{"id":246,"date":"2012-12-24T16:48:13","date_gmt":"2012-12-24T16:48:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.blog-thebrain.org\/?p=479"},"modified":"2022-01-04T19:50:31","modified_gmt":"2022-01-04T19:50:31","slug":"what-does-it-mean-to-be-human","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.blog-thebrain.org\/advanced\/2012\/12\/24\/what-does-it-mean-to-be-human\/","title":{"rendered":"What does it mean to be human?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-811\" src=\"https:\/\/www.blog-lecerveau.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/humain.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"110\" height=\"110\" \/>The web site <em>What does it mean to be human? <\/em>was developed by the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in Washington D.C.. Dedicated to the dissemination of knowledge on the evolution of the human species, this site, with its graphics evoking the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thebrain.mcgill.ca\/flash\/d\/d_05\/d_05_p\/d_05_p_her\/d_05_p_her.html\"><span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"> African savanna, the cradle of humanity<\/span><\/a>, addresses myriad questions that will arouse the curiosity of a wide audience\u2014questions such as:<\/p>\n<p>How do <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thebrain.mcgill.ca\/flash\/capsules\/outil_bleu08.html\"><span style=\"color: #008080;\">evolution <\/span><\/a>and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thebrain.mcgill.ca\/flash\/capsules\/outil_bleu10.html\"><span style=\"color: #008080;\">Darwinian natural selection<\/span><\/a> work?<br \/>\nWhat is the relationship between humans and the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thebrain.mcgill.ca\/flash\/capsules\/outil_jaune01.html\"><span style=\"color: #ff9900;\">species of apes alive<\/span><\/a> today?<br \/>\nDid humans evolve in a straight line, one species after another?<br \/>\nHow can scientists estimate the age of a fossil, or the climate conditions a million years ago?<br \/>\nIs the concept of evolution compatible with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thebrain.mcgill.ca\/flash\/d\/d_08\/d_08_s\/d_08_s_anx\/d_08_s_anx.html\"><span style=\"color: #ff9900;\">religion<\/span><\/a>?<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>This site offers an excellent introductory video in which paleoanthropologist Rick Potts uses artifacts and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thebrain.mcgill.ca\/flash\/capsules\/histoire_bleu04.html\"><span style=\"color: #008080;\">fossil skulls<\/span><\/a> to sketch a portrait of <a href=\"http:\/\/lecerveau.mcgill.ca\/flash\/capsules\/histoire_bleu03.html\"><span style=\"color: #008080;\">4 million years of hominization<\/span><\/a> in about 4 minutes. This site also contains many other sections addressing numerous facets of human evolutionary history, starting with the evolution of the traits that are specific to humans beings, including physical traits such as standing upright and symbolic traits, such as using <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thebrain.mcgill.ca\/flash\/i\/i_10\/i_10_p\/i_10_p_lan\/i_10_p_lan.html\"><span style=\"color: #008080;\">language<\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>This site explores the evidence of evolution through traces of human behaviour that include stone tools and other artifacts, footprints, hearths and shelters, clothing, jewellery, burial sites, and rock paintings, all illustrated with very high quality photographs accompanied by the relevant archeological data, such as date and place of discovery and estimated age.<\/p>\n<p>The site also features two intriguing interactive interfaces. One lets you accompany a team of archeologists as they explore an excavation site in Kenya. The other is a timeline, an indispensable tool to orient yourself on a time scale that is so remote from our personal experience that it often keeps us from understanding how we are both a species of animal like any other and a strange social creature endowed with language and capable of creating tools for tasks as diverse as butchering a carcass or creating a web site.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/humanorigins.si.edu\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"color: #008080;\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" style=\"border: 0pt;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.blog-lecerveau.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/i_lien.gif\" alt=\"i_lien\" width=\"15\" height=\"15\" \/> What does it mean to be human?<\/span><\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/humanorigins.si.edu\/resources\/intro-human-evolution\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"color: #008080;\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" style=\"border: 0pt;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.blog-lecerveau.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/i_lien.gif\" alt=\"i_lien\" width=\"15\" height=\"15\" \/> Introduction to Human Evolution<\/span><\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/humanorigins.si.edu\/research\/east-african-research\/adventures-rift-valley-interactive\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"color: #008080;\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" style=\"border: 0pt;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.blog-lecerveau.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/i_lien.gif\" alt=\"i_lien\" width=\"15\" height=\"15\" \/> Adventures in the Rift Valley: Interactive<\/span><\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/humanorigins.si.edu\/evidence\/human-evolution-timeline-interactive\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"color: #008080;\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" style=\"border: 0pt;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.blog-lecerveau.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/i_lien.gif\" alt=\"i_lien\" width=\"15\" height=\"15\" \/> Human Evolution Timeline Interactive<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The web site What does it mean to be human? was developed by the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in Washington D.C.. Dedicated to the dissemination of knowledge on the evolution of the human species, this site, with its graphics evoking the African savanna, the cradle of humanity, addresses myriad questions that will arouse [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7],"tags":[72,109,110],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.blog-thebrain.org\/advanced\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.blog-thebrain.org\/advanced\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.blog-thebrain.org\/advanced\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.blog-thebrain.org\/advanced\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.blog-thebrain.org\/advanced\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=246"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.blog-thebrain.org\/advanced\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1021,"href":"https:\/\/www.blog-thebrain.org\/advanced\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246\/revisions\/1021"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.blog-thebrain.org\/advanced\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=246"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.blog-thebrain.org\/advanced\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=246"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.blog-thebrain.org\/advanced\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=246"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}