Human evolution: savannah theory fading (Introduction)

by David Turell , Thursday, March 06, 2025, 17:58 (2 days ago) @ dhw

dhw: The savannah paradigm deals exclusively with the origin of sapiens, so how can you say the origin is not the issue and the paradigm is fading? One might just as well say the exact origin of life is totally unknown, you doubt whether we will ever know it, and therefore the God paradigm is fading. Would you agree?

DAVID: If sapiens fossils appear at the same ancient time all over Africa the savannah theory makes no sense. We can conclude various different populations of Erectus all over Africa evolved into Sapiens in the same time frames. This means pre-Erectus forms were also all over Africa, not just in savannahs.

dhw: There seems to be some controversy over whether erectus and sapiens overlapped, but we can certainly conclude that thousands of years ago different forms were all over Africa and not just in savannahs. That is not the point! You have twice emphasized that why and where and exactly when we evolved is “totally unknown”. We only know where and when sapiens was already alive and spreading himself around. The savannah theory deals exclusively with the origin. What happened afterwards has nothing to do with the origin.

The savannah theory was based on finding sapiens evidence solely in savannahs. Now that we have evidence of sapiens all over the place, the savannah theory loses its importance. What you want is a natural setting driving human evolution. But the settings now are everywhere. The human brain could handle all environmental problems. How did it evolve? Perhaps it was designed