Stages of Human Development - Assignment Example

 It emphasizes the central theme associated with human evolution. The original airing of the film was on March 27, 2003. It reveals the events that occurred nearly three million years ago (Turner 67). Professor Winston traces humankind's history from the ape-man to the upright man. The film also captures the main points, such as stone tool manufacture, meat-eating, extended childhood, and bipedalism.

The development stages start with an Afarensis, Lucy, also called the “First Ancestor.” The ape was the first primate to walk on two legs. Lucy’s societies engage in leadership conflict. The film focuses on the bipedality of the species. The second species is “Blood Brothers”, which mainly dominates East Africa. The species consists of Homo habilis, Paranthropus boisei, and Homo rudolfensis. The third species in the tree is the “Savage Family”, which consists of Homo erectus and Homo ergaster (Barry, Robert, and Lynn 56). The setting of the species is Kenya and China. The last species in the species is “The Survivor”, which includes Homo sapiens idaltu, Homo sapiens, Neanderthal and Homo heidelbergensis.

The film has the strength of successfully enabling the audience to understand human beings' evolution. It presents the species as they occur in n orderly manner. It does well in covering the main events in human development. It explains the environmental factors that could have influenced the species to acquire distinct characteristics (Turner 79). The films use special effects from the latest scientific theories to enable the audience to understand t easily. The film uses sound visual effects that appeal to the audience.

Though the film achieves to provide a comprehensive explanation of the evolution of human beings, it has some flaws. It uses a weak theory. For instance, it does not analyze the factors that the species were responding to when acquiring specific features. Robust approaches should give evidence and the forces that led to changing parts of a particular species to another (Barry, Robert, and Lynn 56). It mentions specific challenges that human ancestors faced and their advances but fails to give a logical description of the forces that compelled change in particular environments.

I recommend the film for future A 103 and other courses that study the evolution of human beings. It gives a sequential order of events as they took place from the first ancestors to the modern man. It has a vivid visual combination that is easy to understand (Turner 89). The film also uses the latest scientific theories.