scholarly journals W sprawie konieczności zachowania przedludzkich systemów komunikacyjnych (bezjęzykowych) w kontekście zachowania bioróżnorodności

2021 ◽  
Vol 46 (1) ◽  
pp. 127-136
Author(s):  
Stanisław Puppel

On the basis of the existing and unquestioned linguistic stance, a division of all the living creatures inhabiting the Earth into those which do not have language (i.e. prehuman and languageless) and those who have language (i.e. the genus Homo sapiens) is postulated. The paper briefly discusses a rich diversity of communication modes occurring in the domain of the prehuman communication systems, such as the auditory, visual, tactile, olfactory, electric, thermal, and seismic ones, with appropriate graphic illustrations. Furthermore, on the basis of the phenomenon of the observable shrinking of this diversity and the key position of the human species, it postulates the necessity of preserving this diversity in the context of biodiversity. This major postulate is in accord with the need to intensify attempts to preserve biodiversity as well as preserve the remaining diversity on the level of the prehuman communication systems as a major challenge of modern humanity. In this context, the human species is considered here as the species of the ‘overseers’ and ‘archivers’ of all the existing communication systems existing on the Earth as the carrier of the tree of life.

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arturo Tozzi

ABSTRACTWe display a detailed description of mimetic muscles in extinct human species, framed in comparative and phylogenetic contexts. Using known facial landmarks, we assessed the arrangement of muscles of facial expression in Homo sapiens, neanderthalensis, erectus, heidelbergensis and ergaster. In modern humans, several perioral muscles are proportionally smaller in size (levator labii superioris, zygomaticus minor, zygomaticus major and triangularis) and/or located more medially (levator labii superioris, zygomaticus minor and quadratus labii inferioris) than in other human species. As mimetic musculature is examined in the most ancient specimens up to the most recent, there is a general trend towards an increase in size of corrugator supercillii and triangularis. Homo ergaster’s mimetic musculature closely resembles modern Homo, both in size and in location; furthermore, Homo erectus and Homo neanderthalensis share many muscular features. The extinct human species had an elaborate and highly graded facial communication system, but it remained qualitatively different from that reported in modern Homo. Compared with other human species, Homo sapiens clearly exhibits a lower degree of facial expression, possibly correlated with more sophisticated social behaviours and with enhanced speech capabilities. The presence of anatomical variation among species of the genus Homo raises important questions about the possible taxonomic value of mimetic muscles.


2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 4387-4416
Author(s):  
Yury I. Lobanovsky

ABSTRACT This paper describes dynamic process of a small sapient group development, left Africa about 130 ka BP, which led to the fact that they, having turned into modern humans – Homo sapiens sapiens, became the only human species that dominates on the Earth. It is shown how, in the course of this process, one branch of the sapiens captured an enclave in Levant from Neanderthals, and the other settled in Asia, mainly in Southeast. How, after explosion of Toba stratovolcano 72 ka BP, almost all Asian sapiens died, with the exception of three small groups that survived this Catastrophe: in Khatlon valley among Pamir mountains in the north, on Timor in the south, and also Big Luzon in the east, which gave the beginning of three types of modern mankind – northern, southern and eastern. Further, the northerners and easterners (with a lag of ~ 15 kyr) settled the depopulated territories in Asia, and the southerners – lands in Sahul that had never known a man before. After that, the northerners achieved victory in war in Europe, as a result of which Neanderthals disappeared forever, and survived a new, at least, all-European catastrophe – the explosion of Archiflegreo stratovolcano 39.3 ka BP. Then they re-settled in depopulated lands of Europe and cold northeastern Asian territories (from which they were later driven out by newcomers from east), and in south there was a meeting of easterners with southerners on the so-called Wallace Line. A group of northerners at the same time invaded Africa, and drove out there aboriginal archaic sapiens gradually almost completely. All elements of this process, the description of which was obtained through the use of a system analysis of available information, not only fully agree with archaeological, anthropological, paleogenetic, paleoclimatic, geological, physical and other data known to us, but also answer almost all questions about the origin and ways of modern mankind expansion and remove those contradictions and problems, which discuss in scientific community.   RESUMEN En este trabajo se describe el proceso dinámico de desarrollo de un pequeño grupo de sapiens, que abandonó África alrededor de 130 ka BP, y que condujo a que, convertidos en humanos modernos -Homo sapiens sapiens-, se convirtieran en la única especie humana que domina la Tierra. Se muestra cómo, en el curso de este proceso, una rama del sapiens capturó un enclave en Levante de los neandertales, y la otra se asentó en Asia, principalmente en el sureste. Cómo, tras la explosión del estratovolcán Toba 72 ka BP, murieron casi todos los sapiens asiáticos, con la excepción de tres pequeños grupos que sobrevivieron a esta catástrofe: en el valle de Khatlon, entre las montañas de Pamir, en el norte, en Timor, en el sur, y también en el Gran Luzón, en el este, lo que dio lugar al inicio de tres tipos de humanidad moderna: norteños, sureños y orientales. Además, los norteños y orientales (con un desfase de ~ 15 kyr) se asentaron en los territorios despoblados de Asia, y los sureños, en tierras de Sahul que nunca habían conocido al hombre. Después, los norteños consiguieron la victoria en la guerra en Europa, como resultado de la cual los neandertales desaparecieron para siempre, y sobrevivieron a una nueva catástrofe, al menos, totalmente europea: la explosión del estratovolcán Archiflegreo 39,3 ka BP. Luego se reasentaron en tierras despobladas de Europa y en territorios fríos del noreste de Asia (de los que fueron expulsados más tarde por los recién llegados del este), y en el sur se produjo un encuentro de orientales con sureños en la llamada Línea Wallace. Un grupo de norteños invadió al mismo tiempo África, y expulsó allí a los sapiens arcaicos aborígenes gradualmente casi por completo. Todos los elementos de este proceso, cuya descripción se obtuvo mediante el uso de un sistema de análisis de la información disponible, no sólo concuerdan plenamente con los datos arqueológicos, antropológicos, paleogenéticos, paleoclimáticos, geológicos, físicos y otros conocidos por nosotros, sino que también responden a casi todas las preguntas sobre el origen y las formas de expansión de la humanidad moderna y eliminan aquellas contradicciones y problemas, que se discuten en la comunidad científica.


2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tallulah Harvey

In recent years, literary studies have become increasingly invested in environmentalism. As science reveals the negative impacts of climate change, and demonstrates a growing concern for humanity’s contribution, literature operates as a form of cultural documentation. It details public awareness and anxieties, and acts as a conduit for change by urging empathetic responses and rendering ecological controversy accessible.To explore the relationship between literature and environmental politics, this paper will focus on the work of science fiction writer Philip K. Dick, and his dystopian visions. In his particular brand of sci-fi, there is no future for humanity. Science and technology fail to pave the way for a better and fairer society, but rather towards, as far as Dick is concerned, extinction. He argues that scientific advancement distances us from reality and from a sense of “humanness”. His pessimistic futures are nihilistic but tender; nurturing a love for humanity even in, what he considers to be, its final hours.Unlike the work of other prominent sci-fi writers, Dick’s fiction does not look towards the stars, but is in many ways a return to earth. The barren landscapes of Mars and other planets offer no comfort, and the evolution of the human into cyborgs, androids and post human species is depicted as dangerous and regressive. Dick’s apocalyptic visions ground his readers in the reality around them, acting in the present for the sake of the earth and humanity’s survival. His humanism is critical of grand enlightenment ideas of “progressivism”, and instead celebrates ordinariness. In the shadow of corporate capitalism and violent dictatorial governments, Dick prefers the little man, the ordinary everyday domestic hero for his narratives. His fiction urges us to take responsibility for our actions, and prepares us for the future through scepticism and pessimism, and a relentless fondness for the human.


Author(s):  
Peter Gärdenfors ◽  
Anders Högberg

Only among humans is teaching intentional, socially structured, and symbolically mediated. In this chapter, evidence regarding the evolution of the mindreading and communicative capacities underlying intentional teaching is reviewed. Play, rehearsal, and apprenticeship are discussed as central to the analyses of teaching. We present a series of levels of teaching. First of all, we separate non-intentional from intentional teaching. For non-intentional teaching, we discuss facilitation and approval/disapproval and analyze examples from non-human species. We then distinguish between six levels of intentional teaching: (1) intentional approval/disapproval, (2) drawing attention, (3) demonstrating, (4) communicating concepts, (5) explaining concept relations, and (6) narrating. We hypothesize that level after level has been added during the evolution of teaching. We analyze communicative requirements for the levels, concluding that displaced communication is required for level 4 and symbolic language only for levels 5 to 6. We focus on the role of demonstration and pantomime and argue that pantomime has been instrumental in the evolution of language. We present archaeological evidence for when the different levels of teaching emerge. We argue that learning Oldowan technology requires teaching by demonstration, and that learning Acheulean hand-axe technology requires communicating concepts. It follows that several levels of intentional teaching predate homo sapiens.


Author(s):  
Michael Keevak

This chapter focuses on the emergence of new sorts of human taxonomies as well as new claims about the color of all human groups, including East Asians, during the course of the eighteenth century, as well as their racial implications. It first considers the theory advanced in 1684 by the French physician and traveler François Bernier, who proposed a “new division of the Earth, according to the different species or races of man which inhabit it.” One of these races, he suggested, was yellow. Then in 1735, the Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus published Systema naturae, in which he categorized homo sapiens into four different skin colors. Finally, at the end of the eighteenth century, Johann Friedrich Blumenbach, also a physician and the founder of comparative anatomy, declared that the people of the Far East were a yellow race, as distinct from the white “Caucasian” one.


2006 ◽  
Vol 78 (1) ◽  
pp. 51-64
Author(s):  
John G. F. Wilks

This article explores the implications of personhood from artistic creativity. An investigation of the models of divine creative methods portrayed in Genesis 1 suggests that human creativity is comparable to that employed by God on days 5 and 6, where the waters and the earth are reshaped to produce something new. Consideration of Paleolithic rock art shows just how ancient artistic expression is, and that it is something unique to Homo sapiens, with no evidence that Homo neanderthalensis was artistically creative. The importance of artistic creativity within a community has further implications for our investigation of personhood. Even if the artistic merit of the art produced is far short of great, the desire to express oneself artistically is widespread.


Author(s):  
David Abulafia

Carved out millions of years before mankind reached its coasts, the Mediterranean Sea became a ‘sea between the lands’ linking opposite shores once human beings traversed its surface in search of habitation, food or other vital resources. Early types of humans inhabited the lands bordering the Mediterranean 435,000 years before the present, to judge from evidence for a hunters’ camp set up near modern Rome; others built a simple hut out of branches at Terra Amata near Nice, and created a hearth in the middle of their dwelling – their diet included rhinoceros and elephant meat as well as deer, rabbits and wild pigs. When early man first ventured out across the sea’s waters is uncertain. In 2010, the American School of Classical Studies at Athens announced the discovery in Crete of quartz hand-axes dated to before 130,000 BC, indicating that early types of humans found some means to cross the sea, though these people may have been swept there unintentionally on storm debris. Discoveries in caves on Gibraltar prove that 24,000 years ago another species of human looked across the sea towards the mountain of Jebel Musa, clearly visible on the facing shore of Africa: the first Neanderthal bones ever discovered, in 1848, were those of a woman who lived in a cave on the side of the Rock of Gibraltar. Since the original finds were not immediately identified as the remains of a different human species, it was only when, eight years later, similar bones were unearthed in the Neander Valley in Germany that this species gained a name: Neanderthal Man should carry the name Gibraltar Woman. The Gibraltar Neanderthals made use of the sea that lapped the shores of their territory, for their diet included shellfish and crustaceans, even turtles and seals, though at this time a flat plain separated their rock caves from the sea. But there is no evidence for a Neanderthal population in Morocco, which was colonized by homo sapiens sapiens, our own branch of humanity. The Straits apparently kept the two populations apart.


2019 ◽  
Vol 93 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 122-136 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barbara L. Finlay

The question of how complex human abilities evolved, such as language or face recognition, has been pursued by means of multiple strategies. Highly specialized non-human species have been examined analytically for formal similarities, close phylogenetic relatives have been examined for continuity, and simpler species have been analyzed for the broadest view of functional organization. All these strategies require empirical evidence of what is variable and predictable in both the modeled and the model species. Turning to humans, allometric analyses of the evolution of brain mass and brain components often return the interesting, but disappointing answer that volumetric organization of the human brain is highly predictable seen in its phylogenetic context. Reconciling this insight with unique human behavior, or any species-typical behavior, represents a serious challenge. Allometric analyses of the order and duration of mammalian neural development show that, while basic neural development in humans is allometrically predictable, conforming to adult neural architecture, some life history features deviate, notably that weaning is unusually early. Finally, unusual deviations in the retina and central auditory system in the laboratory mouse, which is widely assumed to be “generic,” as well as severe deviations from expected brain allometry in some mouse strains, underline the need for a deeper understanding of phylogenetic variability even in those systems believed to be best understood.


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