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■>72 The Origin of CiviIisation

Moreover, domestication often oreates species of plants and animals that can only surviue by man's continual intervention, notably for reproduction, as is the case for modern wheat species. Today, man can equip himself so that he can safely inhabit even the most inhospitable regions of the Earth. Thus if we turn Dobzhansky’s quotation around to accommodate man's greater mastery over his surroundings, we can make the theoretical postulate that as there is only one uniform species of man, if two or morę kinds (of ciuilisation) appeared among his communities, the most efficient would gradually crowd out and finally eliminate the less efficient ones, remaining the sole survivor.

If man himself does not precipitate the species to a premature extinction, the survi\/al of the most efficient ciwilisation should duły be realised.

Empirical Evidence for the Evolution of Cułture

Tuming to the empirical evidence, John Wymer notes that the first stone Industries were the chopper-core Industries without hand-axes. There were no hand-axes at either the beginning or at the end of the Pleistocene. He thinks it is reasonable to infer that there was a series of stone industries showing "progressive refinement and elaboration of materiał equipment, which is reflecting cultural advancement in a social and economic sense."¹⁵⁷ He makes further observations on the emergence of successiue stone industries which also support the theoretical case already outlined here:

If cultural advancement in the Pleistocene is identified by aeries of stone industries, then, as stated, it is elear that it has not advanced everywhere at the same speed. Also, it would seem that there have been centres of aduancement. Everything points to Africa, especially the eastern side of the continent, being the centre at the very beginning of the hominid experimentation. The first stone tools of the chopper-core industries are found there, and so are the first hand-axes. Thereafter there seems a great human dispersal over much of what is termed the Old World. The Middle Pleistocene probably saw the most stable and uniform culture the world has ever known, and stone Industries in Africa, India and Europę have astonishing similaries with each other.

Chopper-core industries survived in much of the world, but only in South East Asia to the exclusion of hand-axes. Uniforraity may almost have been reached, but there appears to have been a burst of change and adaptation in the Middle Pleistocene, coinciding with ewidence for severe glaciation of much of the northern hemisphere.¹⁵®

Wymer's description fits exceedingly well with the concept of one early uniform primitive cultural stage, prior to the later proliferation of lithic styłes that ensued towards the close of the Middle Pleistocene, (this is the geological epoch that corresponds roughly to the Middle Palaeolithic cultures of the Middle Stone Age). This period coincided with the appearance of Homo sapiens neanderthalensis and then, in the La te Pleistocene, with the arriual

of modern man. Furthermore, when he notes that Africa was the centre for an irregular cultural advance that progressed at uneven speeds, we recognise that the three culture gradients were operating ewen in this remote and primitiwe stage of man's emergence. In most regions of the globe where man settled, hand-axe cultures superseded the earliest chopper-core cultures, although there was a considerable measure of overlap, as shown in Figurę 5.5.

Figurę 5.5 Distribution of Chopper-core and Hand-axe Industries over Europę

and the Old World

Source: Adapted From N.Calder,^,,Timescale," 1984, p 144; K.P.Oakley, "Skill as

a Humań Possession," 1967, p 272.

Wymer's obseruations tie in with earlier ewidence, presented both in this volume and in The Seamless Web, that culture is indeed a continuum, proceeding by similar universal intrinsic processes from one major transit ion to the next. In V/olume 1 of this trilogy, abundant evidence was cited to show how the cultural gradients operate within each of the fiue subsystems for the