Finding Ancient Minds in the Human Evolutionary Tree | University Place

John Hawks, Professor in the Department of Anthropology at UW-Madison, gives an update on Homo naledi research in South Africa, and outlines recent discoveries from around the world showing the behavioral complexity of ancient human relatives.
Recorded February 8, 2023.
Explore the full archive of PBS Wisconsin University Place lectures online anytime at pbswisconsin.org/universityplace and on the free PBS app on Roku, other streaming devices and Smart TVs.

[@kihntagious]

This is the greatest use of you tube. Education is vital!

[@lindascanlan6317]

Agree ! Love this !!!

[@kp6215]

This has always what I used UTube for more education that never stops .

[@caseyjude5472]

Agreed! Wednesday Nite @ The Lab is so great!

[@fridayhunt7075]

Hear hear!

[@stevebaker341]

Professor Hawks is an excellent lecturer.

[@big1dog23]

Thanks for sharing this with the world! Such an interesting field for even novices. Dr. Hawks rocks!

[@dipakgupta8470]

One of the best articulated lectures on human evolution. Bravo!

[@garymacmillan]

Magnificent talk Prof. Hawks.

[@imallears4]

So appreciative of the work, organizing, thinking, and presentations that you and Lee Berger do.

[@annw7843]

This is such a great talk! ❤

[@lindascanlan6317]

Professor John Hawks - this lecture was fascinating...you speak so well...your articulation of human origins and how "mind" indicates behavior, culture and interaction with others and their environment... Bravo sir...keep up the great and significant work on evolutionary biology...Linda 🐝

[@BillMurrey]

Read my comment on the video.

[@bradlcnm]

I was once in the Sandia Grotto of CRF helping with a touch of mapping at the margins of Carlsbad Caverns. It is EXHILARATING watching the 3D journey through the system!

[@bigred8438]

Thank you for the presentation and update. There is some very exciting discoveries in the caves and it will be interesting to see whether for example the presence of charcoal indicates the use of fire by H naledi or a later occupant. Excellent and congratulations on the outcomes of your tireless work.

[@EKrieger]

❤❤❤✅ Thanks so much for uploading this for 'commoners' like me 🤣🤣 and people without formal studies on these topics. I'm an enthusiast of human evolution and paleoanthropology although I'm an information technology technician from Argentina. Even English isn't my mother tongue but I'm SO GLAD watching these videos, symposium or documentaries as if I was a paleoanthropology student, field which doesn't exist in my region.

[@kp6215]

Don't ever believe every human particularly females are lesser in our ability to learn from every tool that began on clay tablets or languages developed because I am still upset about the library of Alexandria burning that kept the knowledge of Ancient Egyptian civilization when papyrus was made from the fibers of a plant growing on the banks of the Nile and Euphrates as the Jewish people seem to have forgotten the Persians allowed them to write their own religious books that comprised their faith after the first destruction of their main temple then again kept the knowledge of medicine and science after the sack of Rome as we now do not have the knowledge of Carthage because the Romans destroyed everything at that city when conquered that prevented humans from advancing in knowledge because that knowledge could be destroyed since an indestructible product for keeping the knowledge hasn't been created yet when the elders that know the knowledge die before given to the youth to continue the knowledge thus writing on stone is still studied with the discovery and translation of the Rosetta Stone by the French found by Napoleon. Humans like monkeys unique with curiosity constantly asking the question WHY with my parents next telling me read the books you shall find how to obtain the answer or you find the answers yourself. Everyone should have the ability to learn by the world wide web that should have every book upon as with professors teachers the MOST IMPORTANT profession in the world yet in 2023 they receive little compensation while gladiators, athletes of sport receiving more that do not benefit the entire population as females would not because males don't learn to "share" from their fathers but learn only to accumulate more for their male offspring to maintain power over other males.

[@porkmilk8984]

​@kp6215 decaf 😮

[@garydecad6233]

Excellent lecture. Thank you.

[@johnnicholas1488]

A great speaker. Thank you. So fascinating.

[@katydidiy]

John Hawks can speak to me on any subject!❤

[@annemarielara1962]

I could listen to John Hawks's lectures on Homo naledi and Human Evolution for hours on end 🙂

[@250txc]

7:45 -- Small bodies? I am in the Philippines and there are LOTS of people that size here today...

[@250txc]

Overall, Mr Hawks explained for the first time for me at least, that some branch of these different humans are somehow all related \ connected to each other back to day 1, ~7 millions yrs ago when we broke away from whatever we broke from

[@iamtheroadwanderer]

I very much enjoyed this, thank you! Is there a way to hear the Q and A part?

[@22marketst]

Fantastic - I love the 'multidisciplinary' qualities of this lecture which implicitly as well as explicitly 'speaks' of who we are through how we 'were' as contemporary humans . The implications of many of the observations involved - especially how 'we' interact with each other will always be of current importance. Looking forward to more in the future !!

[@cornelisberndsen]

Many thanks for this very insightful and enlightening lecture. I am blown away.

[@caseyjude5472]

How difficult must it have been to give this lecture & not leak yesterday’s announcements?! I love listening to & watching Dr. Hawks’ lectures.

[@porkmilk8984]

What announcement? I saw other comments on this and tried to look on this lecturers youtube channel but the last vid is from 3 years ago. Can't find anything up to date.

[@bigred8438]

It is interesting to ponder the minds of our closest ancestors, by thinking about life with out very much technology. In late Neolithic cultures, life is fairly straight forward so long as a few basic criteria are met. These include having access to food and water resources, shelter and mating opportunities. These simple needs are made a little more complicated if populations are burgeoning in limited space, if the access to food is being limited and if ratios of men to woman favour women. When this happens conflict can occur. If we wanted to try and understand our ancient ancestors we may like to look at what the simplest of the Neolithic cultures got up to, such as the Australian Aboriginals. Much of what they thought about related to having enough food in a tough environment, and staying of conflict with their closest neighbours through marriage arrangements. Yes they had sophisticated explanations for natural phenomena, but not a scientific one more a whimsical and curiosity one.

[@SimonSozzi7258]

Birds groom each other and bower birds build complex structures.

[@casiandsouza7031]

Did they require better night vision than ours?

[@chriswheeler6092]

I find the story of Homo Nalidi very interesting. We are always so sure about everything... until a new discovery is made.Also the story involves a team of intelligent people who worked hard. Today's society tends to be under the impression that one does one or the other,but never both.

[@tinsolder9929]

Every academic needs a supervisor who credits you.

[@carlkaufman2429]

Profoundly interesting.

[@robertoperaza2683]

Start at @2:52

[@philipcunningham4125]

Amazing, now I have to think about this and visualize and figure out what it means and how to relate to it

[@johnrobinson4445]

South Africa lacked access to the fields of fire (cooking to unlock the protein molecule) in East Africa that drove evolution, I suppose. This may be why they remained similar to more ancient specimens.

[@kontopoulos3107]

Narrow caves, could they be due to techtonic shift over time

[@laidman2007]

Great! Thank you!

[@76rjackson]

2:55

[@TheCoster11]

🙏🏾 ty

[@tinsolder9929]

John Gurche's picture precisely conveys something. Angry jazz.

[@kinglyzard]

With all its hodge-podge traits and morphology, how can we be sure that Homo neledi belongs in our genus? This Hominin could be a completely different branch of hominids, not unlike Paranthropus. Or their small brains are convergent with Australopithicus?? Where exactly is Homo neledi on our family tree?

[@granthurlburt4062]

This is indicated at 33:16. You need to put in some time understand how species are organized into phylogenies. It is, briefly, what morphological traits they share and shared DNA.

[@casteretpollux]

@@granthurlburt4062 surely we don't have significant dna

[@missmurrydesign7115]

Delicious...

[@JavierBonillaC]

Can tiny robots controlled at a distance, in the future, be able to do some of the dangerous prospecting?

[@Sweet..letssurf]

Love Hawks

[@tinsolder9929]

Grenoble. Hmmm

[@joshTheGoods]

I wonder if these folks have considered using miniature drones in this cave?

[@emanovska]

Hawks is always interesting

[@howardleekilby7390]

❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

[@noelbecker7002]

"This species existed about at the same time as our human species was coming into existence . . . how did they coexist with species such as our own?" (paraphrased). My comment is to say, when you see this interesting mosaic of modern and archaic traits in a specific population, doesn't that suggest that our species resulted from hybridization i.e. interbreeding, between different, previously isolated populations of hominins. In other words there is an alternative hypotheses to the emergence of modern humans: interbreeding between various "hominins" rather than straight line evolution via mutation from archaic to modern.

[@katherandefy]

The origin of speech fascinated me.

[@Kurtlane]

Wow! At first I said, "No way!" But as I listened, it became more and more of a possibility.

[@wlhgmk]

The scientific reporting standard requires not 'after we discovered' but rather, 'after this was discovered'.

[@granthurlburt4062]

Not really, any more. The active voice is allowed, even encouraged. I have written some peer-reviewed scientific papers (in paleontology) and I or we used either "I" or "we" as appropriate.

[@filamcouple_teamalleiah8479]

Just hang out with MTG if you are looking for an ancient mind!

[@pennygooms1539]

Oliver?

[@ScribblerDeStebbing]

I inevitably have to stop watching all h. naledi videos due to claustrophobia.

[@rickjones1176]

you gave this talk while holding back on the latest finds, must have been tough

[@snowbird6855]

For your health and longevity, consider a keto diet and intermittent fasting.

[@robynmitchell9563]

Thanks Professor, when is your lecture tour starting?

[@user-bi4sr2rw7b]

Okay, so which mind are we seeking? There were plain hunters, specialists in building with stone, metallurgists, surgeons, weapons makers all were but some excel, cooks, fishing and boat builders, and clearly glyph writer historians, and more. The old lie there were just cavemen went away after the French government opened La Cave LasCaux, and others. When the modern man is found to have gone brain entropy and ancient caveman doing greater equations in the dendrite to synaptic and back and forth actions exceeding modern man. Zero modern man can ever think on own how to fish, how to hunt, how to make an atlatl, how to build a house out of a dead animal, how to begin to hybridize seeds, or anything at all that happened then. In fact, human does not even know what to do to give birth.

[@brainmoleculemarketing801]

What can we speculate from ALL the other hominem species being extinct and only ONE left..........? What is the history of single species animals/mammals?

[@nayanThaker]

Disappointing talk. Prof. Hawks presented a subject above his pay grade. There less than 5% of time devoted to ancient minds and that too was very shallow.

[@robynmitchell9563]

Gee, thanks Professor.

[@nayanThaker]

@@robynmitchell9563 and your point is?

[@tinsolder9929]

I HAVE FOUND THE MISSING LINK. Have you looked at the facial features, the gymnastic prowess, and incredible intellect of the republican politician MJT. She Is the future of the USA.

[@porkmilk8984]

Maybe too much tin was absorbed into your system. To be that butt hurt about some political bs you mention it in an anthropology lecture.

[@bradlcnm]

Gnomes, trolls, ogres, dwarves, elves, giants, pixies, faeries...

[@JeffHoldenWS-NC]

You know there are about 600,000 people in Africa alive today that have the approximate physical dimensions of Homo Naledi and still live primarily in a hunter-gatherer lifestyle. The African pygmy tribes of the Aka, Baka, Mbuti , Twa, and Kiga. Why don't you involve these people in your teams since they would have the stature and rugged skill sets to be able to explore these caves most effectively.

[@muvhulawaenosmabada3667]

One question: who created the ape or the Gorilla? My concern with evolution is that it suggests that the creator did not have power to create humans immediately. Why other animals did not evolved?

[@RobertGotschall]

They all evolved, but in different directions. There was no plan.

[@foreversurf1ngthenet]

Muvhulawa Enos Mabada Do not concern yourself with complicated subjects that are way beyond your education or capacity to comprehend..... stay with your presuppositional belief and avoid brain strain

[@muvhulawaenosmabada3667]

@@foreversurf1ngthenet Science and academia use a belief system, it is no longer Science and and academic research. There is no evidence of what you are saying. We should agree that we don’t know the origin of mankind other than what is written in Genesis. I don’t believe that there are people who have more knowledge of the origin of the universe than others. They have not given any evidence, but theories and is not scientifically proven. Biology as we know today according to what they have researched and tested, does prove that when a male elephant mate with a female elephant, they produce offspring that resemble themselves. It has not changed. If evolution occurred, biology disagrees with evolution theory. I respect your educational credentials but you should also know that the purpose of science is study life and know what and how. And so far no one knows and cannot give evidence of the theory of evolution.

[@beachbum200009]

Everything that ever lived on earth started from a single cell 4 billion yrs ago. There was no creator, only evolution. There is no reason for ignorance when there are many lectures from the smartest people in their field that freely explains life from the begaining of time.

[@marktimbrook562]

75% speculation. Being torn apart by science. Good talker is about it..

[@250txc]

Certainly with Mr. Hawks, but there is no way these bones or bodies got dumped from the ground level and they ended up at the bottom of that cave. No way this makes any sense ... So there are some huge gaps here. It also makes no sense for any being to crawl through those small areas... Unless chased by an animal maybe ... Food and sex were all humans were about then and now even, and toss in work now..

[@annemcintyre9620]

With less work people spend more time being creative and spiritual. This was intentional a and meant something to them.

[@granthurlburt4062]

Water carries bones.

[@250txc]

@@granthurlburt4062 Maybe but W.E.A.K at best

[@BR-hi6yt]

I learnt that there were small human-like hominids that lived in a big cave, used fire and ate animals and had small brains. That's it. A 2 minute video would have been more appropriate.

[@karldunnegan2689]

Move your tiny mind along and find the Sesame Street channel.

[@seanbeadles7421]

That was announced 7 years ago B R

[@250txc]

Another point is there is no light in there... Day and night, is it possible a human that can not see in this total blackness was moving around in these caves? Another loose end ... These humans ~never saw the insides of these caves other than that top cavern maybe. This work is all very incomplete... And will stay that way forever I'd guess...

[@krunoslavregvar477]

Darwin & his theory is, at least, pretty problematic. However, I am not "God being" (although, I maybe believe in God & whole package), and especially I am not a dualistic phylosopher, so...

[@Talleyhoooo]

No one cares about your dogmatic faith that brainwashes you

[@averageatom]

You’re quite sure of that? Bold

[@raysalmon6566]

the man is deluded in fantasy

[@ttacking_you]

Our ancestors grisly murdered them all, in cold blood. I don't think this can be disputed ?

[@sanpotkins4705]

Leopards like to eat in caves. Just saying...

[@porkmilk8984]

Follow the path from cave entrance to where the bodies were found. That is why this is so weird and cool. Go check that out and imagine a cat taking a dead body in its mouth down to these locations. And these dead bodies are deposited at differing times.

[@robynmitchell9563]

There are no signs of animal predation on the bones. Just sayin is a redundant use of two words, particularly when one is writing.