What makes us human?

Mar 24 02:05 UTC 1998

I am reading a book in which it is claimed that it is fire that helped people
to expand and take over the world, in that they could exploit new sources of
food, new climates, new forms of warfare.  Another book I am reading claims
that language is what makes humans so successful, in that it allows them to
form larger and more powerful groups.   There are lots of statements about
what makes humans unique - opposed thumb, tool use, consciousness, omnivorous
diet, and what made certain groups more powerful than others - the horse, the
wheel.  What do you think has made it possible for humans to take over the
planet?  Any or all of the above, other ideas?  Is there any one thing that
makes humans different from all other animals?

response 2 of 15:

Mar 25 21:29 UTC 1998

The book I am reading suggested that the ability to reason developed as a sort
of side effect of the need to use language, and that Neanderthals had little
language ability and not as capable brains.  Moving into new territory is
common for all animals and is driven by population pressure, the need for more
food when you have a larger group.  Supposedly by 20,000 BC or so people had
filled up all the available space, and the only solution left was to find a
way to get more food out of the same space.  First they learned to control
the animals that could eat food that they could not, in the large dry grassy
areas that are still not good for growing food plants in.  Then they learned
to encourage certain food plants to grow, possibly using fire to clear the
forests.  Supposedly the North American continent had a lot of open land when
the Europeans arrived that was due to the natives setting fire and making
clearings to grow food.

response 4 of 15:

Mar 26 20:11 UTC 1998

What year would you like to consider the start of written history?

response 6 of 15:

Mar 27 00:56 UTC 1998

I wonder if people have developed more resistance to diabetes in the last few
centuries.  And if overall vision is getting worse now that there are
eyeglasses.  My guess is that overall health is going down, now that there
is so much less natural selection for problems of all sorts, and people who
might not have survived to adulthood are having children.  The natural
environment has certainly changed with cities.

response 8 of 15:

Mar 27 18:32 UTC 1998

What I have read is that the overly rich high-protein diet, especially in this
century, is one factor for people growing larger.  Another is that there is
far more mixing of gene pools, at least in this country, but probably anywhere
where people are moving from villages to far-off cities.  This eliminates
cases where you have two bad copies of one gene, promoting overall health,
and making you grow larger.  My grandfather was short, under 5'4", but he has
two grandsons 6"4" and 6'5".  My grandfather grew up on Poland in the last
century, my cousins were fed a very carnivorous diet.  IN my grandfather's
generation, where people lived in ghettos, it was common to marry a cousin
(we have this in the family tree).
        Taller/bigger people can conquer people who are smaller, and also tend
to be chosen as supervisors, but it is not healthier to be taller.  As faile
said, you get more back and knee problems, and foot problems.

response 10 of 15:

Mar 27 23:28 UTC 1998

I think the dress size thing is so women will feel smaller, not necessarily
because they have become bigger.  But I also have an old Bloomingdale's
catalog from the 1880s where shoes ran up to size 6 for women.  I wonder how
much gene mixing there was before this century, esp. in other countries.  I
read that in some villages in Italy people have very similar genes, these are
hill towns that nobody from outside the region would marry into.

response 12 of 15:

Mar 29 00:09 UTC 1998

What makes humans different from all other animals?  Used to be people said
"because they have a soul" (which justified killing and eating all other
animals but not people, unless you were killing them for the glory of God,
of course, which seems to still happen nowadays).  Is there any one
difference, such as language, or is animal language not that much different?
Chimpanzees also use tools for prying things out of holes, as do some birds.
Animals such as bower birds can be artistics.  Lots of squirrels build homes.

response 14 of 15:

Jan 25 11:50 UTC 2001

What makes humans different from all other animals?i think that we are
differents because the differences between us and i in Holy Bible says that
we are made on image and semelhance of God.and we have concience about we do
.the capacity to love and help the smallers.