The Importance of Processes in the Paleolithic Era

A sense of linear time with a past, present, and future plus a sense of duration was an essential element of behavioral modernity. Modern human behavior could not have occurred without it. This sense of time was necessary for planning and coordination. But how did Homo sapiens develop this sense of time that was so different from the animal world that they were a part of? In this paper, I argue that the hominin sense of time developed over millions of years and developed because of their familiarity with processes such as stone-tool making. I am assuming that they developed a variety of other processes as well and each process had a step-by-step way to proceed. I am also assuming that as processes developed, they became more complicated and in addition, a proto-language and a concept of time immerged which gave them greater control and also the conceptual tools to modify and improve these processes. In short processes with their step-by-step structure became the model for linear time and time duration.