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this post was submitted on 10 May 2024
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Depends what you mean by human. If you restrict the term to homo sapiens you put yourself in a small minority. I'd say the fact that these people used tools in a sophisticated way pretty much defines them as human.
I mean, that's why it's so exciting! Who is human and who isn't? I agree that a lot of folks who were our cousins could also be classified as human, but I think that requires re-examining the definition. That's why this is so interesting to me. This find redefines a lot of expectations.
If we considered ourselves special because we alone did x, y, z things, we aren't so special anymore.
Human is specifically Homo Sapiens. The rest of the Homo genus, be they ancestors or not, are not recognized as human.
Nope. There are modern humans (homo sapiens) and archaic humans (extinct homo species).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archaic_humans
Considering the fact that we interbred with H. neanderthalensis and H. denisova (and still carry the residual DNA to prove it), I think it's pretty well proven that considering only H. sapiens to be "human" is overly narrow.
Personally, I would argue that anything within the Homo genus is human by definition (that's what the word means!), and that anything non-human belongs in a genus like Australopithecus or Paranthropus instead.
That's not entirely accurate anymore.
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-is-homo-sapiens-the-sole-surviving-member-of-the-human-family/