I have noted several times on this list that cannibalism is considered a
sign of advanced intelligence by most anthropologists. So is the
preparation of a body for burial. Some societies engage in the mortuary
practice of defleshing (letting the vultures eat the flesh of a relative,
intentionally cutting off the flesh from the bones of a relative as was
done with Christian ossuarys in the Middle Ages and other practices.
Evidence of intentional defleshing of a Homo habilis which dates to 1.5-2.0
myr ago. An abstract in the 1999 Paleoanthropology Society meeting notes:
"Stone tool cut marks on Stw 53, a Plio-Pleistocene hominid partial
cranium from Sterkfontein Member 5 (Gauteng, South Africa), constitute the
earliest unambiguous evidence that hominids disarticulated the remains of
one another. The cut marks occur on the inferolateral aspect of the
zygomatic process of the right maxilla. The position of the cut marks-a
pattern that has bene observed on a wide range of butchered mammalian
species-is consistent with incision of the masseter muscle, presumably to
remove the mandible from the cranium. It is not possible to infer the
reasons for the intentional removal of the mandible of Stw 53. This
evidence extends deeper into prehistory a pattern of tool assisted,
hominid-on-hominid carcass reduction that is also evident in more recent
stages of human evolution." Travis Rayne Pickering, Tim D. White, and
Nicholas Toth, "Stone Tool Cut Marks on STW 53, an Early Hominid from
Sterkfontein, South Africa," Abstracts for the Paleoanthropology Society
Meetings, Columbus, Ohio, U.S.A., April 27-28, 1999, p. A17
I would point out that White and Toth are world renown anthropologists. For
them to throw their weight behind intentional removal of a habilis jaw,
says something. I would consider this evidence of either religion or burial
practices among the Homo habilis, who also shows the earliest cranial
evidence of an ability to speak.
Here are some reasonings to support what I am saying:
"Although the reader may flinch at the suggestion that cannibalism
indicates higher cognitive abilities, historical records indicate that
cannibalism practiced by Homo sapiens in the late nineteenth and first half
of the twentieth centuries served ceremonial more than nutritive purposes."
~ Dean Falk, Braindance,(New York: Henry Holt and Co., 1992), p. 181-182
" In 1986 Tim White, of the University of California at Berkeley, and
one of Don Johanson's collaborators on, for example, the 'Lucy' skeleton,
published a detailed analysis of the scratch marks on the Bodo skull. He
found marks around the orbital and nasal regions, on top of the brow
ridges, and along the back of the preserved skull cap. White considered
every possibility he could think of to account for the marks: natural
weathering of the specimen, rodent or carnivore gnawing, even abrasion or
trauma before the skull became buried in the ground. After ruling out all
of these possibilities, White was left with the possibility that these
scratches were, indeed, cut marks. And if , he reasoned, they were cut
marks, it probably meant that the skull had been defleshed. In fact White
found that the patterning and locations of these cut marks were virtually
identical to cut marks taxidermists made while defleshing the chimpanzee
and gorilla skulls housed in the Cleveland Museum of Natural History.
White kept open the question of why the Bodo skull might have been
defleshed, but it would certainly seem reasonable to assume that the
defleshing had been done after the Bodo individual had dies. Furthermore,
we are left with the very real possibility that, whatever species of
hominid the Bodo skull represents, this species' social behavior included
some kind of mortuary practice.
"At present, the Bodo skull represents the oldest example of any hominid
giving special treatment to the body or skeleton of a comrade. Even if
this was not a widespread activity for this hominid, the Bodo skull and the
Krapina and Shanidar Neandertal skeletons raise the possibility that two
distinct, non-sapiens species of Homo had had rituals and cultural
practices that we have assumed are only within the capacity of members of
our own species." ~ Jeffrey H. Schwartz, What the Bones Tell Us, (New York:
Henry Holt, 1993), p. 19
However, now evidence for defleshing goes back to 1.5-2.0 million years
ago. Habilis now makes it 3 species that gave special treatment to the body
of a comrade. This is one more evidence of humanity being on earth longer
ago than many want to beleive.
glenn
Foundation, Fall and Flood
Adam, Apes and Anthropology
http://www.flash.net/~mortongr/dmd.htm
Lots of information on creation/evolution
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