Human Variation
Oct. 18th, 2013 03:51 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ysabetwordsmithA set of ancient skulls have raised the question of diversity in the human family tree. It could be that these are normal variations within a single species. People are arguing about precisely that. It's possible; collies and pugs look quite different.
Apparently nobody has thought to raise the other possibility: a community of several species living together or perhaps members of a circumannular species/subspecies ring. And you know what? That really would be an outlier, because the rest of humanity is downright xenophobic. Imagine if we had ancestors who somehow managed to get along. That would take prehistoric fiction to a whole new level. What would humanity look like without the meme, "It's okay to kill people if you don't like them" ...?
I'm thinking that would get them kicked off the family tree. You, out of the gene pool! Go sit with the bonobos.
Anyhow, I'd look for markers of family ties among skeletons found close to each other, and look for cultural or technological markers across distant finds. Homo ergaster had a pretty sophisticated hand-axe but didn't seem to adapt it once invented nor share it around much. Other folks seemed to develop their own different tools. So artifacts can give important clues.
Apparently nobody has thought to raise the other possibility: a community of several species living together or perhaps members of a circumannular species/subspecies ring. And you know what? That really would be an outlier, because the rest of humanity is downright xenophobic. Imagine if we had ancestors who somehow managed to get along. That would take prehistoric fiction to a whole new level. What would humanity look like without the meme, "It's okay to kill people if you don't like them" ...?
I'm thinking that would get them kicked off the family tree. You, out of the gene pool! Go sit with the bonobos.
Anyhow, I'd look for markers of family ties among skeletons found close to each other, and look for cultural or technological markers across distant finds. Homo ergaster had a pretty sophisticated hand-axe but didn't seem to adapt it once invented nor share it around much. Other folks seemed to develop their own different tools. So artifacts can give important clues.
Well...
Date: 2013-10-19 04:39 am (UTC)