Anthropology is the study of humanity. One of the questions the discipline has striven to answer from it's very conception is the question of what it is that ultimately makes us human. Where is that unique distinction that takes us from being just another creature populating the world and the fossil record and pushes us that next step to something more?
According to Donald Johanson in his book From Lucy To Language,
A human is any of the species Homo sapiens (“wise man”), the only modern living member of the family Hominidae. The Hominidae, or hominids, are a group of upright-walking primates with relatively large brains. So all humans are hominids, though not all hominids could be called human. (1)
Under this definition, we are in some ways the last of our kind, though without doubt the most prolific. Yet it does beg the question of what was it exactly that changed us from “upright-walking primates” and turned us into the “wise man” of today. Some Anthropologists argue it is the formation and use of complex tools – except further research has shown all primates and even some other species grasp the concept of making and using tools. Others say it is our capacity for higher, rational thought – except current research into other non-primate species is showing again and again a grasp of abstraction and other cognitive capacities we formerly believed were the domain of humanity alone. So, now, the researchers’ theories have reached further into the abstract. Perhaps it is our capacity, our need, to believe in something; to possess a mythology, a history beyond history, to explain our existence and the existence of the world around us. Our concepts of symbolism, a belief in a spirit world and those people who have the ability to ...
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...Harder, Ben. "Evolving in Their Graves: Early Burials Hold Clues to Human Origins | Science News | Find Articles at BNET." Find Articles at BNET | News Articles, Magazine Back Issues & Reference Articles on All Topics. Science News, 15 Dec. 2001. Web. 19 May 2010. .
Hinnells, John R. A Handbook of Ancient Religions. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge UP, 2007. Print.
Johanson, Donald C., and Blake Edgar. From Lucy to Language. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2006. Print.
Marshack, Alexander. The Roots of Civilization: the Cognitive Beginnings of Man's First Art, Symbol and Notation. Mount Kisco, N.Y.: Moyer Bell, 1991. Print.
White, Randall. Dark Caves, Bright Visions: Life in Ice Age Europe. New York:
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Physically, humans consist of muscle, bones, blood, cells, but how do we really classify what makes a human a human? What if someday a scientific finding occurs and we learn that we can move a person's brain to another person's body, or into an robot. Are they still the same person or even a person? Opposite sides would say no, because the flesh is not the same or even there at all, but those sides are forgetting all the memories that the brain possess.If a person is aware of their conscious and unconscious minds, they are human.
One of the most revered and utterly enigmatic topics present within humanity is the evolution of humankind itself. Collectively contrasting both the origins of man physically and the very beginning of complex thought processes has been an incredible task, which is currently undetermined. The exact methods of the mind and of human character are both delicate and completely beyond true understanding. The only ways
The ancestral lines of Neanderthals and modern humans is split roughly about 800,000 years ago, making them our closest relatives in the hominid ancestry. Neanderthals inhabited Europe and parts of the Western Asia before going extinct around 30,000 years ago. Neanderthals made and used a range of tools, they were able to control fire, make and wore clothing, were very skilled hunters of large animals however also ate plant foods, they lived in shelters, and occasionally made symbolic or ornamental objects, which no previous hominid species, had ever practiced this representative and complex conduct. Over this essay we will be covering some elemental information on Neanderthals, their differences and similarities anatomically with modern humans, along with their differences in behavior, and finally giving some possible implications for the timing of the development of culture.
Humans are members of the Earth's community of life in the same sense and on the same terms as other living things.
Humans are a unique set of species with many defining characteristics. A majority of people when asks what makes you human, would say being able to breathe, talk, bleed, and reproduce....
As archeological discoveries of bone fragments and fossils continue to support the existence of homo-sapiens
Author Yuval Noah Harari has a unique way of reviewing the past fourteen billion years in his monograph Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind. His intention for writing this book is mainly to bring up the conversation of the human condition and how it has affected the course of history. In this case, the human condition coincides with the inevitable by-products of human existence. These include life, death, and all the emotional experiences in between. Harari is trying to determine how and why the events that have occurred throughout the lives of Homo Sapiens have molded our social structures, the natural environment we inhabit, and our values and beliefs into what they are today.
Evolutionary theory throws humans into a tizzy. Driven by the need to amass knowledge, we find ourselves surging forward into the exploration of a story where the more we know, the less we can feature ourselves. Eminent evolutionary biologist Ernst Mayr contends that anthropocentrism and belief in evolution by natural selection are mutually exclusive (Mayr 1972). In other words, the Darwinian story of biological evolution rejects the notion of progress and replaces it with directionless change, thereby subverting the conception of human superiority on a biological scale toward perfection. Evolution by natural selection undermines the idea that humans are the culmination and ultimate beneficiaries of all nature. However, to say that anthropocentrism necessarily dissolves in the rising tide of evolutionary theory is to ignore the ways in which human centered humanness plays an intriguing role in evolution.
What does it mean to be human? Sure, one must have the usual physical features such as fingers, eyes, arms, hands, feet, etc., but what does it really mean? Must the human be able to speak? To take upon the actions of themselves? Whatever it means, it can be interpreted in any way from anyone. The physical attributes of any human can be compared to those of our evolutionary ancestors. However, it is possible to believe that there are many characteristics that make a human, but only six define the true, ideal human.
Burenholt, Dr. Govan. The First Humans - Human Origins and History to 10,000 B.C. New York; Harper Collins Publishes. 1993
According to Stringer and Andrews, the Out-of-Africa Model suggests that there is a fairly recent common ancestor that shares many of the anatomical characteristics displayed by modern Homo Sapiens (1263). This version is more parsimonious with regard to the fact that it ...
Human nature is that quality that sets us apart from other living things; it is the definition of what we are.
Humans are extremely complex and unique beings. We are animals however we often forget our origins and our place in the natural world and consider ourselves superior to nature. Humans are animals but what does it mean to be human? What are the defining characteristics that separate us from other animals? How are we different? Human origins begin with primates, however through evolution we developed unique characteristics such as larger brain sizes, the capacity for language, emotional complexity and habitual bipedalism which separated us from other animals and allowed us to further advance ourselves and survive in the natural world. Additionally, humans have been able to develop a culture, self-awareness, symbolic behavior, and emotional complexity. Human biological adaptations separated humans from our ancestors and facilitated learned behavior and cultural adaptations which widened that gap and truly made humans unlike any other animal.
What makes us human? What underlying characteristic differentiates humans from animals or Gods? Where does the essence of humanity lie?
Humans may be one of the most complex species on this earth thus far. We are the only known species who contemplates their existence so deeply and writes novels worth of work on it. But what exactly does it mean to be a human and how is our humanness defined? For centuries philosophers have written countless works on what they believe makes a person truly humane and how we differentiate between those who are “bad” and those who are “good” humans. In a world that is so subjective and that has so many opinions, routes, and options this may be one of the hardest concepts to define.