Anthropology ISU Position Paper: What makes us human?

Humans have existed on earth for an estimated 6 million years. Not only did humans start off with the same conditions, actions, behaviours as any other species on earth, they also evolved by imitating some animals throughout their existence. Yet, 6 million years later humans are more civilized, sensible, and mentally advanced than any other species on earth. This shows that humans are apart from anything else that god has put forth on earth. People may ask, what makes us human? What are things that we have done or can do, that have got us to this point? Many Anthropologists have been thinking of answers to this question and have come up with a number of conclusions, but the 3 most defining characteristics human possess are bipedalism, communication through different forms of language, and lastly human’s ability of realization of belonging.
Firstly, bipedalism is a natural trait humans have acquired which allows them to walk on two rear limbs in a vertical posture, with frontal limbs free. Importantly, bipedalism is a trait that has immensely contributed in advancing humans’ abilities and has allowed them to accomplish both simple and complicated tasks, furthermore advancing their repertoire compared to other mammals. It is estimated that humans in general started to become bipedal around 3.6 million years ago. Humans’ first try to attempt standing on their own two legs is in their late infancy stages (7-12 months). The act of bipedalism is crucial to a human’s development as it frees up our hands thus improving our ability to easily do things like eat while walking, make use of tools, and avoid predatory attack along with many other tasks. In the early stages of human development, in order to come up with food humans would need to hunt, which would be performed by throwing hand made spears at their prey and killing it. In a more futuristic sense bipedalism is key to almost everything humans do. Humans can travel in many different ways compared to any other species on earth. They can drive planes, trains, cars, any many other vehicles, whereas other animals are limited to quadrupedal and without use and freeness of their forelimbs. Some anthropologists may hypothesize that bipedalism may also be a big reason for human neural development of their reflexes and hand-eye coordination. Having free forelimbs may have allowed humans to open new nervous connections which developed over time and allowed humans to be more coordinate and functional than their predecessors (primates).
Secondly, humans have a much larger and better functioning brain than any mammal on earth. This helps because humans have developed ways of civilized interaction over the years through forms of different languages. Communication through a spoken language in which everyone can understand and comprehend is key to sustaining an ongoing environment. No other species on earth has been reported to have a set spoken language, for which the specie can communicate through. This is why having the ability to speak a spoken language(s) is a distinguishing trait humans have that sets them apart from any other species on earth. Not only can humans communicate through a spoken language but in many other forms like body language, sign language, and written language. Body language can be expressed through emotions, sign language is expressed through hand signals. Having all these forms of communicating allows all types of humans to communicate including, deaf people, mute people, or blind people. Unlike humans mammals do not have that many options to get their word through, which is why communication through different forms of language is a key distinguishing characteristic of humans. Lastly, knowing the right place/situation/time, for oneself is the realization of belonging. Humans will try to fit themselves into the society they live in by behaving like the others within the society to be fully a part of it. This process is called socialization. If denied by the society the person can be severely affected and not be comfortable in their own shoes. After a certain period of time the person will feel like they don’t belong in that society and look to move on by finding more ways to make them fit in. Unlike humans animals do not have that sense and won’t look to move themselves out of that situation. For example, since chimpanzees have a shorter dependency rate than humans, they are put to test by the outside world at a younger point in life compared to human babies. If the mother of the chimpanzee leaves the baby, the baby would be startled for a couple of days but then will learn how to live by itself from that point on. On the other hand if you were to leave a human child alone like that, the child would look for love/attention, because it has a need for belonging. As William James (American Philosopher) once said; “The deepest principle in human nature, is the craving to be appreciated”. No human, will love to forever be left alone without any appreciation and love, this is why realization of belonging is important to making a human.
In conclusion, humans have evolved over many generations to become who they are known as now. Although there may be many species comparable to humans on earth there will be none that have these three defining and distinguishing traits of humans which include; bipedalism, different forms of communication through language, and finally realization of belonging somewhere where they can be appreciated for.