR JOHANN MENDEL (1822-1884)

He was an Austrian monk of Augustinian Monastery at Brunn, botanist, plant experimenter, and pioneer in using
mathematics in the science of genetics known as the "Mendel's Law." After he was ordained to priesthood, Mendel
was sent by his Abbot (a religious tide given to the highest official in the monastery for men) to the University of
Vienna to study physics, mathematics, chemistry, zoology, and botany. When he returned to Brunn after completing
his studies he taught natural science despite the fact that he did not pass the examination for teacher's license for the
second time. He was elected as Abbot of his stabled community. His ardent interest in science, genetics, and
heredity started in the small garden of their monastery.
Mendel observed several differences in his plants such as tallness and dwarfness, leaves discoloration, different
shapes and forms of seeds, and the like. Such phenomena made the botanist to theorize that a visible alternative
character of plants is due to the occurrence of paired elementary units of heredity known as genes that occupy a
fixed position on a chromosome. The Augustinian cleric maintained that when several pairs of alternative characters
are observed, many pairs of elements enter into all possible Combinations in the progeny. His theory on plants is
applicable also in man's evolutionary naturalism.
Mendel's law or Mendelism is a systematic principle of heredity in which the chromosomes are carriers of genetic
units. Two fundamental laws were formulated: the law of segregation and the law of independent assortment. The
former states that genes are transferred as separate and distinct units from one generation to the next. The latter
theorized that the alleles (one or more genes that may occur alternatively at a given site on a chromosome) of the
gene pairs - one on each of paired chromosomes - separate during the formation of sex cells by a parent organism.
HERBERT SPENCER (1820-1903)
He was an English social philosopher and sociologist who advocated the theory of evolution postulated by
Charles Darwin.
In his Principles of Biology (1864), Spencer theorized that evolution was caused by the inheritance of acquired
characteristics from its origin. Later he accepted the theory of both Darwin and Wallace that natural selection was
one of the causes of biological evolution in which he coined the phrase survival of the fittest. It implies that only the
most well adapted individuals in a population would survive and reproduce. Man encounters different competitions
with other individuals and groups, between the strong and weak. Wealth, influence, and power were considered as
signs of fitness in the environment where human lives, while poverty was measured as evidence of natural weakness
and incapability. Besides human progress resulted from the triumph of more advanced individuals and cultures over
the inferior competitors.

LEWIS HENRY MORGAN (1818-1881)

He was an American lawyer, ethnologist, anthropologist, and founder of scientific anthropology. His study and
research focused On kinship System and the theory, of social evolution among the indigenous people of North
America who lived throughout the continent for thousand years prior to the European discovery of the New World in
the 15th century. In his Ancient Society or Researches in the Lines of Human Progress from Savagery through
Barbarism (1877), Morgan emphasized the origin and evolution of civilization as seen in different cultures. It is
undeniable to affirm that hunting and food gathering evolved into a stable and systematic agriculture, nomadism
shifted into housing settlement, communal practices of marriage altered to a monogamous form of marital union. The
study of Morgan served as a pattern to the research and investigation of Adolph Francis Alphonse Bandelier, a
Swiss-American anthropologist, historian, and archeologist who made an inquiry concerning the Aztec civilization in
Mexico, Peru, and Bolivia. He found out that the socio-political structure of the Astlán (another term for Aztec) was
similar to the Iroquois of North American Indians, which were kin-based and democratic.

SIR EDWARD BURNETT TYLOR (1832-1917)

He was an English anthropologist, founder of cultural anthropology, and highly influenced by the theory of
biological evolution of Charles Darwin. When Tylor met Henry Christy, a well-known British archeologist and
ethnologist, he was persuaded by the latter to accompany him on his expedition in Mexico to study the remnants of
the Toltec culture. Such experiences of Tylor through the assistance of Christy made him to write a paper concerning
the culture of Anahuac. In several occasions Tylor kept on repeating that the past is very necessary in order to
explain and understand the present. He thoroughly explained and illustrated in the Primitive Culture (1871) that man
progressed from savage life to a civilized state. He conceived the ancient man as early thinker, philosopher, and
cosmologist who rationalized and predicted the continuous movements in the natural world that oftentimes resulted to
unavoidable mistakes. Tylor assessed that the primitive religion was animism or belief to the anima or spirits that
evolved into polytheism or belief to several gods/goddesses, and finally transformed into monotheism or belief in one
god. Only empirical investigation could lead to the scientific study of humanity. Besides, the British anthropologist
was celebrated for his definition of culture as a complex whole that includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law,
custom, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of a society.

FRANZ BOAS (1858-1942)

He was a German-American anthropologist and founder of cultural relativism that influenced many during the
20th century. His study focused on the North American Indian cultures, folklores, arts, and languages. Since
childhood, he was a wide reader and has shown great interest in natural sciences. His interest on cultures developed
and deepened when he worked at the ethnological museum in Berlin. In The Mind of the Primitive Man (1911), Boaz
believed that the human species is one but races of mankind are many in which each evolved, developed, and
survived equally but in different ways in the passage of time. Human cultures differ from each other in which laws of
cultural causation has to be discovered. Moreover, the German anthropologist insisted that cultural differences are
not the result of biological dissimilarities but intercultural relationship among humans. Hence, there is no pure race
and that no race is superior to any other. He developed another theory of culture known as Historical Particularism
that emphasized the uniqueness of every culture. His theory of Diffusionism maintained that cultural inventions and
innovations are canalized into a single origin and passed from community to society.

MARGARET MEAD (1901-1978)

She was an American anthropologist who conducted a study and research in New Guinea, Samoa Island, and
Bali in the early 1900. Her study focused on the patterns of child rearing in various cultures, adolescence, sexual
behavior, and American character and culture. She pioneered the anthropological techniques that include the use of
photography and videotapes. Aside from these she conducted studies regarding the non-literate peoples of Oceania,
their psychology and culture, the cultural conditioning of sexual behavior, natural character, and culture change. She
was well known as well for her incursions concerning women's rights, childrearing, human sexuality, nuclear
proliferation, race relations, drug abuse, population control, environmental pollution, and world hunger.

CLAUDE GUSTAVE LEVI-STRAUSS (1908-PRESENT)

He is a French social anthropologist who considered that the various cultures of human beings and their
behaviors, language patterns, and myths demonstrate a common framework underlying all human life. According to
his study and findings, cultures are systems of communication and he constructed models based on structural
linguistics, information theory, and cybernetics to interpret them.

ROBERT FOX (1918-1985)

Former curator of the Anthropology Division of the National Museum in the Philippines, steered several
archeological excavations like Tabon and Leta-Leta Caves in southwestern Palawan where he discovered human
fossil remains and stone tools dated from Pleistocene period (1.6 million years to 10,000 BC); Cagayan Valley where
human fossils and stone tools have been found; human fossils and stone tools in Calatagan, Batangas; caves in
Cagraray, Albay; and other places.

THE ADVENT OF HUMANS IN THE PHILIPPINE ARCHIPELAGO

Prior to the migration of indigenous people from Borneo, Sumatra, and Malaya to the Philippine archipelago
around 30,000 years ago, it was postulated that ancient man had already inhabited some parts of the islands like in
the riverbanks and caves. The archeological and anthropological studies of Henry Otley Beyer, Robert Fox, and
Wilhelm Solheim in the early 20th century show that prehistoric Pithecanthropus erectus or known as the erect-ape
man had populated the island. Theoretically, the homo erectus from China made their way to the northern part of the
Philippines via Taiwan peninsula. Fossils, artifacts, and man-made flake- core tools of ancient man were found
somewhere between Cagayan Valley and Chico Rivers. These ancestors of modern man might have grouped
together and moved in small bands as hunters, fishers, and food gatherers.
Another early settlement of primitive man was in Palawan caves (Tabon, Leta-Leta, and Duyong) where the
archeologists discovered woodworking tools used for cutting, trimming, and shaping wood; earthen vessels; and
other artifacts that circumstantially indicated that some primitive communities once occupied the area.
The coming of the Negrito migrants to the southern part of the archipelago from Borneo, Sumatra, and Malaya
by balangay or boat(s) was the beginning of cultural interaction between the Malaya and non-Malaya groups. The
Malayan tribes had more highly developed material cultures and they are the majority among other groups of
dwellers.

Summary
 Anthropology is the scientific study of man in its physical and cultural aspects. Physical anthropology, also
known as biological study of man focuses mainly on the evolutionary process in the domain of human anatomy and
physiology instead of culture. On the other hand, cultural anthropology, also known as social anthropology gives
emphasis on the origins and history of man's societies and cultures. It has something to do with the evolution and
development of culture from the remote past to the present-day societies. The origin of man can be traced both
speculatively and scientifically from the time when other humans dropped importance to its existence and survival.
Several anthropologists, archaeologists, ethnologists, and historians were mentioned in this chapter to clarify and
certify the historical background of both genetic and environmental anthropology.

Key Terms
physical anthropology cultural anthropology ethnology
Stone Age Bronze Age Iron Age
archaeology Ice Age Paleolithic
Mesolithic Neolithic evolution
diffusionism historical particularism
Law of Segregation Law of Independent
Assortment

Learning Activity/ies:

Activity 1:
1. Discuss the common findings and theories of anthropologists, ethnologists, and archaeologists mentioned
in this chapter concerning the evolutionary process of man.
2. How do physical and cultural evolution of man affect the learning process of an individual?

Post Test:

A. Multiple Choice
Choose the letter of the correct answer.

_____________ 1. The word anthropology is derived from two different __________ terms.
a. Latin c. Arabic
b. Greek d. Hindi
_____________ 2. A branch of anthropology that deals with the evolution of human anatomy and physiology
a. cultural anthropology c. theological anthropology
b. physical anthropology d. cosmic anthropology
_____________ 3. A branch of anthropology that studies the origin and history of human societies and culture
a. theological anthropology c. cultural anthropology
b. physical anthropology d. cosmic anthropology
_____________ 4. He evidently testified the existence of different peoples, cultures, human organizations, and
military history of the region throughout the Middle East.
a. Christian Thomsen c. Ibn Khaldun
b. Herodotus d. Gregor Mendel
_____________ 5. He viewed and considered religion as the strongest motivator to unite the members of society.
 a. Gregor Mendel c. Ibn Khaldun
b. Charles Darwin d. Herodotus
_____________ 6. He developed the tripartite eras - Stone Age, Bronze Age, and Iron Age - before the modern era
of technology.
a. Edouard Lartet c. Christian Thomsen
b. Erasmus Darwin d. Margaret Mead
_____________ 7. This period refers to the origins and development of early human cultures from the time when
they were food gatherers and hunters.
a. Paleolithic c. Neolithic
b. Mesolithic d. Chalcolithic
_____________ 8. He believed that during Ice Age both lower mammals and humans live simultaneously.
a. Gregor Mendel c. Charles Darwin
b. Edouard Lartet d. Herbert Spencer
_____________ 9. He considered that life is like a branching tree that implies free origin and destination rather than
a series of escalator postulation.
a. Herbert Spencer c. Gregor Mendel
b. Charles Darwin d. Edouard Lartet
_____________ 10. He established two fundamental theories on heredity, namely, law of segregation and law of
independent assortment.
a. Lewis Morgan c. Herbert Spencer
b. Gregor Mendel d. Franz Boas
_____________ 11. He coined the phrase survival of the fittest, which implies that only the most well adapted
individuals in a population would survive and reproduce.
a. Herbert Spencer c. Edward Tylor
b. Franz Boa? d. Margaret Mead
_____________ 12. He defined culture as a complex whole that includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom,
and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of a society.
a. Franz Boas c. Margaret Mead
b. Edward Tylor d. Robert Fox
_____________ 13. He developed the theory of Historical Particularism that emphasized the uniqueness of every
culture.
a. Claude Levi-Strauss c. Franz Boas
b. Margaret Mead d. Robert Fox
_____________ 14. He found out that cultures are systems of communication and he constructed models based on
structural linguistics, information theory and cybernetics to interpret them.
a. Margaret Mead c. Otley Beyer
b. Claude Levi-Strauss d. Wilhelm Solheim
_____________ 15. He was the former Curator of the Anthropology Division of the National Museum in the
Philippines who steered several archaelogical excavations like Tajoon, Duyong, and Leta-Leta in
Palawan.
a. Margaret Mead c. Otley Beyer
b. Claude Levi-Strauss d. Wilhelm Solheim