What Makes Us Human: Part 1 - Others

Are humans unique or do we just do some things a little better than other species? In the first of our two-part series on the nature of humanity: how the influence of others has shaped our evolution.

Find out how baby talk gave root to human language and why social isolation can make us sick. Plus, the joke’s on us – new research says we’re not the only laughing species: meet your giggling gorilla cousins.

And, what a writer’s visit to a chimp retirement center revealed about human discomfort with our animal ancestry.

Dean Falk – Anthropologist at Florida State University and author of Finding Our Tongues: Mothers, Infants, and the Origins of Language John Cacioppo – Director of the Center for Cognitive and Social Neuroscience at the University of Chicago and co-author of Loneliness: Human Nature and the Need for Social Connection Lori Marino – Biologist at Emory University Kathryn Denning – Anthropologist at York University Charles Siebert – Author of The Wauchula Woods Accord: Toward a New Understanding of Animals Marina Davila-Ross – Psychologist at the University of Portsmouth in the U.K.

Also huffduffed as…

  1. What Makes Us Human: Part 1 - Others

    —Huffduffed by Heronheart on January 28th, 2010

  2. What Makes Us Human: Part 1 - Others

    —Huffduffed by olishaw on November 12th, 2009

  3. What Makes Us Human: Part 1 - Others

    —Huffduffed by eflclassroom on January 15th, 2011

Possibly related…

  1. On Point: How Cooking Made Us Human

    We were apes before we were humans. But humans were the onetime apes who ultimately mastered fire and cooked.

    Primatologist and anthropologist Richard Wrangham says that in evolutionary terms, that made all the difference. And not just because it put flambé on the menu.

    Fire meant proto-humans could cook. Cooking, he says, meant they could get dense, empowering nourishment. Then came bigger brains, a different body and — voila! — homo sapiens. Complete, he says, with a social structure built around that fire.

    http://www.onpointradio.org/2009/09/how-cooking-made-us-human

    —Huffduffed by Clampants 3 years ago

  2. Big Picture Science

    Moove Over — Mooooove over, make way for the cows, the chickens … and other animals! Humans can learn a lot from our hairy, feathered, four-legged friends. We may wear suits and play Sudoku, but Homo sapiens are primates just the same. We’ve met the animal, and it is us. Discover the surprising similarity between our diseases and those that afflict other animals, including pigs that develop eating disorders. Plus, what the octopus can teach us about national security … how monkeying around evolved into human speech … and the origins of moral behavior in humans.

    —Huffduffed by TrentVich 11 months ago

  3. Professor Christopher Dye: Are Humans Still Evolving?

    Homo sapiens have been around for 250,000 years - surely long enough to have become fully evolved?

    It was thought that the dramatic extension of life spans during the 20th century eliminated natural selection, but new evidence shows that to be false.

    Will selection always be natural, or could postmodern also mean posthuman?

    http://fora.tv/2009/03/26/Professor_Christopher_Dye_Are_Humans_Still_Evolving

    —Huffduffed by Clampants 4 years ago