Word: homo
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Most anthropological theory is based upon fragmentary evidence: a femur here, an incisor there. But what Johanson found needed no jigsaw reconstruction. The collection of dozens of bones was literally the skeleton in Homo sapiens' closet. Nicknamed Lucy (because the Beatles' song Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds was playing on a tape machine in the expedition's camp), the original owner of the bones was not the most prepossessing of creatures. She stood about 3½ ft. tall and had a head the size of a softball. But despite her size, Lucy turned...
...thousands of years, Homo sapiens owed his progress to the defense system he erected against nature. Nature is not some well-regulated and beneficent Providence, but a world of annihilation and violence that, although it may be judged more or less good or evil according to the tendencies of philosphers, always remains external, if not hostile, to man. Man has therefore set the society that he has constructed against the nature that he has controlled. The violence of nature had to be maintained outside the domain reserved by man for society. The defense system was achieved and maintained...
William Hurt is long and smooth-muscled and unlined; he looks like an experimental model for the next, higher form of life: Homo computerens. Sigourney Weaver is all beautiful angles and shining intelligence; she could be a Jane Fonda who studied phenomenology at the Sorbonne and washes her face every day with Ivory soap. His voice swoops into baritone breathiness as thoughts pop into his character's mind with the urgency of revelation. Hers is the voice of well-bred reason-behind every line of dialogue there's a Wasp sting. Each actor built a solid reputation...
...scrutinize these sections, which constitute the bulk of Wilson's first book. Only when Wilson discusses humans does he receive the attention of a broad and motley audience of anthropologists, philosophers and historians. There are two possible explanations. One might be that while Wilson's analysis of species below homo sapiensis scientifically masterful, his discussion of humans is simply not up to par and his new audience is taking him to task. This is probably not the case. Instead, Wilson's writing about humans are simply unacceptable, either psychologically or politically, to many people. But what makes his writing...
...difficult to understand how anyone who reads Wilson's books could believe his disposition is invidious. The theory he presents is certainly not racist. With the emphasis on the biological unity of homo sapiens,sociobiology could serve as a potent antidote to racism. If Wilson is a visionary, as many believe, his vision is still blurry. Sociobiology remains imprecise and amorphous. It is not a specific theory about human behavior, and allows for a wide range of possibilities. There is no doubt, however, that Wilson remains more concerned with scientific theory than with social prophecy...