Anthropology: A film for Australopithecus boisei and Homo erectus - Movie Review Example

Anthropology: A film for Australopithecus boisei and Homo erectus While preparing a film on Australopithecus boisei and Homo erectus species, several aspects should come into the forefront, regarding the environment which these species inhabited, the nature of their locomotion, their dietary, grouping and socialization behaviors, as well as the tools used and the symbolic expressions applied by the species. The environmental setting, being the first film consideration, calls for an understanding of the nature of the areas in which the Australopithecus boisei and Homo erectus species inhabited. Open environmental settings characterized the habitats for these species. The evidence available indicates that they either lived in the open plains of bush land or in the wooden Savannah (Gilbert and Berhane, 77). Therefore, the environmental setting of the film should comprise of an open environment or the plains, with thorny and bushy trees and expansive plains of tall grassland. However, there should be a disparity in the environmental context for the two species, with the scenes for the Homo erectus comprising more of tropical grassland/savanna setting, as opposed to the bushy and thorny tree setting for the Australopithecus boisei, as pointed by the evidence from the fossils and excavates (Haviland and William, 163). Australopithecus boisei and Homo erectus are human species that are known to have been living in East Africa between 2.3 and 1.2 million years ago (Jurmain, 588). Therefore, the first aspect that should come into consideration while preparing the film, and thus making the selection of actors, is the nature of the movement/locomotion. The director of the film should not have problems selecting the actors, considering that Australopithecus boisei and Homo erectus species had evolved to adapt a bipedal movement (Grine, 96). This means that the role of these species can be played well by human actors, since they will not need to adapt a different nature of locomotion. Nevertheless, while these species were moving on their two feet, Homo erectus species had advanced in evolution, and thus was moving with a more upright posture compared to Australopithecus boisei species, which was moving on its feet, but with a bend stature. Additionally, the body stature of Australopithecus boisei was well build and thus large compared to the earlier genus in the human evolution. This distinction was qualified by some scientists who categorized Australopithecus boisei in its own genus, genus Paranthropus. Similarly, Homo erectus had a large body build, which was close to that of the modern man, Homo sapiens (Haviland and William, 167). Thus, in terms of locomotion, body stature and built, the director can comfortably settle on any human character, since they would match the nature of Australopithecus boisei and Homo erectus species, only with a little adjustment in bending the move, for Australopithecus boisei scenes. Dietary is yet another important aspect that should be considered while developing the film. At this stages of human evolution, there was no specific diet for the species, thus they consumed a combination of food materials. The most reliable theory indicates that Australopithecus boisei mostly relied on hard food components, courtesy of their jaws and teeth formation (Rightmire, 33). The Australopithecus boisei were observed to consist of strong jaws, which pointed to their ability to crush hard food substances (Jurmain, 589). Therefore, the dietary of Australopithecus boisei comprised of nuts, seeds and hard fruits. Australopithecus boisei had large, smooth and enameled cheek teeth, which pointed the ability to crush and chew hard foods such as fruits and nuts, the reason it was nicknamed the “nutcracker” (Grine, 102). Therefore, while selecting the actors for this species in regard to dietary, the director of the film needs to consider setting an environment that has fruits and nuts, while selecting an actor capable of cracking and chewing such hard food substances. As opposed to Australopithecus boisei, Homo erectus had advanced in dietary consumption, considering that the species had already discovered fire. This reflects the ability of Homo erectus to cook food substances, meaning that Homo erectus ate a diversified dietary composition. The food substances for Homo erectus included meat, tubers, roots, leaves, nuts, berries and honey (Haviland and William, 175). Homo erectus could cook the food substances and make them soft. Therefore, while selecting the actor for the Homo erectus scenes, in regard to dietary, the film director should have no problem, since the nature of food consumption is not very varied, compared to that of the modern man. The other vital component of interest to the film maker is the grouping behavior, the social organization and the communication strategies that were applied by both Australopithecus boisei and Homo erectus species. For the Australopithecus boisei, the grouping behavior was apparent from the fossils that were discovered in caves and other archeological sites in East Africa (Schopf, 45). The Australopithecus boisei lived together in groups and had a predictable social organization behavior. The males had a large body stature compared to the females, and they continued to grow past adulthood, as opposed to the females which were smaller in body size and stopped growing after they attained adulthood (Rightmire, 41). Consequently, the males dominated the females, creating a social organization where the head of authority was the male figure. Their communication strategies entailed gestures and making grunt sounds, since they had not developed full verbal communication (Grine, 104). In this respect, the film director should consider making up a social organization comprising of individuals in groups, where the male are dominant and the communication is more of gesture and sound grunts. Similarly, the Homo erectus lived in a well organized society, characteristic of the hunter-gather type of social organization, where the adults, mostly the males had the responsibility of gathering food for the females and the young ones. This group had an advanced and elaborate verbal communication, though not comparable to the modern man’s speech (Jurmain, 572). The evidence of the brain size, coupled with the presence of the Broca’s area, points to the ability of the Homo erectus to communicate more elaborately through verbal sounds, with less reliance on non-verbal communication (Haviland and William, 156). The social organization was similar to that of the Australopithecus boisei, where the males dominated the society, giving a well organized social structure. Thus, while selecting the actors in regard to Homo erectus’ social organization and communication strategies scenes, the only difference from the modern human nature that needs to be adjusted is speech, which would entail sounds rather than articulate human speech. The evidence available indicates that Australopithecus boisei mostly used stone tools. Considering the nature of dietary that this species consumed; comprising of hard food substances such as seeds, nuts and fruits, there was a need for tools that could assist in breaking the seeds and the nuts. Their tools were well shaped stone pebbles, which had sharp edges necessary for cutting into the hard nuts and seeds (Rightmire, 56). Although the tools were crude, Australopithecus boisei had fashioned them to suit their functionality. Compared to its predecessor however, Homo erectus had advanced in variety and fashioning of the tools used. The tools used by the Homo erectus were well shaped stone stools, which were used in the hunter-gathering mission to kill the prey and to dig up seeds, roots and nuts which formed a substantial part of their dietary (Gilbert and Berhane, 76). Additionally, the Homo erectus had adapted more sophisticated technology to advance locomotion, with evidence indicating that they could be the first species that used rafts to move across streams in search for prey and food (Schopf, 40). Therefore, in regard to the use of tools, the director should consider the application of crude tools for the Australopithecus boisei scenes and well shaped and more sophisticated wooden and stone tools for the Homo erectus scenes. Works Cited Haviland, William A, and William A. Haviland. Evolution and Prehistory: The Human Challenge. Belmont, CA: Thomson Wadsword, 2008. Print. Gilbert, W H, and Berhane Asfaw. Homo Erectus: Pleistocene Evidence from the Middle Awash, Ethiopia. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2008. Print. Grine, Frederick E. Evolutionary History of the "robust" Australopithecines. New Brunswick, N.J: AldineTransaction, 2008. Print. Jurmain, Robert. Introduction to Physical Anthropology. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning, 2012. Print. Rightmire, G P. The Evolution of Homo Erectus: Comparative Anatomical Studies of an Extinct Human Species. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990. Print. Schopf, J W. Evolution: Facts and Fallacies. San Diego: Academic Press, 1999. Print. Read More