What Makes Us Human?

After reading the book, I began to understand why my body looks the way it looks. I realized that we are all the same inside—from fish to monkeys, and even some reptiles. We all started from the same thing. In my opinion, being human can be summed up into a simple definition—a unique individual. Although we all developed from a similar place, being different makes us human. Each

In the Article “The 2% Difference” by Robert Sapolsky explains that scientists have decoded the chimpanzee genome to discover 98 percent of human DNA is similar. In Sapolsky article he goes on to explain the two percent difference humans and chimpanzee. A few of his discovered was that “Chimps excel at climbing trees, but we beat them hands down at balance-beam routine; they are covered in hair, while we have only the occasional guy with really hair shoulders” (Angeloni pp.40 2016). Physically we look different and can do different physical activities then chimpanzee. Sapolsky continues by saying how we have differences in social behavior. It is known

Understanding Human Beings In Joel M. Charon’s article “What Does It Mean to Be Human?: Human Nature, Society, and Culture,” he explains what makes us human by showing us the main differences between humans and animals. Using a sociological perspective we are called to see links between social structures to our personal, social, and cultural development.

Some people find it odd that humans classify as a primates. Similarity can be seen through our bodies if we really look into it. Humans have all the features that classify as a primate and an ape. For example, our hands has a thumb that helps us separate the rest of our fingers to allow us to grip a firm hold of items tightly. We has humans have the same too, see our thumbs makes it easy for us to hold on glass, books, and anything that we need to keep a firm hold of. We also have similarities when it comes down to hunting. We use tools to hunt for our food and make a wise decision on how we do it. The apes also do that, according to Jill Pruetz Iowa State University and her partner watched the apes to see how they hunt for food. She observed

Throughout the term, reading the book, “Through a Window” by Jane Goodall has been quite intriguing for me, in that it has inspired me with new ideas and perceptions about how our own species has evolved over time. I have really enjoyed seeing the many similarities that hominids share with other primate species, especially chimpanzees. Goodall’s research only further proves that we are not only extremely biologically similar to chimpanzees in our DNA, but have many behavioral similarities as well. The film, “Monkey in the Mirror” also shows support for our likeness in intellectuality. These documented findings on chimpanzee and human resemblances provides the strong evidence needed to conclude the fact that humans do indeed share a common ancestor with great apes.

According to my observation, even though Chimpanzee, and Gorilla are similar, they differ in many other ways when we go deeper in physical, and behavioral traits. However, both species also share the majority part of their DNA with Humans. Based on some reliable researches, some scientists realized that humans did not come from apes but instead shared common ancestors. As a matter of fact, humans and Primates are different, but share most of their genome, explaining why we found some similar patterns of behavior among humans, and

To get a sense of what it is to be human, at least in the evolutionary world, we need only to compare our modern selves to our ancestors such as the Neanderthals. The Neanderthals were our closest hominin relative and died out thousands of years ago. Like us, they walked on two legs, hunted , made fire and tools, and lived in shelters (caves). They were more advanced than many of us imagine they were thanks to the way they are portrayed in the media. They had brains similar in size to ours, they stood fully upright (not hunched over), and had a surprisingly complex culture. When asked what it means to be human, you can compare many different aspects of our lives, such as biology, culture, and even religious beliefs. We obviously have

Our similarities are so eye catching that it is hard to get back into thinking about hominids. Shubin describes in the texts some reason why we have evolved the way that we have. All evolutions of the creatures have changed into what they need to be for their surroundings.

On modern earth there are five basic groupings of monkeys and primates that relate to physical attributes. These groups are called Prosimian, tarsier, new world monkeys/old world monkeys, apes and hominins. Humans are featured in the super family known as hominoideas, this family includes both apes and hominins. Apes are described as having large bony eye ridges and flattened noses. The term hominin refers to the more human apes that contain examples such as orang-utans, gorillas, chimpanzees and humans. Hominids generally have quite large bodies and bigger brains than most other primates, humans differ to all other hominins as they are bipedal and all other hominin are predominantly quadrupedal but all hominids possess bipedal shaped

We have always differences and similarities Humans, Bonobos and chimps are close relatives in evolution. Chimps and bonobos can be considered as siblings and humans as their first cousin. We are so similar in many aspects that humans seem to have a very marginal

One of the main reasons why we are so interested in the other primates is that by looking at them we can obtain some ideas of what our ancestor must have been like a few millions years ago. Even though, we are not descended from any modern-type monkey or ape, our lineage does appear to have gone through stages in which we were a medium-sized, reasonably intelligent creature with good binocular vision, hands that were good at manipulation and the ability to climb trees. An evolutionary trend in primates involves the development of offspring both before and after birth and their integration into complex social systems. Another trend in primate evolution has been toward a more elaborate brain. In addition to brain size and gestation periods,

To be human is to be able think and learn without any restraints. To have an opinion all to one's self even if it my clash with someone else's. To be human is to have emotion. One must be able to smile, cry, laugh or shout without living in fear of the consequence. One must

The closest animal to the human race are primates. Chimpanzee’s and humans are 99 percent identical in terms of genetics, but where they differ are their thumbs. Doctor Prabhakar says, “Opposable thumbs, manual dexterity and ankle or foot adaptations for walking on two legs are hallmarks of our species” (Scientist Live Magazine). Humans and primates were on the same evolutionary path up until Homo-sapiens broke off around 1-2 million years ago in Africa. From there, scientists believe they spread throughout the world and evolved along the same path; Roughly 30,000 years ago they became the modern humans we are today. In doing so, Homo-sapiens killed off (or interbred with) all the other

What is it that makes us who we are? Is it how we were raised? Is it the specific time and location in space during our birth? Or is it by mere choice alone in every moment that makes us who we are at that moment, ever-changing? I could tell you that they are all are true. And I could also tell you that they are all false. And guess what, both statements would be correct. Here’s another shocker, truth is relative. You can turn something from an untruth into a truth and vise versa all with the power of belief, thought, and faith. If you truly believe with all of your heart that you are a product of your upbringing and nothing more, then you have made that true. You’ve also chosen to be a victim of your past but hey if that’s the truth you want you got it. Now if you believe that your upbringing is the past and nothing more, and that you choose moment by moment who you are, then that is true. Truth is based on your reality. And your reality is based on your thoughts and beliefs. There is no set reality. There are no set truths. Reality, just like truth, is relative to the being who perceives it. Now personally I have chosen not to be a victim of my past for that is all that it is, the past. And the past, just like the future, exists only in our minds. Without your mind, without you remembering the past or dreaming of future possibilities, there is no past and there is no future. There is only NOW. The universe has no concept of past or future. It only

The two gorillas living side by side in Africa will have DNA that is much different from each other than two humans living halfway across the world from each other. The reason for this is due to the fact that Gorillas have many different variations in their species. Humans on the other hand are not so different from each other meaning that there won’t be many genetic variations among humans. Therefore, humans will have a lot of similarities amongst each other. Through studying the ape’s mitochondrial DNA it is proven they have more genetic diversity than humans. Despite the fact humans are lot more divided geographically, living all over the world in many different cultures. The genetics of the human race is still very similar which shows an astounding difference between the evolution of Homo sapiens and Apes(Gorillas and Orangutan).