Homo erectus

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Taxonomy
Kingdom	Animalia
Unranked Clade 1	Bilateria
Superphylum	Deuterostomia
Phylum	Chordata
Subphylum	Vertebrata
Infraphylum	Gnathostomata
Unraked Clade 2	Osteichthyes
Superclass	Tetrapoda
Series	Amniota
Unranked Clade 3	Synapsida
Class	Mammalia
Subclass	Theria
Infraclass	Placentalia
Superorder	Euarchontoglires
Order	Primates
Infraorder	Simiiformes
Parvorder	Catarrhini
Superfamily	Hominoidea
Family	Hominidae
Subfamily	Homininae
Tribe	Hominini
Genus	Homo
Species	Homo erectus

Homo erectus was a species of early human that lived during the Pleistocene epoch in Asia, Europe and Africa. It was one of the first human species to have left Africa and laid the foundation for future humans such as Homo sapiens and Homo neanderthalensis. Homo erectus, particularly the subspecies known as Homo erectus pekinensis or “Peking Man,” represents an important stage in human evolution and in the deep prehistory of classless society. Living in northern China roughly 750,000 to 300,000 years ago, these early humans developed a cooperative, egalitarian way of life rooted in communal hunting, food sharing, and mutual defense. Archaeological evidence from Zhoukoudian shows that Peking Man communities organized themselves without private property, class divisions, or exploitation, instead surviving through collective labor and shared resources. This mode of production—what Marxist anthropology identifies as primitive communism—was the foundation for human survival for hundreds of thousands of years before the rise of class society.

While the original fossils have since been lost, the specimen of Peking man became very important to China during the Mao era due to how it shaped Chinese science and Primitive Communism. Soviet scientists found Homo erectus fossils (sometimes called Homo georgicus) in Georgia. Finds from the rest of Eurasia show how Homo erectus used fire and advanced tools (made from from stone and or plant material) to change their environment.

Material Conditions

The Asian population of Homo erectus (known from, Georgia, Vietnam, China, India and Indonesia) lived in humid forests and cold grasslands during a time when the Ice Age was starting to creep deeper into the Asian heartland. Archaeological, Paleontological, and anthropological evidence suggests that Homo erectus, practiced a form of primitive communism characteristic of many primates (including all other early humans). Small, mobile bands probably shared resources communally, with no private ownership of tools, shelters, or hunting territories. Stone implements, gathered foods, and game meat appear to have been collectively used and distributed, ensuring group survival rather than individual accumulation. This cooperative mode of production was reinforced by mutual aid, social learning, and shared child-rearing responsibilities. While evidence for formal leadership is absent, decision-making may have been fluid and situational, with skilled hunters, elders, or knowledgeable foragers holding temporary influence based on need.

Peking Man lived in an environment where Asia’s diverse yet dangerous Pleistocene wildlife posed constant challenges. They shared the landscape with large herbivores such as the modern water buffalo, the giant panda, and the now-extinct elephant relatives Stegodon and Palaeoloxodon. The unusual horned giraffid Sivatherium also roamed Ice Age Asia, while sika deer were likely common in China at the time. Predators were ever-present dangers. Modern leopards hunted in these regions, and, much like humans, they expanded their range from Africa into Asia. Tigers had also evolved by this period, adding to the threats faced by Homo erectus. The most formidable predator may have been Homotherium, a scimitar-toothed/saber-toothed cat related to the more famous Smilodon (often referred to by the bourgeois term “saber-toothed tiger”). Homotherium ranged across Asia, the Americas, Europe, and Africa during the Pleistocene, with fossils from China and India indicating it was a widespread and adaptable danger. While earlier research suggested that the saber-toothed cat Machairodus might have been a threat, it appears to have gone extinct before the emergence of Homo erectus. There may, however, have been an overlap with Megantereon, a larger saber-toothed cat. Competition for meat and territory also came from brown bears and Pachycrocuta, a giant hyena capable of scavenging or even displacing Homo erectus from kills. Another formidable neighbor was Gigantopithecus, a giant orangutan relative inhabiting the same forests. These environments were dominated by tall grasses, bamboo trees, dipterocarps, palms, hazel, figs, pines, and podocarps. In such challenging conditions, equitable resource sharing and cooperative social structures—hallmarks of Homo erectus’s advanced form of primitive communism—were not merely cultural traits but vital survival strategies.

See also

Primitive communism