The ability to fall in love and respond to emotions may have been the evolutionary trick that allowed Homo sapiens to conquer the world, writes Dick Ahlstrom
Our ability to fall in love and form emotional relationships may have helped Homo sapiens conquer the world. It allowed us to out-compete other species and supported the development of cultures and civilisation.
The power of emotions cannot be underestimated when trying to understand the success of our species, argues the professor of geography at Royal Holloway, University of London, Prof Clive Gamble. "Love really does make the world go round," he says.
Prof Gamble will tonight deliver a public lecture at Trinity College Dublin entitled The First Humans: a very remote period indeed. The lecture is organised jointly by the Society of Antiquaries of London and the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland to mark the 300th anniversary of the foundation of the society.
During his talk he will discuss the "social mind", something that allowed humans to out-compete other hominins such as the Neanderthals. Yet aspects of the social context of human activity are generally ignored in favour of more clinical studies of brain size and tool use.
"What we have always ignored in human evolution was the emotional side of human life," Prof Gamble believes. "It is emotion that underpins how we respond as social humans."
Just how important emotion must have been to evolutionary success is now being revealed in disciplines such as neuroscience, where brain activity can be watched in real time using MRI scans, Prof Gamble told The Irish Times.
These studies show how fundamental emotional responses are, but also how universal and unique to humans are things such as laughter and crying. These are social activities dependent on a matching emotional response between members of a group.
Earlier in his talk, Prof Gamble will discuss how two successful English businessmen on May 2nd, 1859, changed our understanding of human evolution. Joseph Prestwich and John Evans on that day proved to the scientific community, with witnesses and photographers in tow, that signs of ancient human activity including weapons and tools could be found associated with extinct animals.
This demonstrated that human activity long predated the 4,000 years of human history defined by the bible, Prof Gamble explains. "They wanted evidence that humans had a geological antiquity, not just a biblical antiquity."
They found this proof both in Amiens on the Somme River in France but also soon afterwards in Hoxne, in Suffolk. They presented their findings to both the UK's Royal Society and also the Society of Antiquarians in London. And that September the annual British Association heard of their discoveries.
"All this happens before Darwin publishes his Origin of the Species on November 24th of that year, so it was a great year for human evolution," Prof Gamble states.
"They managed to break a time barrier but we are poised to break a mind barrier by figuring out what was going on in the minds of these early people," he adds.
"Mind might not be the best word for it, it is the capacity to read the emotional cues of those around you and interpreting them."
This goes beyond language, he believes and may be the attribute that allowed Homo sapiens to take control of the world. Neanderthals very likely had language in order to live in social groups.
The same is also likely true of the early hominins who left engraved pieces of ochre pigment and pierced marine shells in Blombos Cave in South Africa, dating back 77,000 years, and also those who left pierced shells dated to 82,000 years ago in caves at Taforalt, Morocco, Prof Gamble suggests.
Yet could these people recognise good and bad, shame and guilt, something that depends on reading and interpreting emotions, he asks.
"Understanding how they organised their emotions may allow us to extend back in time the human ability to organise socially."
A limited number of tickets will be available at the Thomas Davis Lecture Theatre at Trinity College Dublin tonight at 7.30pm, costing €8. Contact www.sal.org.uk