Today's lesson has been very interesting and I've thought that maybe some of you (or all. Surprise me!) would like to think a little more about some of the challenges science poses to the evolution of our species. The main difference with respect to Prehistory is that we can intervene now and strenghten some specific features or eliminate what we consider useless or harmful for our species. The hominids in Atapuerca show that, in their world determined by the fight for survival, they were able to care for the weakest members of their group (old people or disabled children). Nowadays, the advances in medicine and our knowlegde about genetics allow us to change what nature provides, but this possibility creates a lot of ethic dilemmas. Should we intervene in the improvement of the species? What are the limits of eugenics? Can abortion be considered as an intervention in evolution? Are disabled people a burden for society? What could be considered a life worth being lived? Do you think disabled/ handicaped/ special/seriously ill people contribute to our improvement as species? In what sense?
This is the reconstruction of a 45 year old H. heidelbergensis who lived in Atapuerca 430,000 years ago. He was seriously handicaped, he could barely walk and couldn't hunt. He was an old person for that period and couldn't contribute to the survival of his fellows, but he wasn't left behind and died naturally. The same happened with a young girl who was born with craniosynostosis, a very rare illness, and survived for 12 years, with the help of his tribe. What can these two cases teach us about our species?
The same happened with a young girl (called Benjamina by the Atapuerca team), who was born with craniosynostosis, a very rare illness, and survived for 12 years, with the help of her tribe.
What can these two cases teach us about our species?
If you want to answer to these questions, you can do it here or write a short essay on paper with your thoughts. Maybe Prehistory seems to be too far from us, but I think we can extract interesting conclusions from it. What do you think?
If you want to read more about these two cases in Atapuerca, here you have some more links:
2 comments:
Hi Paqui,
In the second paragraph you have written 'girk' and I think you wanted to write 'girl'. That's all ! See you !
Thanks! I've already corrected it.
Post a Comment