Investigations into the Origin of Man
The question about origin of man, that is, of mankind, is perhaps second only to the question of the origin of life as far as scientific and philosophical debates are concerned. Each science involved in investigations into the origin of Man has its own methods, but each one uses the results of the others. What can be said, in general, is that all these disciplines (paleontology, archeology, theory evolutionist, history etc.) deal with sparse empirical evidence (i.e., fossilsrudimentary instruments of wood, bones, stones It is metals) on which they develop their methods and draw their hypotheses.
Paleontology and evolutionism
Since the mid-eighteenth century, with the development of History Natural and other related disciplines that gave rise to modern biology, speculations about the origin of humanity began to receive scientific, that is, methodical, treatment. However, it was in the 19th century that research aimed at this field of study solidified. Associated with the research of paleontologists, archaeologists, ethnologists and historians of the 19th century, some theories regarding the biological evolution of Man became famous. The one that proved to be most pertinent, even though it generates discussions until our days, is the theory of the evolution of species in Charles Darwin. Along with the theory of evolution, many scientists over decades of research began to establish the characteristics of the evolutionary pattern of human beings, from the earliest hominids until the homo sapiens. Among the characteristics observed, the following stand out: bipedalismThe capacity manipulation of objects such as hands (because of the opposable thumb) and the big pasta encephalic.
Don’t stop now… There’s more after the publicity 😉
Between the appearance of the first hominids and the appearance of Homo sapiens, seven million years ago. In that time span, there were two main segments (or genera) of hominids, the Australopithecines and the Homo, as follows in the following list, which is in chronological order of appearance:
Australopithecus anamensi
Australopithecus afarensis
Australopithecus aethiopicus
Australopithecus boisei
Robust Australopithecus
australopithecus africanus
homo rudolfensis
homo habilis
Homo ergaster
homo erectus
homo neanderthalesis
Homo heidelbergensis
homo sapiens
One of the most complete hominid fossils ever found is that of “Lucy”, a representative of Australopithecus afarensis found in 1974, in Ethiopia, in the Afar desert. This fossil is about 3.2 million years old.
cultural theories
At the same time that paleontological and archeological research gained credibility in the scientific scenario, at the turn of the 19th to the 20th century, theories of culture also began to seek their space. The theories of culture, generally based on the investigations ethnological (which have primitive cultures as their object of study: indigenous peoples, aboriginals and tribal cultures in general), had the objective of explaining the origin of man through a cultural bias, especially focusing on phenomena such as religious rites, language and art .
In this sense, we had several schools of thought, from the classics of 19th century ethnology, such as Georges James frazer It is edward Burnett tylorthrough turn-of-the-century intellectuals such as rudolf Otto, sigmund Freud, Marcel Mauss It is Emile Durkheim, to the great names of 20th century ethnology, such as Malinowski, Levi-Strauss, Franz Good It is René girard.
By Me. Cláudio Fernandes