Fire Capture
Homo erectus probably ran to carcass sites to obtain the most amount of meat possible. It was competition over carcasses that sculpted the human body: long legs for running and short arms for fighting. They also developed sharp, pointed hand-axes to quickly butcher carcasses for return to camp, and to sculpt long sticks into spears for hunting small to medium-sized animals. (Ironically, hand-axes were similar in shape to the canine teeth that had receded in size.)
For about 1 million years the range of H. erectus' tools did not change probably because they were learning about fire. There are both physical and psychological reasons for capturing fire. Firstly, they were in danger of suffering hypothermia during the cold night because their body hair was receding. Secondly, their life was becoming increasingly violent by risking attack from the top predators at carcass sites and from hunted animals, and by using sharper weapons in hominid spats. This led to proportionately more injuries and deaths - thus creating a buildup of traumas that manifested itself as nightmares, bad dreams, and general fear of the dark. The earliest appearance of monsters in dreams would have been very frightening. So H. erectus brought fire into the camp - about 1.5-1 million years ago - to extend daylight conditions, thus delaying sleep, calming children, and staving off the perceived bad spirits of night. (Fire has been mankind's night time companion ever since.)
For centuries H. erectus may have worked to keep their campfires alive because at that time they could not make fire. When a fire went out, they had an anxious wait to recapture it. The new troubles of trying to keep fire alight, defending against bad spirits, and needing to understand a more puzzling world may have caused H. erectus to develop a broader language and firmer mythology (that included other elements like water and the moon). Additionally, the extended evening may have been filled with simple stories, dances and rituals to teach lessons, pass on mythology, and as purification devices against spirit possession.

Fighting Ritual
A fighting ritual developed from this time involving males clubbing each other about the head to settle disputes. H. erectus may have believed that such a practice would also strengthen the head against night time spirits. Some scholars attribute this practice with the thickening of the H. erectus skull over the length of its reign. The evidence includes skull X (of Peking man) that has a healed depressed fracture.

Dominance of the Sense of Sight
By the time of the emergence of Archaic Homo sapiens the sense of sight had become preeminent over other senses. DNA research indicates that the sense of smell had also declined in sensitivity compared to other animals. Ironically, this made humans even more like the Old World vultures that they reverenced, who have a well-developed sense of sight but no sense of smell.

Conceptualising Gods
H. sapiens may also have developed more involved stories, rituals and ceremonies - as well as spending more time conceptualising. For example, two artifacts of crude stone figurines (partially naturally formed) - found in Morocco and Israel - and a few giant hand-axes suggest that H. sapiens (or late H. erectus) may have started to conceptualise human-based spirits/gods.

Hunting Big Game
Homo sapiens idaltu remains, found at an old lake shore in Ethiopia, show that the people were a little larger and stronger than modern humans. This has been attributed to living a tough life hunting large animals. Big game hunting required social cooperation.

Ancestor Worship
H. s. idaltu skull remains show signs of defleshing and polishing, which suggests some form of mortuary ritual - possibly ancestor worship. Such a practice is related to belief in spirits.

Injuries
Many Neandertal remains show signs of healed fractures - mostly to the upper body. This suggests a tough life involving any number of activities: hunting large animals, carrying heavy carcasses, lifting boulders to drop over cliffs onto animals below, ritual wrestling/fighting, and/or ritual feats of strength.

Deliberate Burial
Neandertals were the first hominids to deliberately bury their dead. They placed some items in the grave, including a stone slab over the head. This may have been done as protection against spirits of the dead escaping from the head.

Cannibalism
At several Neandertal sites, cut and split Neandertal bones mixed in with animal bones suggest that Neandertals engaged in cannibalism.

Aboriginal Fighting Ritual
Australian Aborigines were very religious and believed in spirit beings. They also had thick skulls. Of a study of 430 skulls, 59 percent female and 37 percent male showed signs of healed depressed fractures. This has been attributed to ritualised fighting to settle disputes that included clubbing of the opponent's head. This appears to have been a continuation of the same practice engaged in by H. erectus more than a million years earlier.

Wrestling
Wrestling was probably one of humankind's earliest pastimes. New World settlers noted its practice by American Indians.

Firelight
H. s. sapiens invented a portable firelight, in the form of the stone lamp, that allowed them to work separately and for longer periods at night, thus facilitating specialisation of work and artistic expression. One of the earliest artistic artifact created was the raptor talon pendent - indicating how prominent birds were in human minds. Few birds appear in cave art perhaps because humans were still seeing themselves as akin to birds. For example, a bird-headed human was depicted at Lascaux Cave, and an owl-faced anthropomorph at Les Troi Frères, Ariège, France. Meanwhile, some mother goddess figures had bird attributes of eyes, beak and/or feet. And in Siberia, figurines of diving waterfowl as well as bird pillars suggest close observation and reverence of birds respectively.

Feathered Arrow
The major weapon advance of the Ice Age was the bow and arrow. The projectile's design was refined by adding feathers to its tail to make it "fly" straighter. Humans must have studied bird flight to understand that tail feathers were used for direction and stability and that the same principle would apply to the bow's projectile.

Headbands
Homo sapiens sapiens were burying their dead with ceremony, trinkets, and beads. Of special interest, though, was the inclusion of headbands, some of which were still in place around the deceased's skulls. Finds have been composed of shell, ivory, and animal teeth.
There is no doubt about the cause of this phenomenon: the headband is a clear symbol of the trauma of crowning at birth. Crowning occurs when the top of the baby's head protrudes from the birth canal, but at the same time the vaginal muscles form a painful tight ring around the head. The inventors of the headband would have been suffering from a recurring sensation of tightness around the head into adult life, as well as recurring headaches. The headband would have acted to mask this nervotension and give it symbolic meaning - such as a sign of a mighty warrior or chief. The Merck Manual of Medical Information notes the band of pain in its description of tension headaches: "A steady, moderately severe pain often occurs above the eyes or in the back of the head; a feeling of tight pressure, like a band around the head, may accompany the pain".
Birth trauma was occurring because the accumulation of trauma in the species - especially from clubbing of the head - was increasing the size of foetal heads during gestation. Babies' skulls were no longer easily passing through the birth canal, thereby infecting infants with distress and pain. In essence, the people never really experienced their birth, because they were rendered unconscious of it due to its large degree of pain.
Such birth nervotrauma would have led to mother goddess worship, the establishment of royalty (a queen), concept of an afterlife, and increased tribal warfare. This is because from therapy we know that birth nervotrauma implants in its sufferers an intense feeling of repression that causes them - as adults - to either develop a subordinate manner (and worship others) or a dominant manner (trying to conquer others), and/or a propensity towards fighting.

Headhunting
Headhunting was practiced in numerous primitive cultures up to European colonisation. It was engaged in for complex ritual purposes, including to help complete mourning of the dead, and as an expression of manhood. Headhunting of enemies - often associated with cannibalism and head shrinking - is (psychologically speaking) an expression of dominance over another. The head was prized and displayed. Such practices were also related to belief in spirits.

Mass Extinction
Besides climate change, a number of factors may have been responsible for the extinction of many species - including megafauna - by the end of the last Ice Age. They include the use of fire in hunting and to regenerate the land, the effectiveness of composite tools (the hafted spear, spearthrower, and bow and arrow), and animals becoming a target for increased human aggression.

Further Genetic Retardation
Skin pigmentation began ro recede (become lighter) in Europeans, Asians and Americans due to an increasingly stressful life aided by living indoors in cold climes.

Learning from other Species
Humans began studying animals and insects more closely, but could only draw animals in cave art. They began worshipping a mother goddess, adopted a division of labour from insect superorganisms, and modelled Venus figurines on the bulbous insect queen.
Remnants of insect reverence can still be seen in indigenous peoples of today. For example, the Bambara and Dogon of Mali and the Yanomamo of Brazil (ants and/or termites important in cosmology); the people of Zambia (the wasp as giver of fire to humankind); and numerous cultures (the bee as a symbol for the soul).

Waterbirds
By the end of the last Ice Age, reduced animal numbers led to humans turning to waterbirds for guidance this time and they adopted a fishing and fowling lifestyle along waterways (the Mesolithic). They may have even employed birds to catch fish for them as some fishermen still do today.

Bird, Fertility, and Water Symbols
The earliest, regularly used symbols in artwork were of the meander, 'M' shape, and the chevron (a 'V' shape pointing in any direction). The former two are believed to have symbolised water, while the chevron is believed to have symbolised fertility (AKA the pubic triangle). But the latter two may have also conveniently symbolised birds - particularly waterbirds. This is because large waterbirds adopt an 'M'-shaped profile when gliding, and flocks (like ducks, geese, and spoonbills) form a 'V'-shape when flying.
Some Venus figurines were depicted as bird-like and decorated with these symbols - indicating that the mother goddess was associated with water, fertility, and birds.

Fire Weapons
Humans began building more solid structures. But during times of conflict quick destruction of such structures was necessary for victory, so fire was combined with weapons for this purpose in the form of the torch and flaming spear and arrow.

Trepanation
Some humans were being treated with the crude brain operation of trepanation: the cutting of a hole in the skull, then covering it with a piece of gourd, stone, shell, or precious metal. The practice was used to treat recurring headaches, fractures, epilepsy, and other mental afflictions. So far, Asikli Hoyuk (Anatolia) contains the first evidence of trepanation. It was practised in many regions even up to the Middle Ages.

Head Binding
Trepanning is also found in conjunction with head binding (or molding): the most widespread form of body modification. The newborn's head was bound tightly with fibre or fabric for about the first 6 months of life, which fixed the skull into (usually) an elongated shape. It appears to have been an effort to retain the elongated skull shape that newborns have (due to the pressure of the birth canal muscles temporarily deforming the pliable skull). The general belief may have been that the elongated skull of the newborn was natural and so was free of headaches, troubles and perceived evil spirits, whereas the rounded skull of older people was accompanied by such problems. It was another attempted remedy for the effects of birth trauma - a severer form of the headband. The advent of both trepanation and head binding indicate more widespread birth nervotrauma in society after the last Ice Age.

Beheading
With the rise of civilisation - including commerce, crime, and warfare - beheading became the most prominent capital punishment. It was used against criminals, enemies, revolutionaries and monarchs, and the heads were put on display as a warning to others. Beheading was the ultimate display of dominance over others - and of humiliation towards others.

Indo-Europeans
After the Ice Age, the Indo-Europeans emerged as cultural leaders. At the major settlement of Çatal Hüyük (Anatolia) - of about 6,500 BC - reverence was shown towards the vulture, leopard, and bull, as they were prominent in artwork (and each had shrines). These were the main animals that early hominids interacted with. In fact, the people of a number of early Fertile Crescent settlements exposed their dead to vultures and reverenced animals like the bull and feline.

Çatal Hüyük's wealth was achieved by monopolising the trade in the black volcanic glass of obsidian - yet another fire-made substance. Its hard and ultra-sharp edges made it ideal for weapons like arrowheads and spearpoints.

Kilns
Clay became an important material during the Neolithic. Sun-dried clay bricks were used for building, while moulded pottery was also sun-dried. Then fires burning at higher temperatures were achieved by enclosing them in walls (a kiln). Such fires hardened clay pottery to make it more durable (stoneware).

Storing Grains and Domesticating Animals
Neolithic humans began storing grain foods - a prelude to farming - and experimented with domestication of animals. It is possible that they learnt these skills from studying ant superorganisms. Many ant species collect and store seeds, while some keep and protect "herds" of aphids (called "cows") to feed off the honeydew they exude. In their own small way, ants were agriculturists long before humans.

Modeling Civilisation on the Honeybee / Wasp Superorganisms
Neolithic humans studied the insect's role as a crop pollinator - particularly bees and wasps - to learn farming. They provided nearby lodgings for honeybees and modeled their society on the honeybee and wasp superorganisms by worshipping a mother goddess, following a queen, and building "beehive" shaped homes.
Other, later, insect influences may have included some or all of the following: the potter wasp (possibly inspiring the making of pottery via its tiny vase-like egg chambers); the dragonfly (possibly inspiring the Egyptian obelisk via its resting posture of pointing its long abdomen towards the sun); the paper wasp (reportedly inspiring Ts'ai Lun of China to make paper via its paper hive); and the silkworm (inspiring the Chinese to harvest the silken thread from its cocoon).

Fortifications
By 6,000 BC, the advanced agricultural settlement of Jericho became the first fortress, as it was surrounded by a wall and a moat. This suggests that raiding and warfare had become commonplace.

Ancestor Worship
The people of Jericho buried their dead under the floors of their houses. After some time they removed the skulls and filled in their features with clay and shells for the purpose of ancestor worship. Similar practices were a feature of a number of early settlements.

The Great Flood
The Great Flood of legend may have occurred when humans first began farming. This was a new way of life that depended on watercourses for food production. The earliest major flood that destroyed crops and homes and killed people and livestock would have been a powerful social trauma.

The Development of the Wheel
Wheels began to be devised to improve productivity. They were employed in the quern - two grinding stones used for grinding cereal grains, and the potter's wheel - upon which pots were turned. Then the wheel was applied to the cart, which replaced the pack animal and revolutionised transport.

Bird, Fire and Sun Reverencing
People still continued to reverence birds, fire and the sun during antiquity. All three (in both Old and New World cultures) were interrelated in that the sun was considered the sky fireball, fire was its earthly form, and the vulture was the intermediary between the two - and (according to some cultures) gave fire to humankind. All three were attributed the same qualities of purification, regeneration and fertility. Most cultures had bird, fire and sun spirits or gods, as well as sacred hearth fires that were restarted annually as a part of the New Year celebration. Societies kept fire alive to ward off evil spirits - thus continuing on the practice begun by H erectus more than a million years earlier.
The Indo-European-derived cultures - like the Hindus, Persians, Greeks and Romans - were particularly strong bird and fire reverencing cultures. For example, the Persians exposed their dead to vultures, kept a sacred flame burning, and worshipped on mountains. Prometheus was the Greek vulture god who gave fire to mankind. The Romans used the flight of vultures for augury, and its legion adopted the eagle banner. Meanwhile, Egyptian royalty wore vulture headdresses. Even in early Christianity Mary and Jesus were associated with the vulture and eagle respectively.

Endemic Warfare
Early civilisations began to divide internally into classes, indicating a level of social oppression, specialisation of work, and use of slaves. Endemic warfare involved one culture trying to dominate other areas and peoples by bringing them under unified control. This afforded them territory, wealth, status, many new workers, and helped to prevent attack and conquest by those other areas. This social behaviour was common in Mesopotamia - the "cradle of civilisation". Raiding other human colonies and bringing the inhabitants under one rule is similar colony building behaviour to ant superorganisms.

War Chariots
The development of the wheeled cart led to battle-wagons being used as fighting platforms in war and, later, to fast horse-drawn chariots that terrorised early armies.

War against Animals
As warfare increased amongst humans, a war was also being played out against the animal kingdom. There were parallels between the treatment of animals and the treatment of enemies. For example, the art of early civilisations often depicted kings, gods, and goddesses trampling on animals, and the former two also trampling on enemies. A relevant artifact includes the Gebel-Arak knife (c. 3,500 BC) that has an ivory handle carved with a hunting scene on one side and a battle scene on the other. This clearly indicates that hunting and warfare were activities seen in the same light. Meanwhile, Heredotus describes the Thracians as killing animals bare-handed.
Mesopotamian stamp and cylinder seals often employed scenes of violence towards animals to intimidate thieves.
Dominance over animals reached a peak by Roman times. Thousands of animals were captured and brought to the amphitheatre to be killed in mock hunts and battles, including crocodiles, elephants, rhinoceros, giraffes, lions, and leopards. Some species were almost driven to extinction. The animal carnage is similar to the behaviour of army ants that go out on determined hunting forays and carry back to their nest any larger creatures that they come across.

War against Children
Not only were there wars with humans and animals, but there was also a growing war with children. Plato states that the attitude towards children in the Ancient World was that they were wild and needed to be tamed (through education).
On an ancient Egyptian clay tablet a child wrote of being beaten in conjunction with schooling. The ancient Greeks and Romans abandoned unwanted children in the hills as if they belonged to the wild. Spartan boys in army training (begun from age seven) were treated "no better than animals", and some were beaten to death by other boys during tests of skill. And Spartan babies considered too weak for life were tossed over a ravine outside of the city. The Spartans, and many other ancient cultures, were obviously numb to the suffering of infants - because they had also suffered in their own childhoods.

Metal weapons
The advent of the Bronze and Iron Ages offered stronger materials for tools and weapons, and for defences of armour and shields. This sped up the arms race. The metals of gold and silver also became objects of warfare.

Crowns
The headbands of prehistory developed into headbands, diadems and crowns made of precious metals - that were the sign of royalty and, therefore, dominance.

Superorganism Warfare
From the 600s-300s BC, the Greek army employed a fighting formation called a phalanx, where a number of lines of infantry would charge forward into battle as one unit. It was an early example of organized superorganism warfare, rather than just a rabble of fighting individuals. So successful was the phalanx that it was adopted by the Carthaginians, the Macedonians and the Romans.

Colony Building
During the rise of their empire, the Greeks established colonies in Italy, France, Sicily, and the Black Sea coast. Later, Alexander the Great conquered much of the known world.
On the back of Greek successes, the Romans conquered many regions and established a huge empire.

Wrestling and Boxing
Wrestling and boxing were instituted in the Greek Olympic Games. The main aim of boxing is to knock the opponent out with a blow to the head. The Romans boxed with a studded leather hand covering, and maiming and death were common. Gladiatorial combats were also conducted in amphitheatres.

The Rise of Science
During the Middle Ages the new monotheistic religions subdued pagan beliefs and practices (like bird and fire reverencing) and the Dark Age ensued. From the 1300s, though, the Renaissance led to the reemergence of science in Europe. Ironically, one of the earliest recognised scientists - Leonardo Da Vinci - studied raptor flight and designed flying machines aimed at allowing humans to fly like the birds. This again indicated the spell that birds had over even the most scientific of minds.

Firearms
In the Late Middle Ages, fire - aided by the new fuel of gunpowder - was added to weapons to propel metal and stone projectiles at great speed and distance.

Witch-hunts
From the Late Middle Ages up to the 1800s, a social hysteria concerning evil gripped society, and the authorities employed fire as the main social cleanser - by burning at the stake thousands of perceived witches and their defenders. Again we see the symbolism of fire keeping evil at bay.

Religious Wars
During the Middle Ages, with the rise in power of the Church, violence became attached to religious causes. Troubled access to the Holy Lands created an ongoing war between Christianity (in Europe) and Islam (in the Middle East) known as the Crusades. The Crusades involved eight major conflicts, from 1095-1270, and many adults died on the way to the Crusades due to the arduous journey.

Tournaments
Tournaments involved hand-to-hand combat and mock wars between knights. It centred on the joust, where knights in armour charged at each other on horseback with blunted lances as weapons. Due to injuries and sometimes deaths, a dividing barrier was added to change the joust into the safer tilt.

Firearms
Firearms and bombards made knights redundant, and led to more efficient warfare that could cull even more adults from the species. And like all other weapons beforehand, firearms were trained against animals.

Colony Building
New European empires based on sea power developed during the mid-1500s-mid-1700s. They initially set up trading posts in new territories, but later fought with and dominated indigenous peoples. Then colonies were established to expand territory. The English Empire became the world's largest.

Superorganism Sea Warfare
England became a superior naval power. Its gunships performed as one unit - for example, by sailing in a column to present a string of guns to enemies. It was a new superorganism fighting strategy, rather than single galleons trying to ram and board each other as before. So successful was the line-of-battle strategy that battleships (as part of a battle fleet) became the main weapons of war up until WWI.

Bird and Fire Reverencing
In the modern world, there remain two amazing reverencing remnants. Firstly, there is the Mohana "bird people" of Pakistan, who live in houseboats on Manchar Lake. They tame birds and get them to catch fish and act as decoys to catch other birds. Children go to "bird school" to learn birdcalls. Since they have lived this lifestyle for 6000 years this provides direct evidence that earlier humans used birds to get to food sources and adopted bird behaviours. Secondly, there is the Parsi of Iran and India. They still expose their dead to vultures and the sun, work to keep a sacred fire alive, and believe in the cosmology of the bull. They are still following the bird and fire mythologies of their predecessors the Persians, the Catal Hoyukans before them, the Homo erectines with their capturing of fire, and even back to the Australopithecines and their following of vultures to start humanity off. The Parsi has shown that of all the human knowledge-seekers they have most doggedly clung to core traditions.

National Emblems
Today, the eagle is the national symbol for the USA, Poland, Russia, Germany and Serbia, the garuda (god-eagle) is the national symbol of Thailand and Indonesia, while the condor (vulture) is the national symbol of Chile.

World Wars
The Twentieth Century brought with it the two most massive wars of history, that led to the culling of tens of millions of adults from the species.

The United Nations
After WWII's end, the United Nations was instituted to try to prevent similar wars from reoccurring. But its effectiveness has been limited, since the Korean, Vietnam and Gulf Wars have occurred since.

Modern Superorganism Warfare
The initial aim of warfare - openly displayed during the two Gulf Wars - is to "decapitate" the enemy. This is done by taking out the central command (also known as a "surgical strike"). This tactic works because an army is a superorganism - a giant individual. Like an individual, the drive to fight in an army comes from its "head" - its leaders. Once the leaders are killed the soldiers lose purpose and direction and are more easily conquered.

War against Terror
Today, the world is engaged in a war against terrorism. The battle is mostly between the privileged West and oppressed Islamic regions. It is a reemergence of the age-old fight between Europe and Islam of the Crusades, and of the later Age of Imperialism. Terrorists also employ the age-old practice of beheading their captives.

Technology Modelled on Superorganisms
The Modern Age is the era of technology. Since technology involves large numbers of units or connections or people that need to be organised, insects - especially ants - have become the model for some systems - particularly in communications, robotics, and nanotechnology. So the human species is still today modelling its future path of development upon the superorganism.