Investigations into the Origin of Man
The question about the origin of man, that is, of the human race, perhaps second only to the question of the origin of life with regard to scientific and philosophical debates in this regard. 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 subjects (paleontology, archeology, theoryevolutionist, story etc.) deal with sparse empirical evidence (ie, fossils, rudimentary instruments of wood, bones, stones and metals) on which they develop their methods and extract their hypotheses.
Paleontology and evolutionism
Since the mid-18th century, with the development of HistoryNatural and other related disciplines that gave rise to modern biology, speculations about the origin of humanity began to receive a scientific, that is, a methodical treatment. However, it was in the nineteenth century that research aimed at this field of studies solidified. Associated with the research of paleontologists, archaeologists, ethnologists and historians of the 19th century, some theories about the biological evolution of Man became famous. The one that proved to be the most pertinent, even though it generates discussions to this day, is the
theoryof the evolution of species in CharlesDarwin. Along with the theory of evolution, many scientists over decades of research began to establish the characteristics of the evolutionary pattern of human beings, since the first hominids until the homo sapiens. Among the characteristics observed, the following stand out: o bipedalism, a capacityof manipulating objects like hands (due to the opposable thumb) and the greatpastaencephalic.Do not stop now... There's more after the advertising ;)
Between the appearance of the first hominids and the appearance of the homo sapiens, seven million years ago. In that time span, there were two main segments (or genera) of hominids, the Australopithecos it's the Homo, as follows in the list below, 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.
Theories of Culture
At the same time that paleontological and archaeological research gained credibility in the scientific research, at the turn of the 19th to the 20th century, theories of culture also began to seek their space. Theories of culture, generally supported by investigationsethnological (which have primitive cultures as their object of study: indigenous peoples, aboriginal peoples and tribal cultures in general), had the objective of to explain the origin of man through cultural bias, especially focusing on phenomena such as religious rites, language and art.
In this sense, we have had different schools of thought, from the classics of nineteenth century ethnology, such as GeorgesJamesfrazer and EdwardBurnettTylor, passing by turn-of-the-century intellectuals, such as RudolfOtto,SigmundFreud,MarcelMauss and emileDurkheim, even the great names of 20th century ethnology, such as Malinowski,Levi-Strauss,FranzGood and ReneGirard.
By Me. Cláudio Fernandes
