Posted on 11/02/2015 11:00:47 AM PST by SeekAndFind
What a piece of work is man! Everyone agrees on that much. But what exactly is it about Homo sapiens that makes us unique among animals, let alone apes, and when and how did our ancestors acquire that certain something? The past century has seen a profusion of theories. Some reveal as much about the time their proponents lived in as they do about human evolution.
1. We Make Tools: "It is in making tools that man is unique," anthropologist Kenneth Oakley wrote in a 1944 article. Apes use found objects as tools, he explained, "but the shaping of sticks and stones to particular uses was the first recognizably human activity." In the early 1960s, Louis Leakey attributed the dawn of toolmaking, and thus of humanity, to a species named Homo habilis ("Handy Man"), which lived in East Africa around 2.8 million years ago. But as Jane Goodall and other researchers have since shown, chimps also shape sticks for particular uses -- stripping them of their leaves, for instance, to "fish" for underground insects. Even crows, which lack hands, are pretty handy.
2. We're Killers: According to anthropologist Raymond Dart, our predecessors differed from living apes in being confirmed killers -- carnivorous creatures that "seized living quarries by violence, battered them to death, tore apart their broken bodies, dismembered them limb from limb, slaking their ravenous thirst with the hot blood of victims and greedily devouring livid writhing flesh." It may read like pulp fiction now, but after the horrific carnage of the Second World War, Dart’s 1953 article outlining his "killer ape" theory struck a chord.
3. We Share Food: In the 1960s, the killer ape gave way to the hippie ape. Anthropologist Glynn Isaac unearthed evidence of animal carcasses that had been purposefully moved
(Excerpt) Read more at news.nationalgeographic.com ...
My ancestor’s first playground was a beautiful garden ...
Mine too! This is easier than ancestry.com! And one of my relatives built this HUGE boat!
I’m descended from kings-
Homo hillbillius (”Redneck Man”) could survive eating the most vile dead creatures, as they discovered barbecue sauce and beer.
The barbecue sauce helped, but beer was the key!
We were created. Therefore all other theories are invalid.
The guy on the left. Is that Will Ferrell?
Link is to a site peddling NG merchandise; not the rest of this article.
Humans developed the ability to farm grain, not in order to make flour for bread, but to make beer.
Think about the value of early farmers being able to trade beer for meat from neighboring hunting/pastoral tribes.
Yup. The whole “which came first, the chicken or the egg” statement was easy to answer. It was the chicken, created way back when. Fifth day? Not sure.
We seek betterment and are creative...sometimes simple things...like the better mouse trap.
Animals don't seek beyond their natural instinct BECAUSE they are limited.
Such as....a bird doesn't try to build a house instead of a nest. (Why do we build them houses?)Now how would a bird hold a hammer...or a lion hold a hammer.
And if you gave an ape a hammer...what would he do with it...besides bashing something??
Nothing fruitful about other species.
Yeh...fifth day sounds right...about 3 o’clock.
What a waste of time. This is worthless.
Ancient astronaut theorists believe........
Strong arms for a saw and hammer and some good women cookin' fantastic meals !
Those are not Theories of How We Became Human. They are common beliefs on how Man is different from Animal.
Last time I looked, the monkey were still flinging feces at each other and not composing grand symphonies.
“It was the chicken, created way back when. Fifth day?”
Well, it wasn’t the seventh day, because Chick-fil-A is closed on Sunday.
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