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The Uniqueness of Humans and an Anthropological Perspective

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The Uniqueness of Humans and an Anthropological Perspective Conferences and Lectures 2009 Maternal and Child Health Seminar The Uniqueness of Humans and an Anthropological Perspective JMAJ 54(4): 229–233, 2011 Mariko HASEGAWA*1 Key words Human evolution, Childhood, Communal breeding, Triadic representation, Language Introduction until 6 million years ago, chimpanzees remain in an ecological position similar to that of many Although I majored in physical anthropology other mammalian species, while humans have during my undergraduate and graduate studies, accomplished an “unnatural” success that may the focus of my academic interest was not human even endanger the global environment. Actually, beings. I studied the behavior of wild chimpan- no other animal species have caused such drastic zees in Africa during my years at the anthro- alteration to the planet’s surface in such short pology department because I wanted to explore time, driven many other species to extinction, virgin territories and observe wildlife in its natu- developed science, and deliberated about their ral state. Later, I studied deer, sheep, peacocks, condition. What have been the keys to the etc., and only after that did my interest eventually achievement of this ability? turn to human beings. This was because the study Anthropology is the study of the evolutionary of various animal species instilled in me a renewed history of humanity. It is often regarded as the understanding of the peculiarity of humans as a study of the past records of human evolution, strange species, and also because I felt a sense of such as fossils. Although this in itself is interest- responsibility as an anthropologist to study the ing, anthropology has been accumulating a large evolution of the human species. body of data on the history and culture of humans Human beings are animals that belong to as a species in physical anthropology, involving the primate order among mammals. Humans’ genetics, endocrinology, ecology, evolutionary closest relatives are chimpanzees, whose ances- biology, and paleoenvironmental science, as well tors branched from ours and started to follow a as in combination with humanity and social sci- different path about 6 million years ago. Chim- ences, such as prehistory, cultural anthropology, panzees and other apes have since remained in and ethnography. tropical rain forests, and are now on the brink of The essence of science lies in the explanation extinction. On the other hand, after the human of the present reality and the prediction of the race experienced the emergence and extinction future. This being the case, anthropology as the of several species, Homo sapiens that evolved science of human evolutionary history should be about 200,000 years ago spread all over the earth able to explain not only past evolutionary history and prospered to reach today’s population of 6.8 but also the present reality of our life and predict billion. some aspects of humanity’s future. My interest in Despite the sharing of a common ancestry this approach developed slowly, and grew into a *1 Professor, Department of Evolutionary Studies of Biosystems, the Graduate University for Advanced Studies, Kanagawa, Japan ([email protected]). This article is a revised English version of a paper originally published in the Journal of the Japan Medical Association (Vol.139, No.4, 2010, pages 886–890). The original paper is based on a lecture presented at Fiscal Year 2009 Maternal and Child Health Seminar “Toward the Realization of the Japan Medical Association Child Support Declaration IV” held at the JMA Hall on February 21, 2010. JMAJ, July/ August 2011 — Vol. 54, No. 4 229 Hasegawa M sense of responsibility to make it happen. In became extinct. We Homo sapiens emerged this article, I consider the present and future about 200,000 years ago in Africa, and then of humanity, based on the findings from recent spread rapidly throughout the world. All people studies. living in the world today are members of this species that originated in Africa. A Brief History of Human Evolution Large Brains, Cognitive Abilities, and The human race is defined as “habitually erect Language bipedal primates.” All living and extinct habi- tually erect bipedal primates are called hominins. A factor directly supporting the prosperity of Genetic analyses suggest that the lineage of humans all over the planet is civilization based on chimpanzees and that of hominins branched science and technology. While humans developed about 6 million years ago, and fossil evidence various technologies before the birth of science, also supports this estimation, as the fossils of scientific elucidation and technological progress Sahelanthropus, unearthed recently in the Afri- have now become inseparably linked. These have can country of Chad, date back to about 6 million been altering the world, making our lives safer years ago. Various species subsequently emerged and more comfortable, and reducing death rates. within the hominins. All but one of them have Scientific-technological civilization was made become extinct, leaving us Homo sapiens as the possible by the abilities of the human brain to only surviving species of hominins. process elaborate information and communicate The reason why hominins adopted bipedalism verbally. Humans were able to develop science is still unknown, although several theories have fundamentally because of their sophisticated been proposed. Sahelanthropus that lived 6 cognitive abilities. These include the abilities in million years ago, as well as Ardipithecus and abstraction, categorization, reasoning of causali- Australopithecus that followed, did not live ties, application of knowledge to novel situations, exclusively in the savannas but depended partly and many other areas. Rudimentary develop- on forests, and were adept at tree climbing. The ment of these abilities is also seen in chimpan- evolutionary reason why they started to walk zees, which are humans’ closest relatives among erect 6 million years ago, when they still lived in the primates. These abilities did not develop forests, remains unknown. suddenly after the emergence of the hominins. The life of the hominins in savannas began in However, they were brought into full play in earnest after the evolution of early Homo species humans because of the acquisition of language. about 2 million years ago. The remains of Homo Chimpanzees also have some abstraction and ergaster dating back to about 1.6 million years categorization abilities and can perform reason- ago provide representative fossil evidence. After ing to some degree. However, the presence of that time, the human body began to resemble the language dramatically enhances thinking, as it proportions of modern humans, their feet and enables us to label objects, events, and concepts legs changed shape, and they were no longer in definite terms and to have mental representa- adept at tree climbing. About the same time, they tions of them. lost most of their body hair, and supposedly Then, what is the biological basis for lan- replaced it with numerous sweat glands instead. guage? Why did it evolve only in the lineage of The body of Homo species adapted specifically to humanity and not in that of other primates such long treks in the hot African savannas. as chimpanzees? To answer these questions, we About that time, a hominin species resembling need to investigate the uniqueness of humans, Homo ergaster moved out of Africa and spread combining the knowledge from various fields to the Eurasian continent. This was Homo of human study, including brain neuroscience, erectus. After persisting for about one million anthropology, prehistoric archaeology, ethnology, years, they became extinct. Another hominin ecology, and psychology. species then emerged about 500,000 years ago. To begin with, the order of primates is a taxon Having larger brains than H. erectus, they are characterized by larger brains in comparison sometimes referred to as “archaic sapiens.” Nean- with other mammals. Primates live in partially derthals were part of this group, but they also closed, permanent groups. The members of the 230 JMAJ, July/August 2011 — Vol. 54, No. 4 THE UNIQUENESS OF HUMANS AND AN ANTHROPOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE group recognize other members individually, and The hominins moved into an ecological niche interact in close social relations. In order to deal like this. To survive in such an environment, they with such social relations, primates evolved to had to form groups, in addition to developing have large brains so that they could deduce what individual advanced cognitive abilities. The others were doing and understand their relative hominins chose to live in places where solitary social positions among other members. The pri- living was impossible. Hunting and gathering mate brain increased in size not because of the subsistence in this setting essentially necessitated use of tools or the understanding of the physical extensive cooperative work in a group. Within world, but because of the necessity to deal with such a group, it became extremely important to this social complexity. develop coordination of relations with others, The size of the human brain is considered understanding of others and self, and sympathy to be three times larger than that supposedly and affection. found in apes with the same body weight. It was Chimpanzees are ultimately individualists. about 200,000 years ago that a creature similar to Their diet mainly consists of fruits and foliage, modern man with this brain size first emerged. which they can freely forage for and eat. Only a This means that our brains were completed in few types of foods require the use of tools, and the milieu of human evolution long before the there are no situations that have to be addressed birth of scientific-technological civilization. Then, by cooperative work. Their children start to feed what were the milieus of human evolution? What themselves soon after weaning. problem-solving needs necessitated the evolving of larger brains in humans? The Origin of “Childhood” The Life of Human Ancestors As it was difficult for adults to obtain foods and food had to be acquired using complicated tech- To consider these matters, we need to understand niques, it took years to learn such techniques.
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