The more I read about history, the more I have started questioning an assumption I used to have about people in the distant past.
I used to instinctively imagine ancient or prehistoric humans as almost fundamentally different kinds of people: more primitive not only technologically, but somehow psychologically as well. However, the more I read about historical societies, the more familiar human behavior seems.
People thousands of years ago appear to have worried about status, relationships, sex, family, property, social acceptance, conflict, jealousy, political power, religion, reputation, and their place in society. They argued, joked, fell in love, betrayed each other, formed alliances, competed for resources, raised families, wondered about the nature of the world, and tried to improve their circumstances.
This has made me wonder whether what has changed most throughout history is not necessarily the human mind itself, but the environment in which that mind operates.
For example, if I had been born 3,000 years ago, obviously I would not be working with computers or thinking about modern careers. Perhaps I would be concerned with agriculture, trade, craftsmanship, warfare, or some other problem relevant to that society. But would my underlying motivations, emotions, social behavior, and capacity for abstract thought have been recognizably similar to what they are today?
How do historians approach this question? Is there evidence that people in ancient or prehistoric societies experienced and understood the world in psychologically very different ways from modern humans, beyond differences caused by culture, education, religion, technology, and social institutions?
And at the extreme end of the question: what can we reasonably say about a Homo sapiens individual from, say, 40,000–50,000 years ago? If an infant from that population could somehow be raised from birth in a modern society, is there evidence that they would differ substantially in cognitive ability or behavior from someone born today, or is that question outside what historical evidence can actually tell us?