Development Of Man Essay, Research Paper
In the dictionary a human being is defined as a person showing qualities of
people. But what exactly is a person or people? Do dictionaries go into detail
about that? Where do we come from or why do we have ears? Scientists have been
trying to answer questions like these for years, but everyone has a different
opinion. Some say people originated from the very human like animal known as the
Gorilla, others say we all came from an African American woman. But does anybody
know for sure what we really came from or who we really are? The story of man
first told to people and still told today is the story of Adam and Eve, God
formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath
of life; and man became a living being. We have found many artifacts to
contradict this story although most of us still believe that God had something
to do with the creation of man as said in the bible. Prometheus? story of man
is not very different from the bibles. Prometheus and Epimetheus were spared
imprisonment for not fighting with the Titans during the war between the Titans
and the Olympians. So they were given the task of creating man. Prometheus
supposedly shaped man out of mud, and Athena breathed life into his clay figure.
At first Prometheus is said to have made man on his hands and knees and
Epimetheus had given the creatures of the Earth all of the other qualities so
Prometheus gave man the ability to walk upright, and gave him fire. When Zeus
discovered that man had fire he became enraged and took fire away from man, so
we were left to only stand upright and supplied us with the feeling of hope.
This story, not unlike the bibles, was also questioned whenever scientists
started finding fossils of prehistoric man. Although we do not know very much
about the mythology point of views on where humans came from, we do know the
scientific explanation. For millions of years primates, chimpanzees, and
orangutans roamed the forests and lands all around them. They ate nuts, fruit,
insects and occasionally the eggs or young birds out of the nests. Just about
anything they could find that didn?t look poisonous or dangerous, they would
eat and make up different meals with each new item of different food that they
found. They got their water from rivers and rain and just about anything else
they could get water out of. When they slept, it wasn?t on the ground or in a
tent, it was up in a tree. As the centuries passed by, we have evidence that
things began to change. Spines straightened out and they began to walk
straighter and faster, in an upright position. Fingers began to get longer,
which made it easier to grasp objects. Today human newborns have only
twenty-five percent of adult brain capacity, resulting in an extended period of
helplessness. Unlike humans, chimpanzees are born with sixty-five percent of
their adult brain capacity and an Australopithecine, an erect, tool-using near
human of three million years ago, was born with about fifty percent brain
capacity. Scientists have done research on the human brain trying to determine
why we do not use as much of our brain as primates, but so far all they have
found is that the development of the modern brain remains incomplete, therefore
we do not use it as much as we should. Today on Earth there are many languages,
varying from the place you are living. Prehistoric man are also said to have had
their own language, although we cannot prove this and only have little evidence
of it, scientists believe that they talked to each other in screams or grunts,
similar to gorillas and chimps. A large number of fossil bones and teeth have
been found in various places throughout Africa, Europe, and Asia. Tools of
stone, bone, and wood, as well as fire hearths, campsites, and burials, also
have been discovered and examined. With all of the discoveries we have made we
are able to come up with a picture of what we believe early man looked like. One
group particularly talked about around the world is the Neanderthals. The
Neanderthals occupied Europe and the Middle East from 100,000 years ago until
about 35,000 to 40,000 years ago, when they disappeared from the fossil record.
Scientists dispute over the Neanderthals also involves the question of the
origins of modern population, or race. By some scientists, it is believed that
the color of our skins vary because of the places where our ancestors adapted.
But other scientists believe that the color of our skin has changed just
recently. In their opinion, the features of the Neanderthals-a low, sloping
forehead, large brow ridge, and a large face without a chin- were to early to be
considered the ancestors of the modern humans. About 10,000 years ago, one of
the most important events in human history took place-plants were domesticated,
and soon after that, animals as well. This revolutional change set the stage of
events in human history that eventually led to civilization. Today?s
understanding of the creation of humans is based on what we learn from fossils
and artifacts that are found around other fossils. When Columbus arrived in the
New World he found a Stone Age culture. He found the Indians, their way of life
left them vulnerable to the English?s? attacks. Nearly every anthropologist
believes that the predecessors of North American and South American Indians came
to the two continents by way of Asia, across the Bering Strait and down through
Alaska and Canada. The Indians had very dark skin, unlike Africans or the
English, so scientists believe that the Indians were from mild climate areas and
that is how they determine where man came from. The colors of your skin tell a
great deal about you, also, DNA tells us just about everything genetically that
anybody wants to know about you. Human beings and other primates share the same
general reproductive habits. With very few exceptions, primates bear only one
baby at the time, and the female nurses the child for a long time. The rate of
growth to maturity in young primates is slower than that in any other animal.
There is a lot of dependence of the young on the adult in its first few stages
of life. The first few years of a child that was born when man was first
developing might have depended on their parents for about three or four years,
unlike those today who depend on their parents for eighteen years or more. To
escape comparing man to other animals, early biologists went so far as to
develop systems of animal classification setting man on a plane by himself, free
from comparison with other animals. Anthropology has become so complex that it
is difficult to explain exactly how many things are considered in attempting to
evaluate man properly. To help this problem, anthropology has been divided into
two major divisions. Part of it was concerned with mans appearance, his internal
organs, and his general structure. These are all called physical anthropology.
The tools men use, the things man does as an individual and in groups, the
dwellings he uses, and other things that sort are called cultural anthropology.
Man is the only known animal capable of forming and maintaining a culture, but
the growth of any culture rests upon a foundation of biology. The backbone and
arms were the first parts to become ?modern?. Anatomists say that man?s
ribs, arms, hands, and the larger bones that make up the main part of the spine,
including the shoulder blades, were the first parts of the human skeletal
framework to evolve to their present condition. This conclusion was made by
comparing sections of the skeletal structure with that of any other similar
mammal, mostly the apes and monkeys. The second largest area of our body to
evolve into present form was the pelvis, our legs, and feet. We have made that
conclusion by the fossils of apelike animals. Many doctors believe that the
human body is still evolving, and the proof of this is the trouble we all have
with our joints, the bones of the legs, feet, and lower back. The final body
unit to form was the head and its contents, and the first bone of the spinal
column, the atlas. The face, brain and teeth apparently assumed their modern
form only recently, although there have been no noticeable changes in these
areas since the time of the Cro-Magnon cave dwellers. Many scientists believe
that even today our teeth and face are taking shape in many other ways and
making changes slowly but they predict over time that these changes will be
noticeable. So far mans shape has changed tremendously over the years, just as
the story has, but even so, we still may be changing right now while we sit or
walk. In many more years we could be much shorter or maybe even taller, if the
Earth?s gravity changes any we could be either, if it gets larger our bodies
could grow as short as three feet, and we would be walking midgets. That may not
seem probable now but whose to predict the future without knowing whats
happening in the present tense. Of course scientists think that we are changing
but who really knows, and the only way we are ever going to know is to wait it
out and see what happens. Maybe we all did come from Apes, or maybe we
originated from Adam and Eve, atleast that would explain why men are missing a
rib. But what real proof do we have? Fossils, paintings on walls, stories passed
down from generation to generation, and the Bible. We may never know where we
exactly originated from or what we were actually put on this Earth to
accomplish, but maybe we?re succeeding in whatever it is. Maybe one day in the
future we will have all the facts of what human beings really are, but until
then we have our predictions.
Simak, Clifford D. Prehistoric Man. New York, 1971-72. St. Martin?s Press.
Scheele, William E. Prehistoric Man and The Primates. Ohio, 1957. The World
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Donnelley & Sons Company.