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History is Uniquely Human

  • If an animal wrote a history of its race, it would amount to very little: they have been living the exact same life for thousands of years in the exact same place. That "history" would mainly be about natural events, like volcanic eruptions or earthquakes that disturbed their environment. Fights among different individuals and groups amounted to very little: no kingdoms, no empires. Culture did not change. The lifestyle did not change. The tools, the "furniture", the "dwellings" did not change. Not even language changed.
  • Humans are the only species for which a "history" makes sense. The ordinary life of humans changes all the time because of new inventions. Fights among humans can escalate to territorial wars that create kingdoms and empires. What humans "make" (dwellings, tools, clothes, and so on) has been changing all the time. And one thing that humans make and that changes all the time is culture: books, art, science, and so on.
  • One of the few things that is truly unique about humans is that they have a "history".
  • Other animals too have tools, language, and probably some degree of thought, but only humans have a history.
  • Will history ever end? Will there be a time when nothing will ever change again in human society: no border changes, no inventions, no changes in lifestyle, no new books nor art? If that ever happened, humans would have achieved the status of the other animal species.
  • Are humans ahead of all other species, or behind? Is history merely a step towards the stationary life that other animals already enjoy?
  • Proof-edited by Alexander Altaras