Did cavemen have 'busy' minds like ours?

[TovinoThomas]

our minds are always bouncing from thought to thought, considering that we are more intellectual compared to cavemen, did their minds do the same thing?whatsapp web 192.168.0.1 routerlogin

[Azmdted]

Assuming that you're talking about homo sapiens, rather than Neanderthals or other early man species, I wouldn't for a second assume that we are more intellectual than they were.  I believe that on average their minds were probably processing far more than the average mind of today.  Their life depended on it as opposed to the 'high score' many use their brains and thumbs for today.

[wstanley]

Cavemen? Are you talking Homoerectus, habilis, etc....

The fact that "homosapiens" left Africa and populated most of the world in about 100,000 years, then yeah I would say we were constantly bouncing around.

As far as I can remember we became "modern" about 150,000-200,000 years ago. We would have had the same brain size and looked just the same.

Don't doubt early man was a "scientist" that build the framework for those later: capturing fire, medicines, procuring foods and making them edible, travel/ navigation, and simply surviving.

[Will Tell]

If they didn't we wouldn't be having this conversation we'd be Dinosaur crap.

[willie]

rather than supposing how some one may have thought in the past, lets look at what many modern men may be losing or missing.

seems to me that many modern people have become complacent with their powers of observation or awareness of the surrounding conditions

[WhistlingBadger]

I'm going to take "caveman" as someone living a hunter-gatherer lifestyle in primitive conditions.  I think such a person would have a very busy mind, but not the same way I do.  The HG would be constantly aware of his/her surroundings, even when relaxing.  Many rest times would still be productive:  While sitting around the fire yarning, they're still building arrows, spinning cordage, or whatever.

Our minds, on the other hand, are pretty much always running, even when we're supposed to be sleeping, usually about something other than what is happening here and now.

I think a lot of this has to do with the nature of caveman stress verses modern stress, and it's one of the reasons I spend as much time in the wilderness as I can get away with.  A crisis in the wilderness is usually sudden, extremely intense, and over relatively quickly.  Say I'm out in the back country, hunting solo, and I fall and bust a leg.  Storm's rolling in.  Well, I either stabilize my leg, manage pain, find shelter, get a fire going, find some water...or I die of shock and exposure.  Probably within a matter of a few hours.  Either way, the immediate crisis is over for the moment, and I either get over it permanently, or I move on to the next challenge.

Or say my elk calls bring in a griz or a mountain lion.   Huge adrenaline rush, intense stress...and depending on the disposition of the critter and the skill/luck of my reaction, I either run the critter off or it takes me out.  Either way, my problems are over, at least for the moment. 

I think those are the kind of stresses we're designed to deal with.  Deal with it and get on with life, or fail to deal with it and don't.  Difficult, but pretty straight-forward.

Modern stresses, on the other hand, tend to be low-key but prolonged over a period of weeks, months, or even years.  Modern life includes few big adrenaline rushes followed by quick resolutions, but abounds in those back-burner worries that just go on and on and on:  Struggles with bosses, chronic illnesses, debt, impossible schedules, so many options for pretty much every aspect of life that we can't possibly make informed decisions.  Modern life is all about excessive complexity.  I don't think we're designed to deal with that low-key but long-term stress.  That's the stuff that keeps our minds running all the time, that keeps us from living in the moment and experiencing the beauty right in front of our noses.  Or as John Lennon said, "Life is what happens while you're busy making other plans."

So, is the mind of a hunter-gatherer clogged with constant, conscious thought like most of ours?  I doubt it.   It's still busy, though.  Just with other, more immediate stuff.
T

[WhistlingBadger]

Whew, that was long-winded.  Must be past my bed time.

[GlisGlis]

the fear for animals or human attacks, the need for food, the hammering of weather conditions likely caused long term  stress.
Sure a close encounter with a grizzly could make you rethink the weight distribution of your anxieties   

[Hawkdancer]

The pectroglyphs, pictographs, cave art, and legends answer the question!  Yes, along with trying to make better tools and weapons, ( a form of tool).  Early man had to process a tremendous amount of information.
Hawkdancer

[wstanley]

I think long term/low stress problems were much present for hunter gatherers. Sickness, pregnancy, attacks by your enemy can be problems that are not immediate at the moment.

Your staple acorns (just an example) had a bad year and the oaks didn’t produce. Now your band is forced to find a replacement food. On top of dealing with sick elderly, pregnant women, repairing your clothes for the winter cold months, and making sure your not raided by other bands who are feeling the food shortage too.

I think these non immediate problems were much on their mind at times for a society that has to plan for the upcoming seasons and food shortages in order to survive.

[Chief RID]

I think doing your due diligence and study Ishi, the man, to get a glimpse into the mind of a primitive man. Granted this was a special person but the American Indian is about as far as you have to look to understand the mind of primitive man.

[Mesophilic]

I think culture would've played a huge role then just as it does now.  I have a Cambodian friend who survived the Khamer Rouge, he knows how to stress when it's time to stress and how to relax when it's time to relax.  Then again I know Vets of Iraq and Afghanistan, and they're like a tightly coiled spring all the time.   

My guess is some clans of cavemen were highly stressed and at the end of the day, are up all night with worries, can't shut their minds down and suffer sleep problems and high stress.  I imagine other clans took each day as it came, hunger comes and hunger goes, every meal is a feast, you can't change the weather and you can't stop the tides.

In all, I'd say if we're talking about our Homosapien cavemen ancestors, their minds are wired exactly as ours.  And experience, culture,  religion and many other factors complicate the issue.

[stuckinthemud]

Interesting that we instinctively distance ourselves from Neanderthal when they form a substantial part of the human Asian and European genome, and had a sophisticated art, religious and tool making culture over 300 000 years ago

[Deerhunter21]

there's a point where neanderthals separate from humans and that's the point where humans are exactly like us are exactly

[stuckinthemud]

That"s a really hot area of discussion at the moment , a major school of thought is that we are Neanderthal and they didnt so much die out, more kind of bred-out. Somewhere between 7 and 13 percent of northern human genetic make up is Neanderthal,  while a huge percentage of cave art and carving previously put down to homo sapiens has been found to predate the arrival of that hominid by a considerable margin, so whether cavemen is referring to modern human or Neanderthal is not an important seperation in this context as they both valued art, craftsmanship,  family, religion, partying, trade, carried roughed out blanks for fine working during down-time, hunted, farmed, built boats capable of crossing large bodies of water, made and used fire, cooked good food, took pride in their appearance,  waged war., had hobbies...