Hominization and Humanization: Evolution of Humankind
Hominization and Humanization: Understanding Human Evolution
Hominization (Natural Environment)
Living in the tall grass savanna, hominids needed to explore and monitor their surroundings. Thus, the need for survival favored an upright posture. This led to a change in foot structure, allowing hominids to walk normally and remain bipedal. In this position, the hands were freed, which, over time, facilitated the manufacture and handling of tools. The large jaws became smaller while the skull increased in size and became more rounded. The teeth also decreased in size, facilitating the movement of the tongue, crucial for the subsequent emergence of language. The increase in skull size paralleled their greater cranial capacity and increased intelligence.
Humanization (Cultural Sector)
Evolutionary changes were made possible because the primate species from which humans originated were not limited by fixed, instinctive behaviors but had the ability to learn new techniques and new modes of existence. Throughout its evolution, humankind has acquired skills that have enabled it to adapt to different environmental conditions. Among the factors favoring behavioral, mental, and social evolution, the following five can be highlighted:
- The game.
- The discovery of fire.
- The long apprenticeship.
- Emergence of social behavior.
- Emergence of language.
Key Concepts in Human Evolution
- Nature: Innateness arises because it is genetically preprogrammed or develops in the embryo or fetus.
- Culture: Acquired through social learning from the moment we are born.
- Evolutionism: Result of the interaction between species with genetic ability, innate and visible mutations.
- Anthropogenesis: Deals with the study of various human groups, past and present, through their physical, cultural, and genetic characteristics.
- Humanization: Psychosocial change process giving rise to cultural elements that characterize human beings and distinguish them from other species.
- Hominization: Process of evolutionary biological changes that have driven the evolution of hominids, leading to the present human species.
- Creationism: Doctrine proposing that God created the world out of nothing and participates in the creation of the human soul at the time of conception.
- Fixism: Theory that supported the stability of living species over time, therefore negating any kind of evolution.
- Instinctive Behavior: Innate behavior, the same for all members of the species, enabling them to adapt to the environment in an identical manner.
- Learned Behavior: Behaviors that are acquired by practice or repetition of acts, such as human language.
- Teleonomy: Refers to the apparent quality of purpose and object-oriented structures and functions of living organisms that derives from their history and evolutionary adaptation for successful reproduction.
Fixism, Transformism, and Darwinism
Fixism:
- Species are fixed and immutable since their inception.
- Created by God in a unique divine moment.
- Unchanged since their creation; each individual and each species would have remained unchanged.
- Non-isolated groups; species are not derived from each other or related.
- Philosophical Viewpoint: Fixism is coupled with the immutability of the metaphysical essence of things and involves a hierarchical conception of reality.
- There exists something fixed and immutable with respect to what we call human nature.
- Man is the protagonist of creation.
Transformism:
Nature is a continuum in which species are not invariant but transform from one to another in accordance with the trend toward more perfect forms (Lamarck).
Darwinism:
- Common origin of species: Known species are related to each other.
- The struggle for survival: Species born saturate the habitat, leading to a struggle for survival.
- Natural selection: Nature selects the most suitable to the environment.
- Inheritance: Acquired characteristics are inherited by the offspring.
- Nature acts at random.