WHAT IS A HUMAN BEING?

 

                                                              

The Vitruvian man created by Leonardo da Vinci

WHAT IS A HUMAN BEING?

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hat is a human being? That’s a funny question but it is also an intriguing one indeed. Most of us think we are human but what makes human is actually a very blurry concept. So since the blog is called   “BEING HUMAN”, I would like to define what a human being is so that it can be clear to everyone what organism I am going to talk about.

In most human cultures, humans are usually positioned as higher beings usually only which gods and deities can beat . Even in my monotheistic religion (Iam a Christian btw), humans are said to be the living reflection of God.

So yeah this is expected if you have the chance to talk about yourself you will say good things that is what has happened in most of our cultures. But this point of view is arrogant and one sided

If culture and religion do not give an accurate definition of a human being , what can? SCIENCE of course. Yeah science also gives a blurry definition of a human being but it is at least not biased.

So according to the Smithsonian National museum of natural history, A human can be defined according to the following parameters;

·                               Body Structure:

 They argue humans are upright primates and are human physiology is different from that of many animals.

·       Tools

They argue humans use tools and other animals do not.

·       Brains:

They argue humans have larger brains compared to other animals. Humans have a large brain to body ratio compared to most animals on earth.

·       Social lives

They also argue are a social animal. Humans live in communities, villages, towns and cities. Yeah this is true humans are social animals.

But these parameters have their downfalls, for example the part of having complex social lives is not unique to humans, animals like ants can form social groups of millions using chemical pheromones only.

Also the part about tools, Yes humans do use tools but other animals also use tools like great apes like gorillas are known for using twigs and tree branches as simple tools.

And the brain part is also not that true. It is true humans have big brains but we are not the only ones. Animals like dolphins have a large brain to body ratio, they even have bigger brains than us humans.

But the greatest downfall to these parameters is that it accounts all other human species. I know this is a hard one to swallow but they are more than one human species on Earth, actually there were more than species of humans on earth at one time of history. A notable one being Neanderthals who went extinct about thousands of years ago due to unknown causes (But scientists have hypotheses for their extinction).

A picture of a neanderthal girl looks similar to modern humans.

So what humans am I talking about? Iam going to talk about Homo sapiens sapiens the species we belong to. So “what are the qualities of Homo sapiens sapiens?” You may ask. I created a list of qualities according to my know how (remember I am not an expert or anything of that sort Iam just a high school student do not take this too seriously), trying to explain what is a Homo sapiens sapiens. These qualities include:

A.  Homo sapiens sapiens is an animal.

So to get it off right the bat, modern humans are still animals even though we have achieved a lot. Humans are still governed by biochemistry and the laws of evolution like all other organisms on the planet. So humans are not god-like creatures as shown in many of our cultures but actually hair less monkeys.

B.   Homo sapiens sapiens possesses a complex language

On the matter of language, Iam not going to talk a lot because well language is too complex and saying Humans have a complex language can be a real mistake. But what I mean is that our language gives humans the ability to make up myths. So what does that mean? A monkey or Neanderthal can say “There is a lion across the street” but a human can say “There is a lion across the street, this lion is our guardian spirit”. In short, humans can make stuff like gods, capitalism, money and many more. This language creates culture, another quality of Homo sapiens sapiens.

C.   Homo sapiens sapiens are cultured.

So I explain how our language and myths create culture, So what’s so special about culture. Culture allows humans to work together in large numbers (to be exact in groups of more than 150 individuals) without this human achievements could have never happened. A good example are nations, yesterday I celebrated the 60 year anniversary of my nation’s independence. But Tanzania is not real. One cannot hold Tanzania or hurt Tanzania but Tanzania has allowed me to co-operate with other Tanzanians without having a history with that individual . So yeah that’s what makes us different.

 

CONCLUSION

So to conclude human beings can be summarized as “MONKEYS WHO CAN MAKE UP COOL STORIES “

I never thought I would write too much about “What is a human being?”. Before I thought being human is straight forward but it isn’t that’s why I created this post to create a better idea about who we are.

Sorry it was too long I’ll to make other posts shorter.

If you love what I am doing with this blog please STAY TUNED for more posts, comment and contact me the author.

 

Thank you for reading. Next week’s post.

  “WHY ARE WE HERE? (EXISTENCE)”