What Makes Us Human

What Makes Us Human?

100,000 years ago, our ancestors were physically and mentally very much like us ... except that the only innovation they seem to have made is that they started using red ochre, probably to decorate their bodies. Their tools remained unchanged for millennia. About this time their population was reduced to a total of about 10,000 members.

They probably had a very simple form of language. Almost certainly they had what we now call nouns, names for things. It is highly likely that they had verbs, action words. Their language probably resembled what you now expect from a two-year-old.

At some time between 35,000 and 70,000 years ago a great change took place. During a period of roughly 5,000 years, our technology changed more than it had previously and the changes spread throughout the race.

When a child reaches about three years, it normally begins using a new language feature, syntax. The ability to use grammar seems to be built-in, instinctive. Starting to use grammar takes place so easily and automatically it is easily overlooked.

This may be the transition that made us human about 50,000 years ago.

How will you know when your child has made this important transition? That's simple. He'll do what the human race did when we discovered the power of syntax and grammar: ask questions.

This endless stream of questions may be our most human characteristic. It goes beyond animal curiosity, which is immediate, of the current moment only.

Our questions give our universe a new dimension, the metaphysical, taking us beyond the realm of the physical. What other animal would consider the possibility of life after death. Other animals live in this world and this time, rather than asking where the world came from or what was here before it was created.

A child normally completes his transition to becoming fully human some time in his ninth year. The transition to regular use of rational thought processes, rather than more emotional reactions, if it is to happen at all (it doesn't always), waits more than another decade, until the raging stew of hormones has calmed down. The use of rational thought also requires practice and is not automatic.

There is another use of language that may generally be ignored or even considered a disease. The two sides of the forebrain perform distinct functions. Communication between them is limited. But there appear to be channels for the two sides to pass verbal information directly from one to the other. Verbal communication is very efficient but hearing voices may be misinterpreted. If the information is accompanied by visual or auditory hallucinations, used to give emphasis to the message, the message may be seen as sent by a god or angel. We are good at manufacturing visual and auditory hallucinations -- we do it when we dream. There is even a small spot in the brain which, when stimulated, gives a feeling of deep spirituality, of something sacred happening. If the right side of the brain sends a message to the left side using some or all of these signals to indicate its importance, the person may believe he has been visited by a god. The rest of us may consider him a nut case, a schizophrenic -- or, in some cultures, a prophet.

We differ in the extent to which our frontal lobes communicate verbally between themselves. Some people may never experience it, others may have to put up with a constant chatter. In the latter case, it helps to understand what is happening.

It may not show in the fossil record and the exact dating may be difficult to determine when examining the tools and art our ancestors left, but the human race began with grammar and syntax.