Cultures and civilizations

Today’s cultures and civilizations display enormous diversity, reflecting the variety of historical and ecological backgrounds that differ by period and region. Research based on material remains, consisting of artifacts, non-artifacts, and their contextual relations, rather than written documents can produce unique insights into understanding how such cultural diversity emerged. Human’s past, represented by plenty of cultures and civilizations, is the result of conscious and unconscious behaviors. Research in cultural history thus comprises of reading the evidence. The emergence of hominins date back to several million years ago, and the oldest artifacts known thus far derive from at least two and a half million years ago. In this long human history, how did human behavior evolve into the current status? Scientists believe that there is ample evidence to answer this in the material remains.

Yoshihiro Nishiaki