Ideas evolution

Ideas, as elements of thought, are characterised by cultural diversity. This diversity may be traced to the human origin story. Anthropological research, for example, has revealed 50,000-year-old hunter-gatherer exchange networks in Eastern and Southern Africa which has led Cecilia Padilla-Iglesias, a Cambridge-based (UK) anthropologist, to pose the question: 'Did Humanity Really Arise in One Place'. This suggests that these early networks were efficient at developing complex cultures and spreading innovations which also suggests that homo sapiens quintessential adaptation is to exchange ideas, genes, and culture with one another. This may further suggest that modern human cultural and biological diversity emerged as a mosaic rather than a linear process, a process which may help explain humanity’s evolutionary success. And so, Iglesias concludes, 'humans have developed beautifully complex and dynamic behaviors, beliefs, and technologies that have allowed us to thrive wherever we have traveled'. Indeed, ideas have travelled and evolved with the evolution of humanity.