Summary
Highlights
Toumai invent war—killing their own species with premeditation and organization to acquire resources and territory. This marks a significant shift in behavior. The death of an infant leads to the Toumai's earliest understanding of mortality, prompting them to gather around the deceased. This collective response to loss is depicted as the beginning of ritual and the first funeral ceremony, challenging the perception that awareness of death is exclusively human.
Five million years ago, Africa's drying climate forced Toumai descendants to separate. Some evolved into chimpanzees and gorillas, abandoning bipedalism, while others, our human lineage, continued developing in Africa as Australopithecus. Around 2 million years ago, Sediba appeared in South Africa. As drought intensified, Sediba, though still relying on trees for safety, faced food scarcity. They ate tough roots and bulbs, but the alpha male dominated food access, especially meat remains, highlighting the harsh social hierarchy.
Facing starvation, a young male Sediba conceives a revolutionary idea: venturing into the savanna to find meat. Despite the alpha's disapproval, he and a female take the risk. Their successful return with rich, fatty meat marks a turning point. Meat's easier digestion frees energy for brain development, leading to increased mental capacity and taller, slimmer bodies. This shift emphasizes ingenuity over brute force. The young male also innovates by conceiving tools to cut carcasses, making meat transportable and ensuring provisions.
Our ancestors developed imagination and language to plan, anticipate, and collaborate. The young male Sediba trains his group to find and retrieve carcasses, using storytelling to inspire them. This challenges the alpha's dominance. Some Sediba, guided by imagination, leave the trees for the Savannah, seeking a better life amidst abundance and danger. Those who stayed, like Lucy's descendants, became Paranthropus, ultimately failing to adapt. The bolder explorers became Homo erectus, the next evolutionary step.
Five million years ago, the collision of the Americas formed the Gulf Stream, leading to the Ice Age and the drying of the Sahara. Homo erectus, emerged 2 million years ago, following migrating herbivores out of Africa across Europe and Asia. With an anatomy built for running, exceptional stamina, and efficient internal cooling, Homo erectus became a big game hunter, tracking prey over vast distances. Their social structure changed, with leadership bestowed upon the cleverest, not just the strongest, with females leading some groups.
Homo erectus developed a more complex society with specialized roles for each member based on skills, from shaping rocks to tanning hides. They built shelters and created clothing to adapt to varied climates. However, this brought new challenges, such as parasites. The discovery of fire, possibly through observing its effects on trapped animals during natural fires, was transformative. Cooked food required less energy to digest, accelerating brain development and leading to a clearer thought process.
The aesthetic sense developed with curiosity about natural beauty. While initially unable to create fire, Homo erectus learned by observing other groups, eventually leading to trade of fire-making knowledge and other skills between clans. This exchange accelerated human development. Love and intimate relationships also emerged, with aesthetics playing a role in attraction. The domestication of fire brought warmth, protection, and improved health. Most significantly, the development of the larynx and left brain allowed for articulate speech, enabling storytelling, evoking the past, and planning for the future. This ability to tell stories is presented as the definitive characteristic of humanity.
Homo erectus continued to adapt, leading to diverse human types across the globe: Beijing man (a giant) in China, Solo man in Indonesia, a tiny man on Flores Island, Denisova man in Central Asia, and Neanderthals in cold Europe. In Africa, Homo erectus evolved into Homo sapiens. Around 100,000 years ago, Homo sapiens began to replace other human species, developing more complex societies, art, beliefs, and science, drawing on the accumulated knowledge of their ancestors. Homo sapiens migrated from Africa across the world, intermingling with existing human species but ultimately becoming the sole human species on Earth, giving rise to the diverse peoples we see today.
The family story of humanity begins 25 million years ago, a period characterized by global warming and the spread of humid forests. Our distant ancestors, the great apes like Gigantopithecus, Ramapithecus, and Sivapithecus, populated the ancient world, ruling the forest canopies. This era is considered the 'Age of the Planet of the Apes', and the documentary questions which of these primates is our common ancestor.
Thirteen million years ago in modern-day Spain, Pierolapithecus emerges as a creature with exceptional abilities and the origin of our family. Pierola mainly lives in trees, eats fruit, and, despite being heavy, can sometimes walk on two feet. This suggests that bipedalism, the ability to walk upright, was developed in the trees by apes, not on the ground, predating human invention.
Pierolas display empathy and sympathy, understanding and being affected by the emotions of others. This quality is crucial for societal living. Males leave their birth groups at adolescence, necessitating adoption by new groups. Pierolas are also revolutionary in sleep, building tree-top nests for safe, restorative nights, which improve mental faculties and information processing, an inherited trait in humans. They also develop culture through shared knowledge, such as identifying edible plants, and invent laughter for conflict resolution.
A young male Pierola introduces the use of a stick as a tool to catch termites, marking the invention of the first tool. This innovation demonstrates an extension of the hand for new tasks. The film emphasizes how societies that required young adults to leave their groups facilitated the spread of knowledge, with departing individuals transmitting their group's accumulated wisdom to others. This includes knowledge of curative plants, turning Pierolas into herbalists.
Around 13 million years ago, significant geological and climatic changes caused great upheaval. Africa collided with Europe, leading to the fragmentation of the Tethys Ocean and the drying of the Mediterranean. Humid forests in Europe and Asia disappeared, forcing great apes to migrate. Pierolas migrated to Africa, evolving into a new species with astonishing abilities: Sahelanthropus, or Toumai. Toumai, our common ancestor with chimpanzees, signify an acceleration towards humanity.
Toumai continue sleeping in trees but increasingly spend time on the ground, utilizing a wider range of food sources. They develop varied tools and take longer to educate their young. Bipedalism improves, allowing them to carry objects. However, male dominance emerges, leading to hierarchical societies characterized by rivalries, alliances, and political maneuvering. Females become more resourceful in feeding and educating their young. Toumai also invent "preference" in mating, fostering intimate relationships and the concept of seduction.