On the other hand, the beginnings of social differences between individuals existed even within these Hunting and Gathering groups. The best hunter might command the best portions of his kill. The oldest members of a band probably commanded respect simply because of the skill it had taken to survive so long. "Cleverness" was clearly a valuable quality among such people, if the myths and stories of present-day Hunters and Gatherers are any guide, and clever people must have been admired and respected - though perhaps not yet envied.

            As groups settled down and became larger, however, the ties of kinship also became looser. Although people were still related, the distance of the relationship increased over several generations. How many of us today, for example, feel as strongly about our distant cousins as we do about our mothers and fathers? In fact, most of us probably have relations we don't even know about. As groups became larger, then, the social relationships probably became less easy, more complex.

Private property and social stratification. Whereas nomadic groups had lived essentially in common, settling down allowed individuals and their immediate families to have some privacy. As the settlements grew over time, the relationships among members of different immediate family groups must have become less natural and more formal. With their own stationary space, individuals and family groups were also able to accumulate more possessions, possessions that they identified as peculiarly their own, in other words, personal or private property. Cooperation within the larger group continued, of course, but a new sense of identity had begun to emerge, both for individuals and their immediate family members.

             Settling down probably also involved yet another increase in the process of specialization, in which individuals develop a few skills very well, rather than mastering a large variety of general skills. These new skills, practiced in people's new private spaces, probably reinforced the differences among individuals rather than their sameness. A hunter, for instance, might ask a good stone toolmaker to make weapons for him in exchange for part of his kill or for doing some other task that would free the toolmaker's time for making the tools. This kind of exchange of goods and services is called a barter system. As people began to accumulate such possessions, some must have gathered more than others, based upon their natural abilities, and the value people placed upon what they produced.

             Gradually, people began to make distinctions about the relative value of such things. Those who produced the most valuable items essential to survival, whether physical objects or special knowledge, would have been held in higher regard by their fellows. Such regard could be accumulated too and is generally called status. As differences of status appeared within the group, social stratification, or grading, had begun. In both the mammoth-bone settlements and in the Natufian culture there is clear evidence of such stratification: some people had bigger homes, and more possessions, both tools and ornaments.

             Social stratification did not necessarily mean that some people began to make decisions for the whole group, while the rest simply obeyed. On the other hand, as it became gradually clear that some people were better providers for themselves and their families than others, their fellows probably consulted them on how to do things. Just as there had probably been particularly clever leaders in hunting bands, so now clever leaders may have emerged within the new settled communities. Recognition of leadership, however, would probably still have been by consensus, that is with agreement among all the adult community members. Not until it was a matter of survival, probably, would people agree to give any more control over their lives into the hands of any single person or group of people. When they did, it marked the emergence of a new elite, that is a group of people who coordinated, guided, or even dictated the affairs of the larger community.

             If any single factor contributed to the emergence of new elite leaders within the group it was probably age. Respect for age certainly seems to have been a part of these early settlements, as it still is among hunting and gathering peoples today. For age means experience, and is the clearest proof of one's successful ability to survive. Moreover, it was the elderly who carried within them the fullest memory of the group, how it had developed through time, and most importantly of all - the skills and techniques that had allowed it to survive. In an era before people had developed writing, all the skills and tricks of living could only be passed down from the older to the younger generations by word of mouth through stories. Combined with age, however, would have been respect for those who contributed most to the group's survival through the provision of food, water, shelter and security. In hunting and gathering bands, for example, the most successful hunters would have had greater prestige than their less successful colleagues. And skills on the hunting trail would have translated naturally into war skills if the group ever found itself under attack from competing outside groups. On the other hand, where group survival came to depend more on gathering plant foods for survival, those who were most successful at providing such foodstuffs would have naturally risen to leadership roles within the group. In short, those who contributed most through their various skills to the group's survival and sense of security would have commanded the greatest respect.

            Once social stratification had begun, and possessions as well as knowledge began to pass down from generation to generation, it was important to establish just who should get the inheritance. This meant that people had to know how they and their immediate families stood in relation to others. In short, another level of identity had to be formally established. In fact, the evidence from early settlements like the mammoth-bone and Natufian cultures suggests that the first social organizations revolved not around men but around women. The Natufian settlements, for example, were almost certainly matrilineal, that is they traced one's family and inheritance in the female line, as well as matrilocal, which means that a married man went to live with his wife's family. The most obvious explanation for this arrangement is that people still did not understand where children came from! (Even if they did, they may not have been absolutely certain who a child's father was, whereas the mother was beyond dispute.)

            However, such social organization may also have reflected a growing dependence upon the wild grains gathered primarily by the women. In some cultures, this pattern led to the emergence of a female-led elite, or matriarchy, in which the women of the group made the major decisions affecting the community. In others, particularly where hunting remained a predominant source of food, even if inheritance was determined through the female line, the eldest men, who had proven themselves on the hunting trail, generally made community decisions. Such an arrangement is called a patriarchy. As people settled down more and more, developing new sedentary techniques of survival, these various forms of social organization became more firmly entrenched.

             But what did all this social development mean for the ordinary person? In essence, it meant that people were developing new senses of identity for themselves. Instead of being equal members of a small family group, all of whom did essentially the same things, now they were also neighbors of other family groups. They were identifiable based upon their special talents, whether in making useful objects or in knowing things that others did not. In other words, as the group activities became more complex and individuals became more specialized in their knowledge and skills, individual identities became more unique.

            Increasingly, people identified themselves as individuals, and their relationships with others in the group, and with the group as a whole, became ever more complex. A new stage in the development of human consciousness had been reached. And as people began to adjust their relationships with each other, they also began to consider their position in the world as a whole, their relationship with the environment, with Nature and the forces or spirits that ruled it. Not only did their new identities exist in the realm of Humanity, they existed in the Cosmos.

Development of Early Religious Ideas

As with other aspects of early Humanity, we do not know a great deal about the early religious life of human beings. Once again, we must guess on the basis of very little evidence. For the early Paleolithic period, from about 800,000 to about 80,000 years ago, there is little or no evidence suggesting any kind of spiritual beliefs. During this period, bands of humans were entirely nomadic and seem simply to have left their dead wherever they fell. By the Middle Paleolithic era, however, around 60,000 B.C., things had begun to change. In Europe and the Middle East human beings had begun to bury their dead in the ground.

             It is possible that early humans buried their dead simply to get rid of the stench of decay. This does not explain, however, the care with which such remains were obviously treated. In addition to arranging the bodies, people also left artifacts for the dead. Whether the burial of individual objects such as tools and items of decoration, even bits of food, was meant as a symbolic gesture, or reflected instead a belief that the dead would be able to use such items in some afterlife, we simply do not know. In some areas, however, such as on the Iranian plateau, the bodies were always faced in the same direction—east, towards the rising sun.

            Clearly, Paleolithic humans had begun to wonder about the implications of death. Perhaps they hoped that just as the sun rose again every day, so too the dead would also rise again. By the later Paleolithic era, there is considerable evidence that some people had begun to think in terms of some kind of spiritual existence. Small figurines and rock carvings of women, clearly pregnant, have been found in sites from France to the Middle East. They seem to have been fertility images, designed perhaps to help women become pregnant. Or they may be representations of a Mother Goddess. In September 2008, in southwestern Germany, researchers from the University of Tübingen discovered the oldest such figure yet found, the so-called Venus of Hohle Fels, which was made between 35,000 and 40,000 years ago.