Blog Posting #1 Jan 27th 2012
The first hour of class the Professor advised me of the fact
that ‘I am an intellectual’. This comment seemed like misguided praise; similar
to praising a tiny infant baby for being ‘so smart’ when they smile. From my
own perspective, I have never viewed myself in that light and it will be a
while before I’m comfortable settling into that category. I guess the term
intellectual was validated ever so slightly with the fact that I have enrolled
in this program and I am setting forth into this somewhat forgotten territory
called school.
I was expecting the first class to be entrenched in adult
education theories and techniques; I was pleased to realize I was part of an
interactive discussion about the very earliest forms of communication and
social interaction in relation to humans and primates. This is so interesting
and relatable, as humans we are drawn to any creature that has similarities to
our own species. It can be fascinating when a species shares familiar actions
and features to humans such as a hug, rolling around playing or grooming each
other. It demonstrates they are aware of each other and would appear they have
concern for their fellow companion, much like humans.
When we are involved with learning, the experience may feel
new and unique to us. What we may not realize is the experience of learning has
roots that not only go back to our own personal development, but it is also
traced back to the earliest forms of our own species. The unique process of
communicating, and thus learning, is built upon over years of evolution as well
as generational experience to allow each of us to accomplish learning, be it ever
so small such as a first step, to complex thought.
“….by the second half of the second year of life, human
children have begun
engaging
in the kinds of cooperative activities that enable not just cultural transmission
but also cultural creation _the achieving of results in interaction
with others that could not be achieved alone Children’s
skills of shared intentionality also manifest themselves at around this same
time in the mastery of linguistic communication and conversational skills.
In class I was very interested to learn that children up till
age 2yo and apes essentially learn at the same pace, they can accomplish the
same task and make the same errors. Then humans surpass our primate
counterparts and therefore are the superior being. In some ways this was explained by Michael Tomasello
as the four side effects of humans.
Tomasello classified his theory into four categories, in
short they can be explained as:
Develop and share
culture, an appreciation of one another, to appreciate one another we must
acknowledge each other.
Next, humans act together, the formation of “We”, for
without this we stand alone unable to work together toward a common goal, from
picking up a log together to building the world’s tallest structure, we need
each other.
The ability to have a connection, depths of love and caring,
bonds of solidarity, this seems to be evident in other creatures and I
certainly believe aspects of this exist in other creatures, however, a deep
connecting love with care and compassion is unique to the human species and has
enabled us to reach out to each other despite the many human conflicts
through-out the ages.
I think the one that is unique to humans is our sense of
self, other people become the mirror of ourselves, our social identity is what
defines humans. Primates and other creatures perhaps, have the luxury, of not
caring how they are viewed within their social group. From the outside looking in this could sounds
like a good thing, however it would stifle human social existence if we had no
regard for how other members of our human species viewed us. This sense of self
allows for civil societies and laws to be maintained to prevent social chaos.
Another unique trait of humans is the ability to pass along
our knowledge to future generations, the ability to move knowledge over time
with subsequent generations learning from previous generations. This is the key
to human advancement in the world. We have tens of thousands of years of
knowledge and culture and continue to explore, learn and grow. Humans advance
and expand our abilities with each new generation. However, as we learn new
ways of meeting our needs, we also lose skills and culture. The knowledge and
culture can become obsolete with new advancements. This can be unfortunate,
but, it seems, as a species we tend to hang on to the only the craft and skills
that benefit us immediately, such as a cut out in a wall, ‘the window’ has
changed its style over the years however the simple invention that allows us to
see what’s coming toward us, let light and air into a shelter has survived for
thousands of years. The same could be said for some musical instruments such as
a drum or more recently a stringed instrument. However, overtime, languages
have often fallen by the wayside, as do many inventions that are discovered
over time, it usually takes a historian to determine what an artifact is and
what it was used for. These primitive discoveries are evidence that, as humans,
we only take what’s necessary along for the ride in human evolution.
References:
References:
(Cooperative Activities in Young Children and Chimpanzees.
Felix Warneken, Frances Chen, and Michael Tomasello
Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology Child Development, May/June 2006, Volume 77, Number 3, Pages 640 – 663, pg 661, paragraph 2.)
