Child's burial 78k years ago in Kenya was a Homo sapiens milestone
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Re: Child's burial 78k years ago in Kenya was a Homo sapiens milestone
#2> Only humans treat the dead with the same respect, consideration and even tenderness they treat the living.
Humans probably learned it from elephants. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elephant_cognition#Death_ritua...
Re: Child's burial 78k years ago in Kenya was a Homo sapiens milestone
#3>"The child was buried in a residential site, close to where this community lived, evincing how intimately life and death are related. Only humans treat the dead with the same respect, consideration and even tenderness they treat the living. Even when we die, we continue to be someone for our group," Martinón-Torres added.
> "This would likely have been a group act, perhaps by members of the child's family. All of these behaviors are, of course, very similar to those observed in our own species today, so we can relate to this act even though the burial dates to 78,000 years ago," said study co-author Nicole Boivin, an archaeologist and director at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History in Germany.
You have to be careful drawing inferences. Human sacrifice victims were also many times buried with great care.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Children_of_Llullaillaco
Given the prevalence of childhood mortality in ancient and pre-historic times, an elaborate burial of a child has a pretty good chance of being part of some ritual sacrifice.
Re: Child's burial 78k years ago in Kenya was a Homo sapiens milestone
#4> Only humans treat the dead with the same respect, consideration and even tenderness they treat the living. Humans probably learned it from elephants. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elephant_cognition#Death_ritua...
I doubt we learned it from elephants, rather it is a product of higher consciousness. Empathy with another being and realizing it can be lost.
Re: Child's burial 78k years ago in Kenya was a Homo sapiens milestone
#5Interesting as this is, the article nurtures an old misconception (with roots both in religion and classical philosophy) that there are some traits that distinctly separates humans from other animals, and by extension, finding the time when humans developed that trait is when we became truly humans. In reality the evidence reveals that all such traits, be it burial, toolmaking, artistry, abstract thinking etc, is something we share with other species to varying degrees. To the extent we have any unique such traits currently that radically sets us apart from other species then it has been a long and gradual process over eons.
In the case of burials, this old misconception places a ridiculously high bar on proof that other species revere their dead. Case in point being that of Homo Naledi, admittedly a Homo but not a human by a long shot that clearly practiced burials in inaccessible cave structures. [0]
[0] https://humangenesis.org/2016/05/18/did-homo-naledi-bury-its...
Re: Child's burial 78k years ago in Kenya was a Homo sapiens milestone
#6> Only humans treat the dead with the same respect, consideration and even tenderness they treat the living. Humans probably learned it from elephants. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elephant_cognition#Death_ritua...
I doubt we learned it from elephants, rather it is a product of higher consciousness. Empathy with another being and realizing it can be lost.
It isn't an inevitable product though. E.g.[1]:
> Mongolian culture is famous, along with Tibetans, for "sky burial," which leaves the body of the deceased on a high unprotected place to be exposed to the elements and devoured by wildlife. It's part of a Vajrayana Buddhist outlook about the needlessness of "respecting" the body after death.
Personally, I'd prefer if this was what would happen to my body than any Western ritual. Alas, in the West we have laws which, in practice, impose religious precepts long after the states are secular on paper.
[1]: https://www.bustle.com/articles/97030-5-interesting-death-an...
Re: Child's burial 78k years ago in Kenya was a Homo sapiens milestone
#7Interesting as this is, the article nurtures an old misconception (with roots both in religion and classical philosophy) that there are some traits that distinctly separates humans from other animals, and by extension, finding the time when humans developed that trait is when we became truly humans. In reality the evidence reveals that all such traits, be it burial, toolmaking, artistry, abstract thinking etc, is som…
> evidence reveals that all such traits, be it burial, toolmaking, artistry, abstract thinking etc, is something we share with other species to varying degrees
If actual achievements speak louder than words, then "varying degrees" is a huge gap between human and other species. Yes, we know that numerous animals exhibit intelligence and emotions, but that does not change the fact that humans are very different when it comes to the understanding of time and everything that goes with it. Also, there is no other animal out there who domesticated fire or developed some kind of societal system to expands its own resources beyond what's available in the wild.
Re: Child's burial 78k years ago in Kenya was a Homo sapiens milestone
#8Earlier quoted context omitted.
I doubt we learned it from elephants, rather it is a product of higher consciousness. Empathy with another being and realizing it can be lost.
It isn't an inevitable product though. E.g.[1]: > Mongolian culture is famous, along with Tibetans, for "sky burial," which leaves the body of the deceased on a high unprotected place to be exposed to the elements and devoured by wildlife. It's part of a Vajrayana Buddhist outlook about the needlessness of "respecting" the body after death. Personally, I'd prefer if this was what would happen to my body than any West…
> It isn't an inevitable product though. E.g.[1]:
Yes, and there are still tribes that eat the flesh of the dead - this was a major cause of what we identified later on as prion-related diseases: https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2016/09/06/482952588/wh...
Re: Child's burial 78k years ago in Kenya was a Homo sapiens milestone
#9Earlier quoted context omitted.
I doubt we learned it from elephants, rather it is a product of higher consciousness. Empathy with another being and realizing it can be lost.
It isn't an inevitable product though. E.g.[1]: > Mongolian culture is famous, along with Tibetans, for "sky burial," which leaves the body of the deceased on a high unprotected place to be exposed to the elements and devoured by wildlife. It's part of a Vajrayana Buddhist outlook about the needlessness of "respecting" the body after death. Personally, I'd prefer if this was what would happen to my body than any West…
I would say that by now the laws more represent social norms and habits rather than religious precepts. (Even though they come from those precepts originally.)
Re: Child's burial 78k years ago in Kenya was a Homo sapiens milestone
#10Interesting as this is, the article nurtures an old misconception (with roots both in religion and classical philosophy) that there are some traits that distinctly separates humans from other animals, and by extension, finding the time when humans developed that trait is when we became truly humans. In reality the evidence reveals that all such traits, be it burial, toolmaking, artistry, abstract thinking etc, is som…
> evidence reveals that all such traits, be it burial, toolmaking, artistry, abstract thinking etc, is something we share with other species to varying degrees If actual achievements speak louder than words, then "varying degrees" is a huge gap between human and other species. Yes, we know that numerous animals exhibit intelligence and emotions, but that does not change the fact that humans are very different when it…
The argument can be applied to all species - it is engrained in the ongoing diversification process of life itself: all species by definition have traits that set them apart from others, more or less radically. It is mostly a matter of what perspective you want to apply: are the differences the most important, or the similarities.
But the main point I was trying to make was really this: > To the extent we have any unique such traits currently that radically sets us apart from other species then it has been a long and gradual process over eons
I.e. there is no need to find a specific point where all that makes us human came into place. It all happened gradually, albeit with some leaps and bounds for different traits, at different times for different things, and we carry the legacy of all those millions of years with us, not just the last 200 KY. And we share substantial amounts of traits with other species.