The Dangerous Ape

I’ve been rereading Yuval Harari’s book, Sapiens, which explores the transformation of our species — Homo sapiens — from a ordinary mammal somewhere in the middle of the food chain into a dominant life form that has split the atom, walked on the moon, and changed the face of the planet.

Animals, much-like today’s humans, first appeared 2.5 million years ago. At that time, there was nothing special about them. Though different-looking and walking on two legs, they engaged in the same kind of behaviors — gathering food, raising children, competing for status in their group — as most other animals of their time.

Biologists use the word “species” to group together animals who, drawn to mate with each other, produce fertile offspring. Species who’ve evolved from a common ancestor are grouped together in a larger category named genus, that exists within an even larger grouping (derived from an ancient matriarch or patriarch) called a family. Our species, sapiens is part of the genus, homo, within the family of great apes.

Our closest living relatives from this family are chimpanzees, gorillas, and orangutans. At some point about 6,000,000 years ago, a female ape had two daughters, one of whom became the ancestor for all chimpanzees, the other the grandmother for all humans.

It’s difficult to admit, but our relatives are not very nice. A male chimpanzee who wanders out of his territory into the territory of another chimpanzee band will be set upon by the local males and torn limb from limb. Some people, wanting to avoid the implications of this, have conjectured that we might be evolved from bonobos, who are reputed to be more peaceful and loving. But recent research has revealed that bonobos are three times as aggressive as chimpanzees, their aggression differing in that it is expressed within the group rather than to outsiders. The fact they become very docile in the presence of humans may account for their reputation as “peaceful.”.

Humans – from the genus homo — first showed up in East Africa about 2.5 million years ago, descended from a genus of apes called Australopithecus, Evidence shows that — about two million years ago — some ‘humans’ left East Africa, traveling and settling in Europe, Asia, and North Africa. There, they evolved into separate and distinct species — Homo Neanderthalenus in Europe, Homo Erectus in east Asia, and various other species of humans in other areas, including other parts of Africa.

It wasn’t until 70,000 years ago that Homo sapiens moved out of Africa and started to meet and interact with other human species with different characteristics. And while the how and the why remains open to speculation, one thing remains clear — whenever Homo sapiens arrived in a new location, the native human population soon became extinct. The last, on Flores Island in Indonesia, disappeared about 12,000 years ago.

Eventually — about 14,000 B.C. – members of Homo sapiens in Siberia made it off the African-Eurasian land mass, crossing the Bering Strait into North America. Global warming was melting the glaciers from the previous ice age, making the passage south easier, and by 10,000 BC, Homo sapiens had reached the southernmost point of South America.

Before the arrival of Sapiens, the Americas were home to a stunning variety of large megafauna – Mammoths. Mastodons, Saber-tooth cats, horses, camels, sloths that weighed 8 tons. But within 2000 years of Sapiens’ arrival, the vast majority of these genera of large mammals were extinct. In the Americas, as well as in Eurasia, Australia (and eventually the more-isolated islands, the arrival of Sapiens – us — marked one of the biggest and fastest ecological disasters to ever hit the animal kingdom. And this first-wave extinction would be followed by another and another associated with the Agricultural, then Industrial revolutions.

I’m bringing up all this because there’s a few points I want to make:

• When we (humans) use the word “we,” I want to be clear about who and what that ‘we’ refers to. “We” refers to a species (us) whose ancestors had the habit of viciously tearing apart others of their species that were not part of their particular band or group.
• We (Homo sapiens) have driven to extinction every other human species that has inhabited this planet. (A type of “ethnic cleansing” pre-dating any ideas of religion or ethnicity.)
• Homo sapiens initiated ecological disasters on every new place they arrived throughout history… long before differentiating into various cultural groups of indigenous peoples.

I pray for courage to perceive reality… to look in the mirror without avoiding or denying any of that – while seeing our gold and beauty as well. I hope for a reality-based mythology and politics, not pretending that the problem is capitalism, colonialism, sexism, racism, or some other abstract mind virus that infects “those other people” and not me.

I want to become an adult, to own and take responsibility our shadow and — starting there — focus on what’s truly important — the development of practices, myths, teachings, and ways of thinking most likely to bring out the gold and what’s best in me/us… rather than submitting to that tempting dark shadow.

I see this as a path worth taking…