An American Perspective The Rise of Homo Sapiens – What’s so Special About Humanity? Ever since we crawled out of the ocean / And stood upright on the land / There are some things that we just don’t / Understand Don Henley “Building the Perfect Beast” (Copyright 1984) How did humankind separate itself from the great apes, its closest genetic relatives? Two significant advantages were what allowed for the rise of Homo sapiens and their evolution into a recognizable form of civilization, those being opposable thumbs, and higher intelligence. Australopithecus arrived in Africa between four million and two million years ago, followed through the centuries by Homo rudolfensis, Homo erectus, Homo neanderthalensis, and finally Homo sapiens (us). Until recent decades, most texts delving into anthropology assumed these various renditions of the human animal occurred lineally with a more advanced species replacing an earlier model. Recent theory recognizes that the various…
Perfectly You: Embracing the Power of Being Real (2019 W Publishing, Nashville, Tennessee) by television journalist Mariana Atencio is part heartfelt autobiography, part warning…
In her Newbery Medal Award acceptance speech on June 30, 2013, Katherine Applegate explained how reading in a newspaper’s small article about a gorilla…
“And then the group of students followed the source of noise. Something in their hearts told them the source of the noise was not…
Dateline: Monday, July 21st, 2020. (U.S.A.) When bullying Florida Republican Congressman Ted Yoho (or is it Yahoo?) picked a fight with New York Democratic…
On a cold evening of the new year, Maria sat alone on a desolate bench with fixed eyes and lips parted. Hers was a…
We have never ever seen such state of intense excitement and happiness among city dwellers. Even the entire state was caught up in the…
Coming back from the train station I could hear the sound slowly building. A low toned wailing sound. Soft, vibrating, but dangerous and persistent.…
George Black turned up the volume of the wireless in order to drown the noisy chimes emanating from the grandfather clock and added more…
For some time now, Dr. Hugh Mandara had accepted his life as it was and managed to find contentment in what he considered mature,…
