Expert: John Shea - 9/5/2010

Question
Hi John,

What exactly is/are the things that make humans unique?

Is it the use of tools? Not sure about this one b/c some animals also use tools, right? Maybe we're able to build the tools for specific purpose, and animals just use what they find around?

Is it the capacity to plan and work?

Is it language?
Is it abstract thought?

Thanks in advance,

Richard


Answer
Richard
This is a huge question in anthropology and I do not have time to compose a cogent answer of my own in the time I have to devote to Allexperts.
I will give you a few starter references so you can investigate this on your own.
There is a website for a conference on "Human Uniqueness" at the Arizona State Univeristy that may also be of use.  It lists major scholars involved in this research.
One good published reference is
Brown, D. E. 1991. Human Universals. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press.
Any good textbook of cultural anthropology ought to get you started.
This reference discusses behaviors shared among all humans, though what I suspect you are seeking are things that differentiate us from nonhuman primates.
Briefly, in my opinion, the key things that make humans (i.e., Homo sapiens) unique among living primates and probably unique among recent extinct hominins are
1. complex projectile technology (bow and arrow, spearthrower and dart).
2. complex pyrotechnology -ability to use fire for things other than light and heat (e.g., ceramics, metallurgy).
3. a very broad and situationally flexible ecological niche.
4. spoken language
5. ability to store information outside the body (symbols, writing, books)
6. extremely long post-reproductive lifespan
7. agriculture and plant/animal domestication in general
8. broadly-shared formal explanations for natural and supernatural phenomena.
9. "functional hallucination" -ability to envision and communicate fictional/non-true conditions.

I've focused here on the behavioral characteristics, if you want more detail on the anatomical differences between us and other primates/fossil hominins, your best bets are John Fleagle's Primate Adaptation and Evolution and Richard Klein's The Human Career.
Cheers,
John Shea