THE INDIVIDUAL AS A

HUMAN BEING
Rico Van D. Cledera
 To learn what is the individual, called as a human, all about
 To discuss what is the capability of an individual, known as a human, in
somewhat simple and basic ideas.
 To show clips from media that can integrate into the lesson.

OBJECTIVES

 Culture, Language and the Arts
 Culture is Learned, Shared, All-
Encompassing, Integrated, Used
Actively, Can become Adaptive and
Maladaptive
 Language
 Communication: Animal and
Nonverbal
 Origin and Structure
 Arts
 What it is, Religion, Location, Society
and Culture
WHAT IS A HUMAN?
 Ethnicity and Race
 Ethnic Groups, Ethnicity, Nations and Nationalities
 Peaceful Coexistence, Root of Ethnic Conflict and Race
 Evolution, Primates, Early Hominids and Modern
Humans
 Kinship, and Marriages
 Foraging to Industry
 To Forage, Cultivate, Pastor, and modes of Production
 Distribute, Exchange
 Industrialization and Stratification
 Political Systems and Religion
 Culture
 Language
 Arts
 Return to: What is a Human?

CULTURE, LANGUAGE AND ARTS

 Learned(Experiences or Observation)
 Shared(Listening, Talking, Teaching and others)
 Symbolic(Writing, Habits, Tools, Clothing, Governments and etc.)
 All-Encompassing(It includes everything, even fads and trends)
 Integrated(‘The Domino Effect’)
 Used Actively(Learned, manipulate and interpret it differently)
 Adaptive and Maladaptive(Some benefits will sooner or later become a problem)
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CULTURE

 Animal Communications
 Call Systems - limited number of
sounds, none flexible and used by
primates. Humans, in time, learned
to combine calls.
 Sign Language – primates can learn
true language, particularly the
American Sign Language.
 Nonverbal Communications
 Kinesics- study of facial expressions,
stances, gestures and body
movements.
LANGUAGE
 Structure of Language
 Descriptive Linguistics (study of spoken language) –
Phonology (Speech Sounds)
Morphology(Morphemes: Words
and meaningful parts)
Lexicon(dictionary of all
morphemes and meanings)
Syntax. (arrangement of words in
phrases and sentences)
 Origin of Language
 Developed over time since the Call System.
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 What is it?  Locating Art
 Many cultures lack a word for it, yet all yearn for aesthetic  To locate: Aesthetic Value and
experience(beauty, harmony and the like) Placement
 It includes visual, literature, music and theater  Decisions as Art can become
political and controversial
 Arts and Religion
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 Art can be used to bolster religious aptitude.
 State societies = religious buildings.
 Nonstate societies = No religious buildings. Return

ARTS
 Ethnicity
 Return to: What is a human?
 Race

ETHNICITY AND RACE

 Ethnic group – members sharing same beliefs,
values, customs and norms because of their
common background.
 Ethnicity – identifying with and feeling part of an
ethnic group. It can also mean of being excluded of
other groups because of one’s ethnic identity.
 Nations – once synonymic to “tribe” or “ethnic
group” which is now called culture. It sometimes
called as a state. Combined in nation-state, refer to
an autonomous political entity, a “country”(Ex:
USA,), ”one nation , indivisible.”
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ETHNICITY
 Nationalities – Ethnic groups that once had or
wish to have or regain autonomous political
status.
 It is called “imagined communities”, as they can
imagine they all participate in the same group.
Even when they become nation-states, they
remained imagined communities. It is because
most of their members, though feeling strong
comradeship, will never meet. (-Benedict
Anderson 1991, pp.6-10)
 Next
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 Peaceful Coexistence – Diversity maybe associated with
positive interaction, coexistence or conflict.
 Assimilation – process of change that a minority group  Race – ethnic groups assumed( by
experience to a place where another culture dominates.
members of a culture) to have a biological
Through it, the minority adopts the patterns and norms of its
basis, but is actually socially constructed.
host culture . In turn, it will not become a separate cultural
unit: It turned into a melting pot model. “Races” heard daily are cultural or social
rather than biological categories.

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RACE
 Evolution
 Primates
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 Early Hominids
 Modern Humans

EVOLUTION, PRIMATES, EARLY HOMINIDS

AND MODERN HUMANS
 Evolution – Species arose from others through a long and gradual process of
transformation, or Transformism.Uniformitarianism(present events= past’s
key) Natural Selection(process where nature select the forms most fit to
survive and reproduce in an environment)

 Return to: What is a Human?

 Return

EVOLUTION
 Primate Types: Prosimian(the former) and Anthropoids(the
latter)
 Prosimian – early history of primates is limited to primates of this
type. Adapted to nocturnal life,
 Anthropoids – considered trends in the primate evolution .
 Old World Monkeys Have Sexual Dimorphism(difference of male
and female anatomy)
 New World Monkeys Have brachiation(tree climbing) and
prehensile(grasping tails)
 Primatology – study of nonhuman primates.
 It helps anthropologists to make inferences to the early social
organization of hominids(zoological family that includes fossil
and living humans) and untangle issues of human nature and
origins of culture. There are two types of primates similar to man:
 In ecological adaptation: terrestrial monkeys and apes.
 Similar to man: the great apes
 Anthropoid heritage
 Grasping(Have opposable thumbs but have Bipedal
feet)
 Smell to Sight(Stereoscopic or see in depth)
 Nose to Hand(Skin sensitivity on hands)
 Brain Complexity(Higher intelligence)
 Parental Investment(Learning opportunities),
 Sociality(social animals)
 Human-Primate Differences
 Sharing and Cooperation, Mating and Kinship
 Human-Primate Similarities
 Learning, Tools, Predation and hunting, Aggression and
Resources
 Return to: What is a Human?

PRIMATES Return

 Timeline:
 Hominids lived during the Pliocene(5-1.8 m.y.a) and
Pleistocene( 1.8 m.y.a. – 11000 B.P ) Epochs
 Ardipethicus ramidus(4.4 m.y.a.) from Ethiopia
 Authralopithecines evolved by 4.2 m.y.a.
 Five species of Australopithecus
 A. anamensis(4.2 m.y.a), A. afarensis(3.8 – 3.0 m.y.a ), A.
africanus(3.0 – 2.5? m.y.a), A. robustus(2.6? – 2.0? m.y.a )
and A. boisei(2.6? – 1.2 m.y.a)
 Early Homo, H. habilis(2.0? – 1.6 m.y.a) evolved to
H.Erectus(1.6 m.y.a – 300,000 B.P. )
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EARLY HOMINIDS
 Other discoveries:
 A. afarensis have primitive features like:
 Slashing canines(teeth like fangs), elongated
premolars(teeth behind canine teeth), marked
dimorphism, and proof for upright bipedalism(walking on
two feet) due to Lucy(The fossil)
 A. africanus(graciles) and A. robustus(robusts) are:
Found in Africa and follow the austrolapithecine trend
toward a powerful chewing apparatus.
 Have large molars and premolars, and large and robust
faces, skulls and muscle markings. Features are more
pronounced in A. robustus than A. africanus
 Diet = Savanna vegetation, small animals and scavenged
kills of predators
 Early Homo(habilis, then erectus) and A. boisei(Both
types are Hyperrobust austrolapithecines) are evident by
2 m.y.a but extinct in 1.2 m.y.a
 Pebble tools discovered between 2.5 – 2 m.y.a. In
Ethiopia, Zaire and Malawi.
 During a time of dramatic climate change 300,000 years ago, Homo sapiens evolved in Africa. Like other early
humans that were living at this time, they gathered and hunted food, and evolved behaviors that helped them respond
to the challenges of survival in unstable environments.
 Anatomically, modern humans can generally be characterized by the lighter build of their skeletons compared to
earlier humans. Modern humans have very large brains, which vary in size from population to population and between
males and females.
 Prehistoric Homo sapiens not only made and used stone tools, they also specialized them and made a variety of
smaller, more complex, refined and specialized tools including composite stone tools, fishhooks and harpoons, bows
and arrows, spear throwers and sewing needles.
 For millions of years all humans, early and modern alike, had to find their own food. They spent a large part of each
day gathering plants and hunting or scavenging animals. 

 Return to: What is a Human?

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MODERN HUMANS
 Kinship
 Marriages

 Return to: What is a Human?

KINSHIP AND MARRIAGES

 Kinship – entails rights, obligations, affection and child care
 Kin groups – social units whose membership can be charted and activities can be observed. Two types
are observed:
 Descent Groups
 Can be matrilineal or patrilineal
 A type of Unilineal descent(One lineage only)
 A type of Ambilineal descent(joined in a lineage through some factors)
 Nuclear Family
 Lasts only as long as children and parents remain together.
 Most people belong to at least two nuclear families
 Widespread but not universal
 Lineages, extended families and other social units can assume all functions with the nuclear family.

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KINSHIP
  Marriages(Edmund Leach, 1955) can but does not
 Marriage is a union between a man and a
always accomplish the following:
woman such that the children born to the
woman are recognized as legitimate  Establish the legality of one’s children
offspring of both partners. (Royal  Give spouses the monopoly in the sexuality of the
Anthropological Institute 1951, p. 111) other.
 Give spouses rights to the labor of other.

Return to: What is a Human?  Give spouses rights over the other’s property.
 Establish a joint fund of property – a partnership –
for the benefit of the children
Return  Establish a socially significant “relationship of
affinity” between spouses and their relatives

MARRIAGE
  To Forage, Cultivate, Pastor, and modes of Production
 Distribute, Exchange
 Stratification
 Industrialization

 Return to: What is a Human?

FORAGING TO INDUSTRY
 Definition - “hunting and gathering.”
  95 percent of their time on Earth, humans have sustained themselves by foraging
 Foragers lived in small groups(15-30 people) and have territorial knowledge.
 Large area = Scarce resources
 Small area = Abundant Resources

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FORAGING
 Agriculture - Farming
 Horticulture – Gardening
 Aquaculture – Fishing
 Animal Husbandry – Livestock Breeding
 Pastoralism – Animal Husbandry(Mobile version)

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CULTIVATE AND PASTOR

 Version 1
 Adapting  Version 2
 Growing  Forces of Production
 Exchanging  Relations of Production
- Henry George
-Karl Marx
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MODES OF PRODUCTION
 Exchange of goods and services = Pure economic and social gain = reciprocal
 Types of Reciprocity
 Generalized – giving without expectation of immediate return
 Balanced – explicit expectation of immediate return
 Negative – attempt to exchange one may not want to give or attempt to get a valuable thing
than what you give in return

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DISTRIBUTIVE AND EXCHANGE

 From ‘Stratify’( to divide or arrange into classes, castes, or social strata)
 Types of Social Stratification:
 (i) Caste is a hereditary endogamous social group in which a person’s rank and its accompanying rights and obligations
are ascribed on the basis of his birth into a particular group.
 (ii) Class-Stratification on the basis of class is dominant in modern society. In this, a person’s position depends to a very
great extent upon achievement and his ability to use to advantage the inborn characteristics and wealth that he may
possess.
 (iii) Estate system of medieval Europe provides another system of stratification which gave much emphasis to birth as
well as to wealth and possessions. Each estate had a state.
 (iv) Slavery had economic basis. In slavery, every slave had his master to whom he was subjected. The master’s power
over the slave was unlimited.

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STRATIFICATION
 Industry is a group of companies that are related based on their primary business activities.
 The Industrial Revolution, which took place from the 18th to 19th centuries, was a period during
which predominantly agrarian, rural societies in Europe and America became industrial and
urban. 

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INDUSTRY
 Political Systems  Return to: What is a Human?
 Religion

POLITICAL SYSTEMS AND RELIGION

 Political system – a system of interactions to be
found in all independent societies which
performs the functions of integration and
adaptation by means of legitimate physical
compulsion. - Gabriel Almond and James
Coleman (1960)
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POLITICAL SYSTEMS
 Types
 Democratic( rule by the consent of the governed
through elected representatives of the citizens.)
 Oligarchic(a system in which a small group rules and
holds supreme power over a larger society.)
 Totalitarian( a system in which the state controls and
regulates all phases of life considered essential for
perpetuating its power and for carrying out pro­grams
arbitrarily.)
  Roles of Religion
 A commitment or devotion to religious
faith or observance.  Return to: What is a Human?
 The purposes of the practice of a religion
are to achieve the goals of salvation and to
render due worship and obedience to God.  Return

RELIGION
 Positive Roles of Religion
 Negative Roles of Religion
 Source of hope and optimism
 Anxiety created through scientific and religious
views
 Promotes feelings of belongingness
 Bad religious programming
 Boosts self-esteem
 Injustice and wars
 Provides protection from existential threats
 Rationalization for hatred and prejudice
 Improved mental and physical health
 Power hungry religious leaders
 Encourages charity and altruism
 Segregation of humanity

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ROLES OF RELIGION Return

 WHAT IS A HUMAN SOURCES
 Anthropology: The Exploration Of Human Diversity By Conrad Phillip Kottak
 https://www.khanacademy.org/partner-content/big-history-project/early-humans/how-did-first-humans-live/a/act
ivity-hunter-gatherer-menu
 http://humanorigins.si.edu/evidence/human-fossils/species/homo-sapiens
 https://www.khanacademy.org/partner-content/big-history-project/early-humans/how-did-first-humans-live/a/for
aging
 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultivation
 http://schalkenbach.org/library/henry-george/science-of-political-economy/spe302.html#p-03
 https://www.thoughtco.com/mode-of-production-definition-3026416
 https://www2.palomar.edu/anthro/economy/econ_3.htm
 https://www.history.com/topics/industrial-revolution/industrial-revolution
 http://www.yourarticlelibrary.com/sociology/social-stratification-meaning-types-and-characteristics-sociology-2
446-words/6199
 http://www.oxfordscholarship.com/view/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199283927.001.0001/acprof-9780199283927-
chapter-5
SOURCES
http://www.wahegurunet.com/the-purpose-of-religion
