We explain what a human is and to what species it belongs. In addition, the behaviors that characterize the human being.
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What is a human?
An individual of the species Homo sapiens is called human (in Latin: “wise man”), belonging to the hominid family, order of primates, and dominant species of planet Earth today. It is a bipedal, mammalian species, capable of reasoning and modifying its environment for its benefit and convenience, as well as manufacturing tools and using them with its upper extremities.
The oldest evidence of human presence on the planet is approximately 315,000 years old, when our species was just one of the Homo genus .
But after the disappearance of Homo neardentalis (“Man of the Neardental”) about 28,000 years ago and also of Homo floresiensis (“Man of the Flowers” or Hobbit ) about 13,000 years ago, we are the only species of the genus that remains . The reasons for this are unknown, but it is known that parts of our ancestors’ DNA survive in ours.
The set of humans is called humanity . And there is a slight conceptual distinction between a human and a human being, although biologically or scientifically there is no such.
This distinction has to do with how human is any member of the species, while a human being is someone whose behavior, conduct and moral or ethical values are, at least in the most extreme cases, compatible or similar with those who profess and defend The rest of humanity.
Humans are also social or gregarious beings, who prefer to live in the company of our species than alone. We are the only living beings capable of communicating verbally , that is, through articulated language with the capacity for meaning and the capacity for symbolic abstraction. This is due to the complexities of our brain, the fruit of our particular evolution .
Formerly human and male were used as synonyms, but it is not advisable to do so since it involves an invisibility of the female gender, preferring to talk about “human beings” or “human.”
