Preview

What Defines Us as Humans?

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1709 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
What Defines Us as Humans?
What defines us as humans?
Calling ourselves human is our way of categorizing ourselves as a superior species. Although we are distinctly different, we should accept that we are in the same family as chimpanzees. Acknowledging that fact doesn 't mean you are calling yourself a chimp. For example, a dog isn 't a wolf even though they are from the same family. We are humans. What is it about our physical and behavioral traits that enable us to develop uniquely human capabilities? Traits like language, hunting skills, spiritual and ritual beliefs, bipedalism, and brain capacity
The human language might not be universal among humans, but the physical traits that make language possible are universal. About 300,000 or more years ago, the basicranium started evolving to a more flexed or bent position. The basicranium is the floor of the brain 's case. With the basicranium flexed, the larynx (voice box) is low in the neck so we can produce more speech sounds. The basicranium is an indicator of how well an animal can articulate sounds. Other evolutionary, corporeal indications are the position and shape of the hyoid bone that anchors muscles connected to the jaw, larynx, and tongue. The Broca 's area of the brain controls these muscles as they function to produce speech sounds. These, and other, adaptations like breathing control, vertebral canals larer, tongue innervations and length of the pharynx are all physical characteristics of communication. The evolution of language also enhanced human intelligence. Having the ability to communicate allowed for the uncomplicated transferring of complex ideas and allowed for teaching. Having the intelligence facilitated by language is a main quality that makes us human.
When it comes to language chimpanzees, our closest living relatives communicate verbally using a variety of hoots, grunts, screams, pants, and other vocalizations. But, a majority of their communication is done through gestures and facial expressions. Chimps

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Powerful Essays

    The development of language isn’t due solely to a larger brain, but also to genes and the physiological anatomy of humans.…

    • 1454 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Personhood for Primates

    • 2464 Words
    • 10 Pages

    "Primate Language Ability (sidebar)." Issues & Controversies On File: n. pag. Issues & Controversies. Facts On File News Services, 19 Jan. 2001. Web. 2 Dec. 2011. .…

    • 2464 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    So an important thing to distinguish when examining ability of non-human primates with communication or language is the actual defined difference between language and communication, and exactly where the definite line of distinction might be separating the two, if there even is a line to be considered when looking at so many different animals. Non-human primates have been studied and observed for both communication and language capabilities and distinction is often necessary to understand what has been discovered and what can be discovered. Many researchers of non-human primates argue that they cannot and do not have the capability of language, while others believe that non-human primates do have language, or can be taught forms of language by humans. Some researchers, that believe that non-human primates do have language or can be taught language, realize that it may not be the same level of complexity as that of human language as a whole but that it is a simple but true language form nonetheless. The reality is the definition of language and communication are what truly can determine if research can show non-human primates having language and or the ability of learning human language when trained, so each research can have potentially a different…

    • 427 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Order Primate Analysis

    • 1146 Words
    • 5 Pages

    During the study chimpanzees and human children “respond in a similar manner when tested with different sounds and “lexigrams” (Koren). Consequently, the divergence occurred when children began to communicate through speech and researches belief this behavior in the article written by Dixon, Apes Cuddle Each Other like Humans, apes are reported to share concern with each other just like humans. Primates “kiss, hug and embrace each” other showing that monkeys are self aware and share the need for interaction very much like humans (Dixon). Younger primates chase and play with each other each other like human children do. In Dixon’s article, Monkeys who scream frequently and are not quieted by these emotional exchanges show less compassion for others. For these traits to be shared amongst primates through a common…

    • 1146 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    In 1965, a peculiar chimpanzee was the center of attention as scientists utilized American Sign Language in hopes of communicating efficiently with another species. The female chimpanzee was named Washoe. While this was by no means a quick study, scientists patiently taught Washoe for years and by the time she was an adult, Washoe had been about to spontaneously and appropriately use 350 different signs. It is still under much controversy that she could effectively use this language in complex sentences, or if she had just learned signs for being rewarded. Either way, the debate about, non-human primates having the intellectual capacity for language, remains highly contested.…

    • 1506 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Chimps have a complex social system and communication methods, including a primitive "language" system containing more than 20 individual sounds…

    • 1213 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    What does it mean to be human? What makes who we are? What drives us? Could it be the desire of becoming better, faster, and stronger, perhaps? All throughout history, humans have been known to have advanced in their respective eras through planning and their own advancements in technology. Technology is one of the many things that people in the 21st century debate about, whether it’s good or bad, or even neutral. Why do so many disagree with the idea of becoming better through the advances in technology? The main the topic of becoming something more, something post-human, revolves around the “luddites” (artisans in the early nineteenth century who protested technology by destroying it) believe we’re “playing God.” What does it even mean to play God? Technology has taken us very far indeed, but we haven’t made anything so uncanny that will surely match God himself. If anything, we’ve been doing exactly what’s in our nature: grow, expand, nurture ourselves, and evolve. We can only do as much as the environment allows us; we only make what we can with what we have. The advances in technology today are just our own way of reaching another step in our evolutionary cycle, and we shall continue to move forward. We shall reach another step in human evolution, whether it’s mentally or physically; we know that we’ll be holding technology’s hand for now and forever more, because as it is, we’ve become dependent of it. Should we fear our future endeavors within the technological age? I’m ready to move up to a new level in my evolution, whether I’m wired in circuitry, a cyborg, or fully mechanical; it’s time to let go of those fears, of those demons holding us back. Our limits are only set by our own standards, our own hands, so if we keep moving forward, then our limit is not what the kind of humans we’re now, but ‘transhumanism.’…

    • 1613 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Chimpanzee Behavior

    • 762 Words
    • 4 Pages

    A chimpanzee uses various forms of communication depending on which chimpanzee community you are observing. It is almost like they mimic each other to create a group dialect and the sounds are different in every chimp community. Chimp’s use something called “Pant-Hoots” to identify themselves. Facial expressions are used to communicate such things as aggression, excitement, frustration, playfulness and submission.…

    • 762 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    What It Means to Be Human

    • 963 Words
    • 4 Pages

    “The purpose of human life is to love and serve others and to be loved and served by them.”…

    • 963 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    According to the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, “Part of what it means to be human is how we became human. Over a long period of time, as early humans adapted to a changing world, they evolved certain characteristics that help define our species today.” Some of these characteristics include, walking upright on two feet, larger and more complex brains, and a social life that not every living organism has or can do. Although this is more of a physical take on what makes each person a human, there is also a complete and separate part of the human race that makes us human; and that part is our intellectual being. All our thoughts, feelings, emotions, takes on life, and opinions all go into figuring out who we are, what we live for, and what makes us different from animals, trees, or birds. Along with the fact each human has their own thoughts and feelings, also means there are different takes on what makes each person human. Who we are can start at, but not limit to how the Bible, Paul Tillich, and Gilgamesh perceive human life and what truly makes us who we are.…

    • 1687 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    What Makes Us Human

    • 1396 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Many ponder the question “What makes us human?” We can all state the obvious such as being bipedal, having the ability to create complex sounds in needs of communication, and our abilities to create tools and technology. With all of this we come to question whether being human is just biological or if it is cultural. One may believe one or the other, but I believe that it is culture.…

    • 1396 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Humans and Primates

    • 381 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Humans and primates are similar in some ways, but they are different in others. As scientist remark, they belong to the same family called Hominidae. They also conclude that they have many similar characteristics because they went through a process that they called evolution. This is the process in which some primates evoluted into what is know a human being and preserved several similar characteristics. It is now known that the chimpanzee is the closest primate to humans since they have a similar protein sequence. Yet since they have a lot of differences, still they are considered non humans.…

    • 381 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    What Makes Us Human?

    • 2105 Words
    • 9 Pages

    What makes us Human? This is the ultimate question in which social scientists are still trying to solve today. This question is one which stumps Anthropologists, Psychologists and Sociologists alike, as the question itself is said to have originated from Aristotle himself while others argue that it was always there. As even more facts about this topic rise even more as social scientists find more and more evidence of our relationship to our primate counterparts. Over the centuries this has been one of great interest and a question that has been widely debated and will continue to be widely debated for years to come. As social scientist look more into this topic at hand they find that human DNA only varies 1-2% from chimpanzees our closet relative. It can be said that social scientists such as Charles Darwin and how he was able to build upon the theory of evolution, Sigmund Freud and his personality or even Karl Marx and the Conflict Theory was what helped shape our views on what makes humans unique.…

    • 2105 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Shared Humanity is when humans show qualities of feelings toward other human. Shared Humanity qualities are emotion, choice, loss, relationship and morality, These characteristic are used to describe what is means to be human. Being human means to have a higher intelligence and social skills. Humans are smart enough to learn skills like reading and writing that other species cannot learn. Other ways we human are different from others is we have a soul and high level of consciousness. Some bad qualities that humans can have that they kill or harm others and have the ability lead another down the wrong path. Human use these to learn about one another and what it means to be human. Emotion is shown by humans in a different way than other species. Emotion is the natural, instinctive state of mind deriving from one's circumstances, mood, or relationships with others. For example, humans can feel sadness, happiness, jealousy and anger…

    • 536 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Atticus Finch is the most honest and moral characters in “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee. Throughout “To Kill a Mockingbird” we don’t see a change from Atticus throughout the book. In the next few paragraphs I am going to give you the overall view on Atticus Finch, I am also going to state how Atticus treats everyone equally, how he treats his children and the important lessons and things he’s taught his children Jem and Scout at a young age.…

    • 743 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays