The Paleolithic Era was an era of great change with technology, new cultures, and hunting bands. In this essay I will be addressing the lifestyle, inventions of new tools, social aspects, development of speaking, and the importance of art in the Paleolithic Era. The Paleolithic Era brought up lots of technology and tools. One discovery of technology in the Paleolithic Era was fire, used to help in hunting and foraging, protect themselves, and to adjust to cold environments. Hominids made tools out of wood, bone, animal skins, but most significant is the use of stone (hence why it is called the Old Stone Age). The Homo habilis and Homo erectus used tools, including but not limited to, clubs, choppers, rudimentary axes, and scrapers, used to scrape out animals hides, and choppers to crack open bones. The tools were designed to provide shelter, protection and defense, as well as food and clothing. By the end of the Paleolithic Era the hominids were building more advanced structures as well as weapons like clubs and rocks.
Paleolithic peoples were very religious. They believed everything had its own spirit, the living and nonliving, this is called animism. They believed in magic and people called shamans and witchdoctors, whom were greatly respected as well as feared. The community participated in ritualistic war dances, hunting dances, rain dances, medicine dances and rituals, which were used to help foresee better outcomes.
The Paleolithic people kept themselves alive by practicing hunting and gathering, or foraging. Instead of producing food themselves they lived off the land. They killed animals including birds, mammoths, bison, deer, and rodents. They also forged by picking berries and roots from the trees around them. The introduction of dairy was a big step in the Paleolithic Era. Milk products became a major component in the Paleolithic people’s diets.
Hominids started to classify into social groups as time went on. This led to the development of family units and families would cluster together by ties of kinship. The early tribes also made a form of government. Their government includes organization based on chiefs, leaders, and religious figures to head the tribe. These leaders kept the hunter-gatherer societies together. They also worshipped deities and practiced various religious rituals. It’s been said that the Cro-Magnon people, 100,000 years ago, buried the dead which acknowledged the belief of afterlife. They buried the dead with things like
