On the Beginning of Human History (Problems of Paleopsychology) is a philosophical and natural-scientific treatise by Soviet historian Boris Fyodorovich Porshnev, dedicated to the problems of anthropogenesis. The initial concept for a book on human prehistory dates back to 1924, although Porshnev directly addressed the topic of the emergence of Homo sapiens in the 1950s in connection with his interest in troglodytidae and the issue of the "snowman". After 1968, the researcher's work was entirely devoted to writing and publishing On the Beginning of Human History, which he considered the main research work of his life.
The book presents a complex interdisciplinary study at the intersection of physical anthropology, evolutionary psychology, sociology, philosophy of history, and other disciplines. The "beginning" highlighted in the title was, in the author's view, is a key to the entire complex of sciences about human society and the individual within society, creating a research program. For Porshnev, there was a fundamental distinction between humans and all other animals (an "evolutionary gap"), rooted in creativity, which is absent in any animal, even in rudimentary form.
B. F. Porshnev's theory of anthropogenesis centers on the “individual-to-individual” model of interaction rather than the “individual-to-environment” approach. He traced the emergence of human communication, consciousness, and creativity from physiological mechanisms of animal interaction, arguing that human labor originated among Tertiary-period troglodytids—corpse-eating scavengers who accidentally mastered fire while processing bones. Their evolving behavior led to intra-species hunting and eventually to the ecological divergence that produced Homo neanderthalensis. Porshnev's monograph, completed in 1972, was initially censored for revising Marxist interpretations of human evolution and published in abridged form in 1974; restored editions appeared from the 1990s onward. His hypothesis, criticized for speculative reasoning and reliance on limited evidence —especially regarding Neanderthals' role— has not been widely accepted. Yet, scholars such as Galin Tihanov regard Porshnev's fusion of psychology and history as one of the most original contributions to Soviet humanistic thought in the late 20th century.
General idea B. F. Porshnev's monograph is structured as an "enfilade of chapters", in the introduction of which the author outlined the purpose of his work and its place in his own scholarship. He emphasized the problem of identifying the "beginning" of humanity and human history, as it remains unclear what exactly is meant by "beginning" in a general philosophical sense: Porshnev placed the "individual to individual" model at the center of his research. The primary focus of the book is the study of the transformation of animals into humans from the psychology and the physiology of higher nervous activity's perspective. He develops a reinterpretation of Russian and foreign scholars associated with the schools of I. Pavlov (theory of the second signal system), A. Ukhtomsky (dominance theory), L. Vygotsky (model of child consciousness development), and A. Wallon. Porshnev also drew on the ideas of semantic paleontology by N. Ya. Marr.
A detailed examination of anthropogenesis within the context of evolutionary theory serves as the starting point for his arguments. The researcher primarily posited that humans could not have gradually emerged directly within the natural environment — the difference between animals and Homo sapiens is too vast. Porshnev asserted the existence of a "Cartesian abyss", a gap between hominids and Homo sapiens; this approach opposed evolutionary views that suggest the transition from animal to human was gradual. The author's main task was to explain the process of human emergence and resolve the fundamental antinomy: the irreducibility of social to biological, while simultaneously acknowledging that the origins of the social lie solely in the biological. Porshnev termed his field of study "paleopsychology".
Main aspects Building on Friedrich Engels' ideas, B. F. Porshnev identified "troglodytids" —upright primates "no longer animals, but not yet humans"— as pivotal to human origins. He excluded australopithecines, archanthropes, and paleoanthropes from true hominids, viewing even Cro-Magnons as incomplete humans. Central was troglodytids' hypersuggestibility, unique to them and absent in animals or modern humans, with brain size playing a secondary role.
Troglodytids scavenged brains and marrow from predator kills using primitive tools due to weak dentition; later tools enabled adelphophagy (intraspecies cannibalism). Fire was accidentally discovered during tool-making on plant bedding and eventually harnessed after initial resistance. Imitative tendencies drove speech via "signal displacement," linking signals to sensory analyzers. Proto-speech evolved from context-specific gestures to sign-based communication, foundational to abstract human language.
Late Tertiary ecological shifts forced larger groups, heightening hypersuggestibility risks and prompting interdictive signals (prohibitive commands via imitation). Territorial clashes developed protective inhibition, enabling suggestibility resistance. Per Porshnev, hominid interactions weakened hypersuggestibility through actions, gestures, and sounds, protecting against external influences. Speech emerged as a social mechanism—both means and expression of human relations—simultaneously with society formation. This produced humans with symbolic speech, reduced suggestibility (yet retaining adult imitation until cognitive maturity), and thinking initially reactive to interactions, not reflecting the material world.
Aphasias (speech disorders) reveal the early Homo sapiens second signal system. Second-signal interactions divide into interdictive/suggestive phases, aligning with Vygotsky's view of higher functions as internalized social relations. Suggestion internalizes relationships, enabling self-regulation via "addressing oneself"—the core unit of speech-thinking. Dyplastia (thinking's elementary contradiction) expresses primal "us-them" social dynamics.
Interaction of paleo- and neoanthropes
According to Porshnev, ancient humans and troglodytids in a shared environment led to the strengthening of inhibition and prohibition mechanisms — modern humans and Neanderthals coexisted within a single community, with individuals of the former species serving as the primary food source for troglodytes, that led to the establishment of human sacrifices and initiation rituals imitating death in human culture.
B. F. Porshnev theorized that gender relations among neoanthropes, including promiscuity, arose from the need to feed paleoanthropes by sacrificing part of their own population. Females produced many offspring, but a large share —likely males— was killed for this purpose. Surviving males formed isolated "provider" groups that "ransomed" neoanthrope young through hunting yields.
These biological value differences between male and female neoanthropes, combined with an induced killing instinct, fostered war as a exclusively male pursuit. Wars occurred only among neoanthrope groups, with a taboo against paleoanthropes. The hypothesis described constant separation of females and young from adult males due to hunting mobility demands, preventing reunions. Other males temporarily joined female groups during migrations. Neoanthropes lacked a fixed family structure, instead forming transient associations across groups.
Porshnev linked the emergence of cultural prohibitions (interdictions) to their inherent exceptions, rooted in the physiology of suggestion—a mechanism for inhibiting all but one action. This gave rise to human speech and cultural norms. Analyzing ancient prohibitions, he identified three main groups:
Prohibition on killing one's own kind: Stemming from the paleo-neoanthrope divergence, it initially barred eating humans killed by other humans (unlike those dying naturally), extending untouchability from the dead to the living via rituals like ochre smearing and decorations. Later, killing was restricted to ranged weapons, explaining primitive war rules where "rule-compliant" kills allowed consumption. Prohibition on touching certain objects or actions: Reflected in Paleolithic art, which Porshnev saw as precursors to writing (echoing N. Ya. Marr), with images predating verbal thought. Earliest marks (lines, handprints) were traces of counter-suggestion. Sexual prohibitions: The oldest was the incest taboo (mother-son, then siblings), granting preferential rights to outsider males in the "shuffling herd." This sparked conflicts with resident young males, resolved by segregating the latter into separate groups with barriers, fostering exogamy.
According to Porshnev, early religious notions of "good" and "bad" deities also arose during the divergence — selection of neoanthropes among paleoanthropes. Images of deities (proto-deities) and various forms of "evil spirits" reflect the paleoanthrope, with whom modern humans had to interact for a long time, as well as specific features of this interaction. The more ancient these images, the more they contain literal physical traits and behavioral characteristics of the real "living" paleoanthrope.
Prolonged coexistence of paleo- and neoanthropes
Neoanthrope divergence drove global expansion, as modern humans fled paleoanthropes that preyed on them or neoanthrope groups in symbiosis with Neanderthals. Porshnev attributed this dispersal to mutual intolerance among neoanthropes, not resource-seeking. Upon reaching remote regions like the Americas and Australia, populations overlapped, prompting returns to occupied lands. Divergence persisted through endogamy; today's races and ethnic groups extend this process, serving new adaptive roles.
According to Porshnev, paleoanthropes that survived their peak did not disappear entirely, as evidenced not only by mythology but also by historical sources. He believed there were numerous archaeological findings showing that Neanderthaloid creatures with their stone industry coexisted at the same sites as Cro-Magnons. Some paleoanthropes survived into the Neolithic and Bronze Age. Porshnev argued that accounts from ancient authors (Herodotus, Plutarch, Pomponius Mela, Pliny the Elder) about rare encounters with "satyrs" and "fauns" reflected the existence of paleoanthropes on the fringes of the known world at the time.
Porshnev paid particular attention to the representations in Zoroastrianism, which he viewed as an example of a source reflecting the memory of the ancient interaction between paleo- and neoanthropes. He suggested taking literally the information in the Avesta about daevas, considered by Zoroastrians as living beings. It is possible that as late as the 6th–5th centuries BCE, constant contact with relict paleoanthropes-daevas was maintained through the slaughter of large numbers of livestock for them and their taming by "sorcerers" (shamans). The Zoroastrian custom of leaving a deceased body to be torn apart by birds and beasts is also linked to ancient times, including as a means of feeding "their" paleoanthropes.
Porshnev considered the last representatives of relict paleoanthropes to be creatures described by naturalists of the 17th–18th centuries, including Nicolaes Tulp. Carl Linnaeus in the first edition of his System of Nature (1735, Leiden) also reserved a place for Homo troglodytes, described based on reports from Dutch naturalists.
Theory's origin and development