EARLY SOCIETIES

When we discuss these early societies in the context of human evolution, we are referring to a period in which humans were still similar to animals in their biological and social characteristics. It marks a time when humans had not yet meaningfully developed those distinctive traits responsible for human beings being set apart in the manner that we are. It would have belonged to the Paleolithic (Old Stone Age), extending roughly from about 2.5 million years ago to about 10,000 BCE.

Hunter-gatherer

Not that long ago, most hunter-gatherer-band societies, in lifestyle, would whole number tens, gathered or found food through some means, be that hunting and fishing or through collecting and gathering. They were nomadic, in a pattern of migratory movements, based on cycles often seasonal, in the availability of food and resources following the food and resources. The people of the ANE over time became settled in agricultural communities. It was this turn that finally led to permanent settlements, crop farming, and animal husbandry (from which systems of social stratification derived from economic accumulation), increased population densities based not only on partner parental care but also limited practices of polygyny, leading to political & other hierarchies between women came down. These earliest civilisations established simple institutions, technologies, social structures, and cultural practices on which it can be said the base was established for having shaped human history over centuries.

Those earliest human societies are believed to have come together during the Palaeolithic (Stone Age) about 2.5 million years ago, garnering whatever foodstuffs they could source with a cudgel or perhaps digging sticks, and sometimes as gangs of hunters that stalked any herd animals of antelope size or larger. This was an essential part of the development of Homo sapiens (a.k.a. humans) and when human beings moved to various continents.

It was evidenced by the small number of developed continents, which consisted largely of bands of hunter-gatherers who survived by hunting wild animals and foraging fruits, nuts, and wild plants.

Nomadism: Millennia ago, man was always on the move tracking animal herds and seasonal crops from place to place; a lifestyle that influenced whom one interacts with daily.

Agricultural transition – The Neolithic Revolution vies as one of the paramount periods in human history and places itself 10,000 years back in time. This was an early societal period that was marked by the adoption of farming on a wider scale, thus bringing about permanent settlements. It is the cultivation of plants and animals that gives more consistent access to food that in turn leads to permanent communities.

Social organization: The primitive social services developed by these early communities were created based on kin or family groups. The societies shared the distribution of labour through an age and sex classification of work in that given clan.

Technological improvements: Development can be shown in early societies with simple technological tools and features, such as stone tools, pottery, and clearing lands for agriculture. Early people developed technologies that improved their abilities and allowed them to adapt to and interact with the environment.

Culture: The premodern societies developed with basically animistic religion worshipping nature phenomena and venerating their ancestors. The cave paintings and general cultural artefacts suggest that they had some cultural practices and beliefs.

Trading and exchange of goods and resources across long distances to various groups led to the earlier societies' cultural diffusion and the idea spread to others.

Regional variations: Independent emergence of human societies across the globe resulted in varied systems—cultural accomplishments, technological progress, and social organization

Heritage: Early societies shed light on the beginning of human association, the development of social complexity that it resulted in, and also gave rise to fundamental elements that later made it possible for other cultures and civilizations to exist