ORIGIN OF HUMANS

How are Humans Different from Animals?
We have selected six defining characteristics of humans which make them different from other animals –

1) Humans make tools and eat uncooked as well as cooked food.

2) Humans have a large kinship system consisting of relatives by descent and marriage. This means that unlike other animals they have added social relationships to biological relationship in the web of kinship.

3) Humans barter and exchange with other human communities.

4) Humans communicate through a highly developed language.

5) Humans have invented arts.

6) Human communities grow food.

We shall try to trace the acquisition of these characteristics by our ancestors. Our reading of the past suggests that these characteristics were acquired in different periods of history. The other equally interesting fact is that the changes were not incremental in nature. There were large periods of very slow development followed by a period of rapid development.