Recent finds in the Atapuerca site in Spain have confirmed and expanded our understanding of the tates and culinary practices of Homo antecessor.  This species is enigmatic and its place in the evolutionary tree unclear. 

But what is very clear is that it was cannibalistic. And on a large scale.  It had a taste for young hominins, probably from competing tribes. How, you ask, could we possibly know that?

In this epsiode of The History of Being Human, we cover everything we know and how we know it.  Height, habitus, habits, diet of animals and hominins, and behavior.  

This episode expands significantly on the previous consideration of archaic human cannibalism in episode 3.  

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Rhys Taylor Lemoine is a postdoctoral researcher in extinction, megafauna, rewilding, and novel ecosystems. Today he speaks to us about the late quaternary extinction. 

We discuss what megafauna are, their key roles in ecosystems, and the worldwide number and types that died off during the extinction of the late quaternary period (including the present).  Rhys discusses the two main theories about what drove -- and still drives -- these extinctions, overKILL and overCHILL. He then tells us why he and his research team posit that climate change was a lesser factor driving these extinctions. 

For Rhys, the extinctions are best explained by the introduction of a novel, insatiable, armed predator. One that could attack the largest and most dangerous animals from a distance with relatively little risk to itself. In other words, humans did it.

One of the evidences he considers is that the extinctions of the late quaternary continue to this day, and the current culprit in large animal extinction is not in dispute.

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In the late quaternary period, from about 50 to 10 thousand years ago, vast populations of large animals died out.  Among them are some of the most iconic of prehistoric creatures -- mammoths, mastodons, woolly rhinoceri, dire wolves, smilodons, giant sloths, cave bears, and on and on.  In North America, more than 70% of species over 40kg (about 100lb) disappeared. In South America, it was even more.  Eurasia and Australia lost most of their large animals, including mammals, birds, and reptiles.

What happened?

Did the opportinistic pathogen known as Homo sapiens sapiens wipe them out?  Or was it the climactic upheaval of the ending of the last ice age?  Something else entirely?

Lively and ongoing debate surrounds this topic still.  In this episode we go over the theories proposed and the relative merits of each.  

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In this episode we begin a groundbreaking, never-before-attempted, altogether unprecedented series on the history of being human.  

We are going to cover some of the best people who ever lived. Aside from my Dad, that is.

Today we cover the "Moral Circle" concept, as a way to introduce just one of the criteria that will be going into deciding who is truly good, and who is truly not in the running.



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On this episode we cover the famous, ancient "Ship of Theseus" thought experiment, and then stretch it into relevance for the very modern possibility of tranfering our psyche, and possibly our very identity, to a digital format.



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Being Bipedal was a key step in becoming human. Many of our other abilities, and liabilities, began with bipedalism.  On this episode:

When bipedalism?
Why bipedalism?

We dispell some myths and establish some likelihoods about this uhique and pleuripotent trait.

See the video of this episode here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZa3WwVyNeo&t=390s



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Borges wrote:

“Time is the substance I am made of. Time is a river which sweeps me along, but I am the river; it is a tiger which destroys me, but I am the tiger; it is a fire which consumes me, but I am the fire”

Time is the dimension we all inhabit, through which we propelled in only one direction. Why is this? Can we account for time's arrow? Can we reverse it?  Why does time only move in one direction?

See the youtube episode here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bbXv7vMOjJ8

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Most of us have had the feeling that we have experienced something before that we know we could not have expereinced before.  It can vary intensity from a slight familiarity to a sure conviction that we have seen, heard, smelled, or othewise lived through what we know in our mind to be novel.

What is this feeling? What does it mean if anything? Is there any point to it?

See the Youtube Episode here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vdqn4mAh-ZY


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Today we go in depth about the death of John Allen Chau in 2018, including a complete reading of his own personal diary of the terrifying, disturbing events around North Sentinel Island. Events that he willingly waded into.  

Was he a hero or a villain?  Selfless or Narcissistic?  Chances are very high the verdict you render will depend greatly on your own temperament, backgorund, and beliefs. In other words, your opinion of John will depend on which tribe you are a member of.

Art by Ian Armstrong

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Part 1: The most tribal of tribes, the Sentinelese of North Sentinel Island

We don't know much about them. We don't know what they call themselves, what they think the world or universe is like, what they believe about the rest of humanity. 

We don't know how they are organized, what they worship, how they see right and wrong.

What we do know is that the North Sentinelese are the most tribal of tribes -- hostile to outsiders, uninterested in changing or developing along 'Western' lines, and unwilling to extend any moral status to vistors. 

In 2018 a young American Christian missionary, John Allen Chau, was killed by these people. Was it murder of an innocent or defense against an invader? Sadism or self-preservation? 

To understand what happened, we will first look into the history of interactions between the people of North Sentinel Island and outsiders, contacts that went occasionally acceptably, but usually very badly, for one party ot the other. 

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https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-history-of-being-human--5806452/support