Video Guide for Human Origins and Prehistory

Apeman

About the series

Using the  scientific evidence current in 1994 but still mostly valid, journalist Walter Cronkite probes man's evolutionary roots to unearth our primal beginnings in Ape Man. The series has four episodes and uses a "puzzle" approach as a way of looking at human evolution. The series uses short interviews with many paleoanthropologists who present their particular perspectives on key issues in human evolution.

Series produced by the Arts and Entertainment Network, 1994, color, running time: about 50 minutes each. See the companion volume, Apeman: The Story of Human Evolution by Rod Caird. 1994, Boxtree Press: London. This volume is available in many public libraries and in the IUPUI Main Library under call number GN281 .C33 1994

APE MAN  #1 (THE HUMAN PUZZLE)
Compared to other species, human beings have been on earth for a very short time.  For millions of years, dinosaurs dominated.  Then came an evolutionary upheaval-- the continents shifted, the climate changed, and the ape emerged.  In Africa, our primal ancestors began to make huge biological leaps forward.  But what mysterious phenomenon allowed humans to branch off from the ape?

APE MAN  #2 (GIANT STRIDES)
Once humans learned to walk upright, they began to take giant developmental strides away from their animal relatives.  They invented tools, which provided the edge in the search for food.  The awesome power of fire came next, then the evolutionary grand prize-- the human brain.

APE MAN #3 (ALL IN THE MIND)
As the human brain evolved, early man gained an incredible evolutionary advantage-- the power of language.  It brought humans closer together and led to a higher form of creativity.  Cave paintings, sculpture, and decorative tools sprung from man's hand.  Today, the human mind still drives the species-- but its that enough to guarantee survival on the evolutionary tree?

APE MAN  #4 (SCIENCE AND FICTION)
While evolutionists and creationists debate the origin of the species, an intense controversy rages within the scientific community itself.  Why is science so obsessed with the purity of our origins?  Can it affect the fate of our species?  In a sobering look at our place in the natural order, leading evolutionists risk a glimpse into the future of the human being.

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Some questions:

1. The videos contend that two elements set humans apart from other primates: we walk upright on two legs and we have a highly developed brain. How are our bipedalism and brain differentiation connected? What is the role of culture in this process?

2. What are the three indispensable requirements for natural selection to work? (variation, mechanism for inheritance to work, competition). What role did they play in human evolution?

3. What was so important or different about Africa in terms of the importance of its role in human evolution? What was the role of the Great Rift Valley?

4. Why did our human ancestors become bipedal? What are some of the current hypotheses?

5. What is creativity? What are some links between brain function, language, and creativity?

6. What does the making of images say about our species?

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