Читать книгу Anthropology For Dummies - Cameron M. Smith - Страница 25

The term humanity can be a little tricky because anthropologists use it to refer to our biological species, Homo sapiens sapiens, as well as some of our most recent ancestors in the more general species Homo sapiens (lacking the very specific subspecies sapiens.) When the human species should be referred to as Homo sapiens versus Homo sapiens sapiens depends on whether you’re talking about being anatomically or behaviorally modern.

Anatomical modernity is being anatomically indistinguishable from modern, living populations. This term really comes into play only when anthropologists are looking at the bones of ancient human-like creatures and asking whether these creatures were human. Strictly speaking, if anthropologists can’t distinguish the bones they’re looking at from those of modern populations, the bones are those of an anatomically modern person.

Behavioral modernity is behaving in a way that’s indistinguishable from modern, living populations. This label also really comes into play only when anthropologists are looking at the complexity of behavior in the past — for example, at the objects made by ancient proto-humans. Asking whether the creatures that made these objects were behaviorally human is a tough question that I re-examine in Chapter 7, but for the moment it’s enough to know behaviorally modern people employ symbolism, the use of one object to stand for another. Blood, for example, is a common substance, but humanity can also use it — or its properties, such as the color red —symbolically to activate emotions, memories, and actions in other people. This uniquely human capacity for the complex use of symbols is a big part of behavioral modernity.

I explore just when and where humanity became behaviorally and anatomically modern in Chapter 7.