Journey into the past: the life and work of primitive people. How ancient people lived - a description of the life of primitive people with pictures, photos and videos Life of ancient people for children

The life of ancient man directly depended on the tribe in which collective work was established. Everyone lived in common housing because it was easier to survive that way. Having united in a community, they could pass on experience from older generations to younger ones, who, in turn, learned to hunt and make various tools from wood and stone. Skills and knowledge have been passed on from generation to generation for many centuries.

Every student should know the history of their ancestors. They can gain knowledge from textbooks that describe the life of ancient people. Grade 5 provides an opportunity to get acquainted with the first people and learn the features of their life.

First fire

The fight against natural elements has always interested man. Conquering fire was the first step towards the survival of mankind. Ancient people first became acquainted with fire through volcanic eruptions and forest fires. People were not afraid of the scale of the disasters that befell them, but on the contrary, they wanted to use fire for their own benefit. Therefore, they learned to extract it artificially. Getting fire was a rather labor-intensive process, so it was carefully protected and preserved. Ancient people made fire in the following way. They took a dry piece of wood, made a hole in it and twisted a stick in it until smoke appeared, followed by fire in the dry leaves near the hole.

Weapons and tools

The life history of ancient people has interesting facts. Scientists have found interesting finds: labor and many household items. They surprise you with their ingenuity. All items were made by ancient craftsmen from scrap materials: wood, bone and stone. The main tools of labor were considered to be objects made of stone. With their help, wood and bone were subsequently processed. Many tribes made war clubs, arrows, spears and knives from stone for protection. Deer and whale bone were used to make axes for making boats from a single tree trunk. The process of making one boat with such a tool could take up to three years. Dog bone needles were used to sew shoes and clothes.

Cooking Features

The life of ancient man could not do without cooking. The first people made household items mainly from bushes and branches, leather, bamboo, wood, coconut shells, birch bark, etc. Food was cooked in wooden troughs into which hot stones were thrown. In a later period, people learned to make dishes from clay. This marked the beginning of real cooking. The spoons were analogous to river and sea shells, and the forks were ordinary wooden sticks.

Fishing, hunting and gathering

In communities, fishing, hunting and gathering were an integral part of the life of ancient people. This type of food production belongs to the appropriating form of farming. In ancient times, people collected fruits, bird eggs, larvae, snails, root vegetables, etc. This was predominantly the work of the women of the tribe. Men got the role of hunters and fishermen. While hunting, they used various techniques: traps, traps, drives and roundups. The purpose of the hunt was to obtain food and other means of subsistence, namely: horns, tendons, feathers, fat, bones and skins. They used sticks with sharp stone tips to catch fish, and later they began to weave nets.

Raising livestock

The appropriating form of economy was replaced by the producing one. We can highlight one main one - cattle breeding. ancient people changed over time, from nomads they turned into sedentary ones, they stopped trying to leave the places of their settlements, and settled in them forever. Therefore, domestication and breeding of animals became possible. Cattle breeding arose from hunting. The first were sheep, goats and pigs, later cattle and horses. Accordingly, an indispensable pet was a dog, which guarded the house and was an ally on the hunt.

Agriculture

Women played a leading role in the development of agriculture, as they were engaged in gathering. The life of ancient man changed radically when he mastered this type of food acquisition. Trees were cut down from stone with axes and then burned. This freed up space in flattering areas. A digging stick with a sharp tip was an improvised hoe. The first people used it to dig the ground. Later they invented a shovel - a stick with a flat end, and a hoe - an ordinary branch with an appendage to which a sharp stone, a bone tip or an animal horn was tied. All over the world, ancient people grew in fields those plants that were native to their habitat. Corn, potatoes and pumpkins were grown in America, rice in Indochina, wheat in Asia, cabbage in Europe, and so on.

Crafts

Over time, the life of ancient man forced him to master various crafts. They developed according to the conditions of the area where the first people lived and the availability of nearby raw materials. The earliest of them are considered to be: woodworking, pottery, leather dressing, weaving, processing of hides and bark. There is a guess that pottery arose from the process of weaving vessels by women. They began to coat them with clay or squeeze out recesses for liquids in the pieces of clay themselves.

Spiritual life

The spiritual life of ancient man is visible in the cultural heritage of Ancient Egypt. This great civilization left a significant mark on the history of all mankind. Religious motifs permeate all the work of the Egyptians. The first people believed that human earthly existence was only a transition to this stage. This stage was not considered so important. From birth, people were preparing to leave for a more perfect other world. The reflection of the spiritual life of Ancient Egypt is reflected in painting and other forms of art.

Human life in the art of Ancient Egypt

Extraordinary and vibrant painting flourished in the state. The Egyptians were deeply religious people, so their whole life consisted of rituals, which can be seen in the themes of their paintings and drawings. Most of the paintings are dedicated to the highest mystical beings, glorification of the dead, religious rites and priests. To this day, the finds of these works are true examples of art.

Egyptian artists produced paintings in accordance with strict boundaries. It was customary to depict the figures of gods, people and animals strictly in frontal view, and their faces in profile. It looks like some kind of mystical scheme. Among the Egyptians, painting served as decoration for religious buildings, tombs and buildings where noble citizens lived. Also, the painting of Ancient Egypt is characterized by monumentality. In the temples of their gods, Egyptian artists created images that sometimes reached enormous sizes.

The painting of Ancient Egypt has a unique, unique style, incomparable to any other.

The ancient civilization of the first people captivates with its versatility and depth. This period is an important stage in the development of all humanity.

The need for movement and travel arose among our ancestors in ancient times. Moreover, the term “travel” can be interpreted literally, since “acquaintance” with new territories was vital.

The movements (migration) of primitive groups, or ethnosocial organisms (ESO), could be of the following nature:

Intra-ethnic migrations, when movements occurred within the territory occupied by the EDF.

Ethno-emigration, in which separate ESO groups took part. They went beyond the habitat of their collective and then lost their structural connection with it.

Migrations of the ESO itself. This was the most common type of migration in ancient times. He, in turn, could have the character:

resettlement of the ESO - moving it to a new territory;

resettlement of the ESO - the movement of one or several parts of the primitive collective to another territory without loss of structural ties with the ESO; ESO segmentation - in form representing the same thing as resettlement, but with the simultaneous creation of migrants' own ESO.

The primitive collective, living in a clearly defined territory, rarely violated its borders - this could lead to clashes with other tribes, whose territory it invaded. The territory inhabited by the ESO could not be small in size, since it was a “feeding landscape” for people - the level of the “appropriating economy”.

All members of the collective took part in intra-ethnic migration to one degree or another. These were seasonal migrations of hunters, and later, when fishing appeared, movements of fishermen for spawning fish in rivers or schools of fish in the seas. Intra-ethnic migration fully applies to gathering. In search of edible plants, worms, insects, various larvae, etc., people had to walk many kilometers almost every day through “their” territory.

Ethioemigration could occur for several reasons. A group of hunters, fishermen or gatherers could move to a sufficiently large distance from their habitat and, for objective reasons, could not reunite with their group.

Objective reasons include factors such as: climatic (river floods, volcanic eruptions, avalanches, etc.), biological (pursuit of a group of people by predators or large animals dangerous to them), social (chase of hunters of a primitive collective after a group, invading their territory).

It is unlikely that there could have been strong subjective reasons that forced primitive people to leave their collective. Life not only alone, but also in a small group was simply impossible during the Paleolithic and Mesolithic times. No wonder one of the most terrible types of punishment was expulsion from the tribe. It was a condemnation to certain death either from predators or from hunger.

The migration of primitive people was a common phenomenon. Relocations were necessary. Climatic changes were, as a rule, very long-lasting: the onset of glaciers or interglacial periods lasted tens and hundreds of thousands of years: They brought a gradual change in the odds and fauna. But short-term disasters could also strike, for example, earthquakes, which forced people to leave a given territory. But migrations were influenced not least by anthropogenic factors (killings of young animals and females by hunters).

In the era of the first social division of labor into settled farmers and nomadic pastoralists, differentiation of migration processes began depending on the type of activity. The demographic explosion has added new dynamics to the processes under consideration. With the beginning of the Neolithic Revolution, the usual routes changed, changing their meaning. From now on, it is necessary to find more convenient and rich pastures for livestock, and select places for sowing cereals that give maximum yield. The type of activity of nomadic pastoralists directly implied constant movement

For pastoral tribes, resettlement often took the form of an invasion, which indeed often resembled an invasion or attack. Pastoral tribes, unlike their hunter ancestors, often had to drive their herds away during migrations through enemy or arid territories.

Primitive people could not often change their place of residence, if only because it had to be strengthened as much as possible against predators and other large animals, and this always required large and time-consuming efforts (see Appendix No. 1).

In the primitive era, the first “trade” routes began to be established. The exchange was carried out not only with neighboring tribes, where it had the character of a “gift exchange” if the relationship was friendly, or “silent” if it was strained or hostile. Sometimes a “product” could travel hundreds or even thousands of kilometers before reaching the consumer. The need for a particular product created a demand for it; it could be specially “ordered”! The figure of the traveling “trader” was considered inviolable at that time.

In prehistoric times, our ancestors, when “traveling,” were mainly guided by external motivation, i.e. objective reasons, the main one of which was survival. Man in those distant times was almost completely dependent on nature. Any natural changes could cost lives. The destruction of specific animals and plants could not be restored in the Paleolithic and Mesolithic era; people did not yet know cattle breeding and agriculture. Often the only possible way out of a crisis situation was to leave their homes in the hope of finding something better. The wanderings of a person traveling in ancient times were influenced not only by external motivation and its reasons, but also by internal ones. Acceptance and visiting can be characterized precisely as internal motivation.

Internal motivation also includes “emotions of novelty”, expressed in the desire to expand the range of means that satisfy needs by becoming familiar with any new, unknown and unprecedented object, and an impulsive desire for economic communication.

The need to get acquainted with new diverse phenomena in life, related to internal motivation, has been one of the natural character traits of a person, starting from the primitive era.

In addition to migratory travel, “marriage travel” developed in ancient times, which gradually became a characteristic part of everyday life during the transition from the primitive herd to the clan community. Family and marriage relations in the primitive herd were either promiscuity or harem in nature. With the transition to the clan community, marriage within it was prohibited. Marriage partners could only be sought outside the clan, in other consanguineous groups. This phenomenon is called exogamy. Accordingly, in order to choose a wife, it was necessary to travel to the territory of the neighboring clan community. Echoes of this phenomenon can be seen in genealogical myths, traditions and beliefs. Such, for example, is information about the 12 tribes of ancient Israel, 6 tribes of the Medes, 4 phyla of the ancient Athenians, 24 elders of the Huns, etc. Marriage rights and privileges established within a particular group developed into a system on which the society of the clan period was built.

The movements of primitive people had multiple motivations; they were a characteristic feature of their way of life. All any important spheres of life of the primitive collective were directly related to migration processes. It can be stated that the life of primitive people without “travel” would have been simply impossible.

Short-term lesson plan for the history of Kazakhstan in grade 5
Long term plan section:
School:
5.1.Life of ancient people on the territory
Kazakhstan
Date of:
Class: 5
Lesson topic
Full name of teacher: Loktionova S.V.
Participated:
Absent
And:
Journey into the life of ancient people
Learning objectives for
achievements on this
lesson (link to
curriculum)
The purpose of the lesson
Success criterion
5.1.2.1 demonstrate the life and life of primitive people
people in a creative form (story, image,
staging, layout).
Students will demonstrate the life of primitive people
through staging
Students demonstrate the life of primitive people through
staging
Language goals
Keywords:
leather processing, harvesting, hunting, fishing, hoeing
agriculture,
handicrafts, weaving, ceramics, clay
vessels
A series of useful phrases for dialogue/writing
The following happened in the life and everyday life of ancient people:
changes:...
The following factors influenced changes in life
ancient people:...
What we have determined...
Eventually...
According to our group...
Following reasons/factors......
....became the most important achievements
Judging by this, ... was more important than... because.....
Instilling values
hard work
patience
Intersubject communication
Geography, world history, fine arts

Previous
knowledge
know that men were engaged in hunting, and women
gathering; The tools of labor of ancient people are distinguished:
club, stick-digger, chopper, chopping, arrowheads
etc.; are able to systematize tools in
depending on occupation

During the classes
Planned
data
lesson stages
Start: 3
min
Middle:
3
min

Types of planned exercises in the lesson
Resources
Organizational moment (psychological attitude
"Wishes to each other")
IR: Working with illustrations:
 Determination of group correspondence “Types
activities of ancient people"
 Exit on the topic of the lesson;
 Students independently formulate a goal
lesson;
Illustrations by
topic “Different
kinds
activities
ancient people"
PR: “We Reason Together” technique
 In what period did ancient people unite in
Textbook, KSP
herds, clans, tribe?
Looking at the pictures, learning to determine the cause
unification of ancient people in different periods of time
FO: gestures
IR: Problematic issue: the “Secret” technique
object" (clay mug, bow and arrows, stone and
etc.): what is it and how can it relate to
lesson?
5
min
Film metaphor: watching a fragment from a film
"The Ancient People"
 What changes have occurred in life and everyday life?

2
min
15
min
ancient people?
 What difficulties did the ancients face?
People?
 What contributed to the change in life and
life of ancient people?
FO: praise
Warm-up: “The Sea is Raging Once” (aimed at skill
stop the moment, followed by division by
groups based on identical figures)
Group work: Creative task
(Interpretation):
Write a script for the film “The Journey”
into the life of ancient people"
Using the Freeze Frame strategy, depict
still frame from the life and everyday life of ancient people, drawing
on the received cards with the name of the species
activities. The group discusses, and with the help
movements stage the event in front of the class.
Task scene:
1. Making tools from stone
2.Gathering and farming
3.Hunting
Dispensing
material
Video fragment
from the video tutorial about
tools
ancient people
from the video tutorial
by general
stories
"The Ancients
People"
(videouroki.net)
Cut
pictures from
tools
the most ancient
of people.
Operating rules
in the group on
blackboard
Textbook,
table template
A4 sheets,

4. Starting a fire
5.Drawing rock paintings
6. Housing construction
7. Weaving, processing of hides
Descriptor:


Know what changes have happened in life
ancient people;
students accurately identify the type
activities of ancient people;
 can consistently depict changes
in the life of ancient people
FO: signal cards
3.Using strategy
Carousel
mutual testing in groups, based on the demo
sheet
felt-tip pens
Cards –
tips
Demolist
PR: Strategy “Business Game”
Drawing up a dialogue with the choice of role (taking into account the gender
activities of the intended interlocutor):
Artistfarmer
Builder Hearth Keeper
Tkachgonchar
Hunter-gatherer
Elderchild
Descriptors:
relevance to the topic,
taking into account the occupation of the intended interlocutor;
presence of 48 replicas,
Criteria
assessments:
Students
accurately
determine gender
classes
relevance to the topic
occupation registration
supposed
interlocutor
presence of 48 replicas
Descriptors
Conditions
meaning
­
*
+
Sheet
mutual assessments
End of the lesson
3 min
Feedback: Lesson exit ticket
 During the lesson I learned...
 I didn’t understand in class...
 I would like to know

Security
health and
compliance
technology
security
Fizminutka
Differentiation - how
the way you want more
provide support?
What tasks do you give?
more capable students
compared to others?
Assessment – ​​how do you plan?
check the level of mastery
material by students?
 using
multi-level
tasks, motivating
for success
 using
interpretation
Self-assessment
Signal cards
Peer assessment
according to the “Wheel of Knowledge” strategy,
"Carousel"
Reflection on the lesson
Was it real and
accessible lesson goal
or educational purposes?
Are all students
reached the goal
training? If students
haven't reached the goal yet,
How do you think,
Why? Right
was carried out
differentiation by
lesson?
Is it effective?
did you use
time during stages
lesson? Were there any
deviations from plan
lesson, and why?

Overall rating
What were the two best things to come out of the lesson (related to teaching and learning)?
1:
2:
What could make the lesson go even better? (relating to
teaching and learning)?
1:
2:
What did I learn in this lesson about the class or the achievements/challenges of individuals?

What should students pay attention to in the next lesson?

Niramin - Aug 3rd, 2016

Primitive people appeared on Earth about 2 million years ago. It is very difficult to accurately recreate their life, but archeology is improving, and many of the nuances of the life of ancient people are already known to us for certain.

In the harsh and dangerous conditions of those times it was impossible to survive alone, and primitive people lived in small groups. Each person had his own responsibilities and rights, all the food obtained was common, people defended themselves from predators together, and resolved controversial issues together.

The first tools (a sharp stone and a stick) helped improve the difficult life: with the help of a stone it was possible to cut up killed prey, and a sharpened stick was used in hunting, and it could be used to dig up roots.

The issue of food has always been very acute; people depended on nature. After all, during a drought it is impossible to find berries, and fires can drive away all animals from the sites. Ancient man often changed his habitat, the tribe moved from place to place in search of food. Primitive people tried to set up camps closer to the water, because it was easier to attack herds of animals that came to drink.

With the help of primitive tools it was still impossible to build a home on their own, so ancient people chose caves and gorges already created by nature. Even fire, tamed by man and carefully guarded day and night, could not save us from the dampness in the caves. But, despite such difficult living conditions, ancient people were much less sick than our contemporaries.

See how ancient people lived - in pictures and photos:

Ancient people at the entrance to the cave.

The origin of man remains a subject of much controversy to this day. But among the many hypotheses (the main ones among them: creationism, panspermia, evolution and involution) 8 one can highlight a fundamental point: movement (movement) played in the origin and/or development Homo sapiens one of the decisive, leading roles.

The idea, which has existed since ancient times, and was later brought to scientific form by S. Arrhenius 9, that the embryos of living beings (life spores) are scattered everywhere in the world, transferred from one celestial body to another, made it possible to explain the origin of life on Earth.

If we take as the basis for the origin of life on Earth the above-mentioned concept of panspermia or one of its varieties: the hypothesis that people are descendants of settlers from other worlds, then the emergence of the earth’s human population is directly related to a “journey” on a cosmic scale.

The prophets of some religions, for example Zarathustra, are believed to have “come from the star,” in this case Sirius, to give people knowledge about the true structure of the universe, about the One God, about the Universal Mind.

The theory of evolution leads us to the fact that in order to survive and preserve his gene pool in a changing and not always hospitable and comfortable world, a person was forced to be “on the march” for quite a considerable time, to migrate. And the settlement of people all over the planet is a brilliant confirmation of this.

According to recent archaeological discoveries, Neanderthals settled Europe between 200 and 100 thousand years ago. During the cold phases (glacial advance), Neanderthals in their movements reached the territories of modern Iraq, as well as the Eastern Mediterranean. About 80 thousand years ago, in the Middle East, a meeting between Neanderthals - immigrants from Europe - and Homo sapiens, who migrated from Africa. Second migration wave Homo sapiens began its movement 60-50 thousand years ago again to the north: towards the Red Sea, and further, to the Hindustan region, and from there, possibly to Australia. Third wave Homo sapiens - the settlers only moved 10-20 thousand years later to Europe, where they settled. This is confirmed by finds in caves in Swabia and in the upper reaches of the Danube. A meeting between Neanderthals and representatives of the detachment took place again Homo sapiens, whose development paths, as genetic scientists suggest, diverged about 600 thousand years ago. The meeting of these two branches of intelligent beings ended with the Neanderthals “disappearing” from the historical arena. Why did this happen? After all, the culture of the Neanderthals was practically in no way inferior to the culture of the aliens - Homo sapiens. Their weapons may have been even more advanced. They had funeral rites. The development of decorative art is evidenced by numerous bone decorations.

As an explanation for this phenomenon, we can cite, in our opinion, the most humane theory. Infant mortality among Neanderthals was only 2% higher than among representatives Homo sapiens, and this seemingly insignificant statistical value could lead to the fact that in 30 generations the Neanderthals became extinct even without any “genocide” on the part of our ancestors.

According to two main concepts based on evolutionary theory, the ancestral home of man can be considered either several centers (polycentrism) or one (monocentrism). But, despite the lack of unity regarding the location of the cradle of humanity, scientists believe that it happened in the Old World. But both Americas, Australia, and Oceania were eventually “inhabited” by man.

For humanity to survive and develop, it was necessary to master the ecumene. Herodotus, Pliny the Elder, Strabo, Arrian, Polybius and many other ancient scientists wrote about how this happened. Modern scientists have not avoided the problem of paleoexpansion: D.N. Anuchin, V. Brooks, A.B. Ditmar, L.A. Elnitsky, R. G. Podolny, M. Rimschneider, A. B. Snisarenko, H. Hanke, Yu. B. Tsirkin, I. Sh. Shifman and others.

One can only guess about the global nature of trade paleocontacts. It is obvious that already in the megalithic period there was a “pan-European market”, and the beginnings of intercontinental Eurasian exchange appeared.

Confirming the “challenge-response” theory of the outstanding English historian A. J. Toynbee, we can state that people made many kilometers of sea voyages back in ancient times. “Absence of challenge means absence of growth and development. The stimuli for growth can be divided into two main types: the stimuli of the natural environment and the stimuli of the human environment,” wrote A. J. Toynbee. Finding themselves in unfavorable climatic or social conditions, people were forced to challenge both the vast continental spaces and the vast expanses of the ocean to preserve their society.

The settlement of all continents (except Antarctica) occurred between 40 and 10 thousand years ago. It is obvious that getting to Australia, for example, was only possible by water. The first settlers appeared on the territory of modern New Guinea and Australia about 40 thousand years ago.

By the time Europeans arrived in America, it was inhabited by a large number of Indian tribes. But to this day, not a single Lower Paleolithic site has been found on the territory of both Americas: North and South. Therefore, America cannot claim to be the cradle of humanity. People appear here later as a result of migrations.

Perhaps the settlement of this continent by people began about 40 - 30 thousand years ago, as evidenced by the finds of ancient tools discovered in California, Texas and Nevada. Their age, according to the radiocarbon dating method, is 35-40 thousand years. At that time, the ocean level was 60 m lower than today. Therefore, in place of the Bering Strait, there was an isthmus - Beringia, which connected Asia and America during the Ice Age. Currently, there are “only” 90 km between Cape Seward (America) and Eastern Cape (Asia). This distance was overcome by land by the first settlers from Asia. In all likelihood, there were two waves of migration from Asia.

These were tribes of hunters and gatherers. They crossed from one continent to another, apparently chasing herds of animals, in pursuit of the “meat El Dorado.” Hunting, mostly driven, was carried out on large animals: mammoths, horses (they were found in those days on both sides of the ocean), antelope, bison. They hunted from 3 to 6 times a month, since the meat, depending on the size of the animal, could last the tribe for five to ten days. As a rule, young men were also engaged in individual hunting of small animals.

The first inhabitants of the continent led a nomadic lifestyle. It took “Asian migrants” about 18 thousand years to fully develop the American continent, which corresponds to a change of almost 600 generations. A characteristic feature of the life of a number of American Indian tribes is the fact that the transition to a sedentary life never occurred among them. Until the European conquests, they were engaged in hunting and gathering, and in coastal areas - fishing.

Proof that migration from the Old World took place before the beginning of the Neolithic era is the lack of a potter's wheel, wheeled transport, and metal tools among the Indians (before the arrival of Europeans in America during the period of the Great Geographical Discoveries), since these innovations appeared in Eurasia when the New World was already “isolated” and began to develop independently.

It seems likely that settlement also came from the south of South America. Tribes from Australia could have penetrated here through Antarctica. It is known that Antarctica was by no means always covered with ice. The similarity of representatives of a number of Indian tribes with the Tasmanian and Australoid type is obvious. True, if we adhere to the “Asian” version of the settlement of America, then one does not contradict the other. There is a theory according to which the settlement of Australia was carried out by immigrants from Southeast Asia. It is likely that there was a meeting of two migration flows from Asia in South America.

Melanesians could also make their contribution to the “discovery” and further development of the American continent. Being excellent sailors, they made long “journeys” across the expanses of the Pacific Ocean. The most objective evidence of the relationship between Melanesians and a number of American Indian tribes is their hematological characteristics. One of them includes such an objective indicator as blood type “O”, or “Pacific-American”.

Paleolinguistics also confirms the presence of several language groups on the American continent, some of them with similarities to the Malayo-Polynesian group. In addition, there is evidence of the similarity of the languages ​​of the American Indians with the languages ​​of the Mongols and inhabitants of the Amur region.

No matter how contradictory the theories about the ancestors of the American Indians may be, they all confirm the truth that the continent was populated as a result of migration movements from other parts of the globe.

Penetration into another continent - Australia - occurred at the turn of the Paleolithic and Mesolithic. Because of the lower sea levels, there must have been “island bridges,” where settlers didn’t just go into the unknown of the open ocean, but moved to another island that they either saw or knew existed. Moving in this way from one island chain of the Malay and Sunda archipelago to another, people eventually found themselves in a certain endemic kingdom of flora and fauna - Australia. Presumably, the ancestral home of Australians was also Asia. But the migration took place so long ago that it is impossible to detect any close relationship between the language of the Australians and any other people. Their physical type is close to the Tasmanians, but the latter were completely exterminated by Europeans by the middle of the 19th century.

The similarity of the ancient Australians with the peoples of Southeast Asia can be traced through some characteristic features of the tools of the late Paleolithic and Mesolithic eras of Asian peoples. Further contacts of Australians with the Papuan-Melanesian peoples were not permanent. The latter introduced the Australians to bows and arrows and boats with a balance beam. But largely due to the fact that the Australians led a nomadic (nomadic) lifestyle, they could not maintain regular contacts with the Papuans and Melanesians. They could, for example, during their arrival on the mainland move to other territories.

Australian society, due to its isolation, has largely stagnated. The aborigines of Australia did not know agriculture, and they only managed to domesticate the dingo dog. For tens of thousands of years, they never emerged from the infant state of humanity; time seemed to stand still for them. Europeans found Australians at the level of hunters and gatherers, wandering from place to place as the feeding landscape became scarce.

The starting point in the exploration of Oceania was Indonesia. It was from here that settlers headed through Micronesia to the central regions of the Pacific Ocean. First, they explored the Tahiti archipelago, then the Marquesas Islands, and then the islands of Tonga and Samoa. Their migration processes were apparently “facilitated” by the presence of a group of coral islands between the Marshall Islands and Hawaii. Nowadays these islands are located at a depth of 500 to 1000 m. The “Asian trace” is indicated by the similarity of the Polynesian and Micronesian languages ​​with the group of Malay languages.

There is also an “American” theory of the settlement of Oceania. Its founder is the monk X. Zuniga. He is at the beginning of the 19th century. published a scientific work in which he proved that in the tropical and subtropical latitudes of the Pacific Ocean currents and winds from the east dominate, so the South American Indians, “relying” on the forces of nature, were able to reach the islands of Oceania using balsa rafts. The likelihood of such travel has been confirmed by many travelers. But the palm in confirming the theory of the settlement of Polynesia from the east rightfully belongs to the outstanding Norwegian scientist and traveler Thor Heyerdahl, who in 1947, just like in ancient times, managed to get from the shores of the city of Callao on the balsa raft “Kon-Tiki” ( Peru) to the Tuamotu Islands.

Apparently, both theories are correct. And the settlement of Oceania was carried out by settlers from both Asia and America.

One of the most outstanding peoples, prone to travel on a planetary scale, were the Malays. They are from the beginning of the 1st thousand. BC e. until the end of the thousand. n. e. crossed the Indian Ocean, colonizing the island of Madagascar. Some of the settlers came even from the islands of Java and Sumatra. The Malgash, the modern inhabitants of Madagascar, speak a language of the Malayo-Polynesian group and belong to the southern branch of the Mongoloid race. The methods of cultivating the land of the Malgash and the Malays, the types of dwellings, and many customs are the same. This applies not least to the tradition of seafaring. Every family living in coastal areas has a boat. And the separation of a son begins not with a marriage ceremony, but with the construction of a boat for his future family.

Why was Madagascar not settled by inhabitants of the African continent? Most likely, the Africans, who traditionally were not very strong sailors, were unable to overcome the treacherous and turbulent current in the Mozambique Channel, which separates the island from the mainland, which reaches a speed of 5 knots (about 10 km/h). At the same time, in the Southern Hemisphere there are favorable conditions for sailing to the West. A smooth trade wind and a constant following current help to cross the ocean. Therefore, the island was inhabited by Malays, who traveled tens of thousands of kilometers, and not by Africans, for whom even tens of kilometers turned out to be insurmountable.

The end of the Ice Age led to climatic and geographical changes, and as a consequence, biological and social changes. Due to warming, not only the level of the world's oceans has risen, but also the flora and fauna have begun to change. A number of animals that were unable to adapt to new climatic conditions and a new food supply died out, others migrated. Accordingly, following animal migrations, human migrations began (continued).

Numerous archaeological finds indicate prehistoric sea travel in the Aegean basin. Deep-sea hunting was also developed among the peoples who lived on the coasts of Ireland and Scotland about 7 thousand years ago (bones of deep-sea fish that are not suitable for coastal shallow waters were found in large quantities in these areas). These people had to go out into the open ocean, moving 50 - 60 km from the coast. It should be noted that the commonality of the megalithic cultures of Europe (finds in modern Portugal, England, France, Northern Scandinavia, Spain and Ireland) suggests that there were well-established connections, mainly maritime, between its various regions.

Migration processes stimulated the development of specific knowledge in primitive society. This included knowledge of geography, the development of the calendar, botany and zoology, as well as the rudiments of mechanics.

This knowledge was especially necessary when creating vehicles. It is known that even during the Mesolithic period, peoples inhabiting different continents went out into the open ocean. For sea hunting and fishing, it was necessary to build reliable boats and catamarans. Nomadic peoples engaged in transhumance cattle breeding had to have durable carts for transporting household belongings.

The excellent seaworthiness of ancient watercraft has been brilliantly confirmed in our time, when paleotransoceanic voyages were repeated on ships designed based on ancient drawings and archaeological finds: for example, the voyages of Tim Severin or Thor Heyerdahl.

Numerous monuments of the artistic culture of primitive times are well known. This suggests that the sense of beauty was not alien to our ancestors. They were wonderful artists, among them there were sculptors and musicians, and the beginnings of theater appeared. Surely, hunters who went far from the sites could observe something extraordinary, which they tried to acquaint their fellow tribesmen with, not only verbally, but also visually. Therefore, we can say that travel in ancient times contributed to the formation of artistic culture.

It is obvious that not only technological innovations underlay the interaction of primitive groups. There was also the influence of cultural standards, and perhaps even standards. It seems that standards and standards that performed a prestigious function also became widespread. Intellectual influence arises at the level of beliefs and magical actions. Surely, a fashion phenomenon based on social psychology has also begun to take shape.

A reflection of the constant earthly journeys in the beliefs of our ancestors was the posthumous “journey of the soul,” which one of the heroes of Carlos Castaneda, a modern American writer and philosopher, very correctly characterizes as the “ultimate journey.” This phenomenon is reflected in various animistic beliefs and rituals. Throughout, there is the idea that the deceased may need a lot on his journey. An echo of these primitive rites is Lucian's sarcastic mention that a honey cake was intended for Cerberus, which was placed in the coffin, and a coin placed in the mouth of the deceased was supposed to serve as payment to Charon for transporting the soul through Hades. Even in modern times, the Japanese lend money to return it with huge interest in the next world, believing in the posthumous “journey of the soul.”

The Etruscan goddess of death Laza and the demon of death Tukhulka had wings, which implied their flight along with the souls of the dead to the underworld.

The souls of the deceased Vikings “took” with them their servants and horses, boats and money, the feet of the deceased were always shod in helsko (a type of special footwear) for the difficult journey. In Bengal, coins were placed on the funeral pyre to appease the demons standing at the entrance to the Land of Shadows. The ancient Prussians put coins in the pockets of the deceased so that he could buy sweets during a difficult journey, etc. This aspect of animism can be found in Polynesia, and in Hindustan, and among the Indians of both Americas. Myths were formed about the journey of the soul to the Land of the Dead.

In the earliest cultural layers one must look for the origins of the doctrine of the transmigration of souls. This doctrine forms an essential part of primitive "philosophy", saying that the soul can transmigrate into material objects, starting with the human body and ending with pieces of stone or wood. Among the North American Indian tribes, the Taculli and Algonquins, at the beginning of the 20th century. they tried to bury dead children near the road so that their souls could pass into passing mothers and be born again in this way.

In Ancient Egypt, the route to the afterlife was formulated by sacred texts that summarized the knowledge of the essence of the entire world, visible and invisible. The echo of this ancient knowledge was first captured in the “Pyramid Texts”, carved on the walls of the burial chambers of the Pyramid of Unas - 24th century. BC e.

In China, care for the deceased was manifested in the following: so that in the afterlife the soul of the deceased would not lack anything, relatives placed figurines depicting various utensils and even buildings in the grave. Followers of the philosophical teachings of Taoism carried a paper crane, a winged messenger of heaven, ahead of the funeral procession. When the crane was burned, the soul of the deceased on its back ascended to heaven.

The doctrine of the transmigration of the soul (samsara) is also characteristic of many religions, including those still practiced today: Hinduism and Buddhism.

In Zoroastrian teachings, the dead go to the afterlife along the Chinvat Bridge (or Chinvato-pereto - Separator Crossing). Chin-wat is built from rays of light. An analogue of this “Separate Passage” can also be found in ancient Slavic mythology. The Slavs perceived the rainbow as a heavenly bridge. The Slavs celebrated radunets or radunitsa - “Naviy-day”, parental day, the day of remembrance of the dead. The ancient Slavs believed that the soul of the deceased makes its last journey along the rainbow (paradise arc): from Yavi to Nav (the other world).

And ancient history still conceals many mysteries that indicate that the development Homo sapiens clearly did not always have a linear evolutionary character. Special studies and its involution are needed.

Prehistoric man was not as primitive as is sometimes imagined. He managed to populate all the continents except Antarctica, overcoming sea barriers, mountain ranges, the spaces of the Eurasian steppes and the northern circumpolar regions. With the improvement of its economic activities, the social structure of primitive groups became more complex, and the motivation for migration changed. But migrations themselves were an integral part of the way of life in the primitive era.

Test questions and assignments

1 . Name the main theories of the origin of life on Earth. Which Are any of them related to active “migration processes”?

2. Justify the influence of migrations on anthropogenesis.

3. How did the development take place: America; Oceania; Australia?

4. How did migrations in the primitive era influence the spread and intensification of knowledge and skills?

5. How was the problem of travel reflected in their religious views among different peoples?

6. Is it right to talk about “primitive tourism”?

Literature

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Golant V. The planet was discovered together. - L., 1969.

Zubov A. A. Man populates the entire planet. - M., 1963.

Kryuchkov A. A. History of international and domestic tourism. - M., 1999.

The primitive periphery of class societies before the Great Geographical Discoveries (problems of historical contacts). - M., 1978.

Senkevich Yu. A. To Ra across the Atlantic. - L., 1973.

HankeX. People, ships, oceans. - M., 1982.

Hvjerdal T. Ancient man and the ocean. - M., 1982.