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Evolution of Humans and by Humans

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Evolutionary Ethnobiology

Abstract

Humans include several species of the genus Homo that are able to design strategies for transforming ecosystems. The oldest remains of this process is the fabrication of tools, approximately 2.5 millions of years before present. Humans originated from Primate relatives through evolutionary processes whose principles explain evolution of all living things. Current humans originated nearly 200,000 years ago in Africa, rapidly populating the Earth. Homo sapiens used technologies for fabricating tools initiated by Homo habilis and probably some Australopithecus species, as well as management of fire by Homo erectus. Some 12,000 years humans ago started to domesticate plants and animals and arose agriculture, which determined the advent of civilization and intensive evolutionary influence on ecosystems and managed organisms. Domestication include several evolutionary processes of landscapes and organisms. Biotic resources evolve under domestication mainly guided through artificial selection, but other evolutionary forces such as genetic drift, gene flow and mutation have incidentally or intentionally influenced evolution under domestication. Studies of evolutionary processes guided by culture are the main purposes of evolutionary ethnobotany. Human culture is crucial for understanding such evolutionary process and these evolutionary processes allow a deeper understanding of human culture.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Instituto de Investigaciones en Ecosistemas y Sustentabilidad (IIES), Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Campus Morelia, Antigua Carretera a Pátzcuaro 8711, Col. San José de la Huerta, Morelia, Michoacán, 58190, Mexico

    Alejandro Casas

  2. Centro de Investigaciones en Zonas Áridas (CIZA), Universidad Nacional Agraria La Molina, Camilo Carrillo 300-A, Lima, 11, Peru

    Fabiola Parra

  3. Centro de Investigación en Biodiversidad y Conservación (CIByC), Universidad Autónoma del Estado de Morelos, Av. Universidad No. 1001, Col. Chamilpa, Cuernavaca, Morelos, 62209, Mexico

    José Blancas

Authors
  1. Alejandro Casas
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  2. Fabiola Parra
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  3. José Blancas
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Alejandro Casas .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Departamento de Biologia, Universidade Federal Rural de Pernambuco, Recife, Brazil

    Ulysses Paulino Albuquerque

  2. Institute of Environmental Sciences and Sustainable Development, Universidade Federal do Oeste da Bahia, Barreiras, Pernambuco, Brazil

    Patrícia Muniz De Medeiros

  3. Instituto de Investigaciones en Ecosistemas y Sustentabiilidad, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Morelia, Michoacán, Mexico

    Alejandro Casas

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Casas, A., Parra, F., Blancas, J. (2015). Evolution of Humans and by Humans. In: Albuquerque, U., De Medeiros, P., Casas, A. (eds) Evolutionary Ethnobiology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-19917-7_3

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