Biology and Philosophy. Part II. The Upper Paleolithic and the Holocene

Juan S. Gomez-Jeria

I present and discuss some aspects of shamans considered as being the first specialists of the Paleolithic. Some important moments leading to their appearance are suggested and the necessity is stressed that the group should have a communication ability complex enough to exchange and understand internal experiences. I define a before/after separation for Homo sapiens. On the ‘before’ side we have a complex animal. It is following the ‘after’ when some Homo sapiens begin to ask themselves about the world as they see it. This transition happened about 40-50 kyr ago. Next, I analyze the expression ‘to be human’ and suggest that to belong to the Homo sapiens species it is a necessary but not a sufficient condition to be human. The possibility of defining two different subspecies: Homo sapiens sapiens A (people without Neanderthal DNA) and Homo sapiens sapiens B (people with Neanderthal DNA) is commented. Some of the questions presented here are not discussed because of non-scientific fears.

https://doi.org/10.31871/WJRR.4.6.7