Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Human Being |
Human BeingNoun1. Any living or extinct member of the family Hominidae. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
Humans Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Subphylum: Vertebrata Class: Mammalia Order: Primates Family: Hominidae Genus: Homo Species: Sapiens Binomial name Homo sapiens Biologists classify humans as a species (Homo sapiens) of primates and the only surviving species of the genus Homo. The species is commonly referred to as "humankind" or "humanity" and its members as "humans", "human beings" or "people". The species name Homo sapiens is an uncountable noun and has no plural form. Man is a male human being and woman is a female human being. All current humans, from across all areas of the Earth, are of this species.
According to mainstream biology, the closest living evolutionary relatives to humans are the two species of chimpanzee Pan troglodytes ("common chimp") and Pan paniscus ("pygmy chimp" or "Bonobo"), and to a lesser degree other hominoids such as orangutans and gorillas. Biologists have compared a sequence of DNA base pairs between humans and chimpanzees, and estimated an overall genetic difference of 5% [1]. It has been estimated that the human lineage diverged from that of chimpanzees about 5 million years ago, and from gorillas about 8 million years ago. However, recent news reports of a hominid skull approximately 7 million years old already showing a divergence from the ape lineage strongly suggests an earlier divergence. Some scientists argue that bonobos, chimpanzees and, possibly, gorillas should be lumped into the genus Homo, but this is currently a minority opinion.
Various religious groups have raised objections and controversy concerning the theory of humanity's evolution from a common ancestor with the other hominoids. See creationism and argument from evolution for opposing points of view.
Physical characteristics
Image of a Caucasian man and woman, taken from
the Pioneer 11 spacecraft image.
(Public domain image)The body of humans is described in the human anatomy group of articles. Humans have a wide range of variability in physical and other characteristics.
The evolution of Homo sapiens is characterized by a number of important trends:
How these trends are related, in what ways they have been adaptive, and what their role is in the evolution of complex social organization and culture, are matters of ongoing debate among physical anthropologists.
- expansion of the brain cavity and brain itself, which is typically about 1,400 cm3 in volume, well over twice that of a chimpanzee or gorilla. Some physical anthropologists argue that a reorganization of the structure of the brain is more important than cranial expansion itself.
- canine tooth reduction.
- bipedal locomotion
- descent of the larynx (which makes possible the production of the complex sound known as vocal language).
Although body size is highly heritable, it is also significantly influenced by environmental and cultural factors such as diet. The mean height of an American adult female is 162 centimetres and the mean weight is 62 kg. Males are typically heavier - 175 cm and 78 kilogram. Humans vary substantially around these means, and the means themselves have varied depending on locality and historical factors.
Human children, typically weighing 3-4 kilograms and 50-60 centimetres in height, are born after a nine-month gestation period. Helpless at birth, they continue to grow for some years, typically reaching sexual maturity at around 12-15 years of age. Boys continue growing for some time after this, often only reaching their maximum height around the age of 18. The average human lifespan is approaching 80 years in wealthy nations, with the assistance of science and technology.
See also human physical appearance.
Homo sapiens compared to other species
Humans often consider themselves to be the "dominant" species on Earth, and the most advanced in intelligence and ability to manage their environment. This belief is especially strong in Western culture, and is based in part in the Biblical Creation story in which Adam is explicitly given dominion over the Earth and all of its creatures.
Biologists and scientists in general, though, do not consider "dominant" to be a useful term, because the adaptive value of any trait or complex of traits depends on the niche and is highly mutable. From a scientific standpoint, Homo sapiens certainly is among the most generalized species on Earth. Smaller and simpler animals such as bacteria and insects greatly surpass humans in population size and diversity of species, but few single species occupy as many diverse environments as humans. Many other species, for example, are adapted to specific environments, whereas humans rely on tools such as clothing and manufactured shelter, which are themselves often produced and used through complex social interactions.
The use of tools and the ability to alter their environment (building shelter, weaving fabrics for clothing, language, and the development of complex social relationships and structures, etc.) has been cited as a characteristic which distinguishes humans from other animals. This difference, however, is not absolute, as ethologists have recorded such behaviors in many species. Apes and even birds, for example, are known to "fish" for insects using blades of grass or twigs, and even to shape the tools for that purpose. No other animal uses tools to the same degree or with the same flexibility as Homo sapiens. Similarly, other animals often have simple methods of communication, but the degree to which humans create and use complex grammar and abstract concepts in language has not been seen in any other species, despite much effort to find it.
Chomskian linguistics holds that a distinguishing feature of humans is that we are the only extant species with a language instinct - a genetic predisposition that produces a brain mechanism whose function is to acquire a language by observing those around us.
Some anthropologists think that these readily observable characteristics (toolmaking and language) are based on a less easily observable mental process that might be unique among humans: the ability to think symbolically. That is, humans can think abstractly about concepts and ideas. They can question, use logic, understand mathematical concepts, and so on in ways that no other animals are known to do, although several species have demonstrated some ability in this area. Nor have other animals demonstrated any remotely comparable ability to plan their actions. This belief is why the species was named Homo sapiens, sometimes translated as "Man the Thinker". Note, however, that the extinct species of the Homo genus (eg, Homo neanderthalensis, Homo erectus) were also adept tool users and there is some evidence that they may have had linguistic skills. Moreover, there are many other animals alive today which use tools, so the idea that making and using tools is a defining characteristic of humans is often considered outdated.
While humans have all these characteristics, from the biological viewpoint "what distinguishes humans from all other animals?" is an odd question: there's no one thing that makes cats, dolphins, or song sparrows unique. Finding other species that shape tools or can use sign language may shed light on human evolution, but it doesn't erase the differences between humans and related species.
See also: Evolution of Homo sapiens, human condition, man, woman, child, humanoid, human variability
Human activity
- Dreaming
- Reading
- Writing
- Listening
- Knowledge
External link
- A Look at Modern Human Origins
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Human."
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
Human Being was Released in 1998 UK/DE/US: Warner Bros WE 852 (Int: 9362-46828-2) Promo: UPC # 9362-46828-2 (Numbered Promotional Copy)
- Human Beings 4:36
- State Of Grace 5:00
- Latest Craze 4:28
- Just Like You Said 4:14
- Princess 1:58
- Lost My Faith 4:35
- Excerpt From 3:04
- When A Man Is Wrong 4:18
- Colour 5:22
- Still Love Remains 5:54
- No Easy Way 4:48
- Human Beings Reprise 3:21
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Human Being (album)."
Synonyms: Human BeingSynonyms: homo (n), human (n), man (n). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Mankind | Human being; person, personage; individual, creature, fellow creature, mortal, body, somebody; one; such a one, some one; soul, living soul; earthling; party, head, hand; dramatis personae; quidam. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | So stop freaking with her head, man. Quit playing with her mind, you know? She's a human being, she's a person (Say Anything; writing credit: Cameron Crowe.) I had an experience, I can't proof and can't explain, but everything that I know as a human being, tells me that it was real (Contact; writing credit: Carl Sagan;) You're right, no human being would stack books like this (Ghostbusters; writing credit: Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis.) Believe it or not, but under fire, Animal Mother can be a wonderful human being. All he needs is somebody throwing grenades at him 'til the end of his life (Full Metal Jacket; writing credit: Gustav Hasford; Michael Herr) Because if any human being were going to perpetrate such a fantastic hoax, it would've been me (Superman; writing credit: Jerry Siegel; Joe Shuster) | |
Lyrics | Concerning the genetic instruction of a human being, no criminal charges were brought forth (Mephisto and Kevin; performing artist: Primus) | |
Clever | Remember, worth and value are not wrapped up in what you do. You are not a human doing. You are a human being. (references; author: unknown) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title | ||
Books |
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Music |
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit | Thumbnail | Description & Credit |
 | This is a spiral-shaped bacterium that is frequently carried by deer ticks of the genus Ixodes. When the deer tick bites a human being, the bacteria are transmitted to the human bloodstream. Credit: CDC. |  | First appearances are deceiving. This is a human being. Out for a night-time stroll at the South Pole. Credit: Paths Less Taken - NOAA at the Ends of the Earth. |
 | Great skill is needed to look after this delicate little human being ... / WHO photo. Credit: National Library of Medicine. |  | As a human being, I am ignored; as a woman, I am ridiculed; as an Indian woman, I am hated; as a mother, I am condemned ... Credit: Library of Congress. |
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits. | |||
| Author | Quotation |
Author Unknown | Whenever there is a human being there is an opportunity for kindness. |
Benjamin Disraeli | It destroys one's nerve to be amiable every day to the same human being. |
John Ruskin | No human being, however great, or powerful, was ever so free as a fish. |
John Stuart Mill | It is questionable if all the mechanical inventions yet made have lightened the day's toil of any human being. |
Margaret Fuller | It is astonishing what force, purity, and wisdom it requires for a human being to keep clear of falsehoods. |
May Sarton | One must think like a hero to behave like a merely decent human being. |
Ralph Waldo Emerson | Language is a city to the building of which every human being brought a stone. |
Samuel Johnson | The applause of a single human being is of great consequence. |
Viktor E. Frankl | A human being is a deciding being. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | |
| Title | Author | Quote |
Emma | Austen, Jane | They are known to no human being, I guess, but herself |
Les Miserables | Hugo, Victor | Such was the manner in which this human being had come into life |
Time Enough for Love | Robert Heinlein | A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Health | Every human being has 46 chromosomes, 23 inherited from each parent. (references) | |
Lexicography | Devil's Dictionary | TRIAL, n. A formal inquiry designed to prove and put upon record the blameless characters of judges, advocates and jurors. In order to effect this purpose it is necessary to supply a contrast in the person of one who is called the defendant, the prisoner, or the accused. If the contrast is made sufficiently clear this person is made to undergo such an affliction as will give the virtuous gentlemen a comfortable sense of their immunity, added to that of their worth. In our day the accused is usually a human being, or a socialist, but in mediaeval times, animals, fishes, reptiles and insects were brought to trial. A beast that had taken human life, or practiced sorcery, was duly arrested, tried and, if condemned, put to death by the public executioner. Insects ravaging grain fields, orchards or vineyards were cited to appeal by counsel before a civil tribunal, and after testimony, argument and condemnation, if they continued in contumaciam the matter was taken to a high ecclesiastical court, where they were solemnly excommunicated and anathematized. In a street of Toledo, some pigs that had wickedly run between the viceroy's legs, upsetting him, were arrested on a warrant, tried and punished. In Naples and ass was condemned to be burned at the stake, but the sentence appears not to have been executed. D'Addosio relates from the court records many trials of pigs, bulls, horses, cocks, dogs, goats, etc., greatly, it is believed, to the betterment of their conduct and morals. In 1451 a suit was brought against the leeches infesting some ponds about Berne, and the Bishop of Lausanne, instructed by the faculty of Heidelberg University, directed that some of "the aquatic worms" be brought before the local magistracy. This was done and the leeches, both present and absent, were ordered to leave the places that they had infested within three days on pain of incurring "the malediction of God." In the voluminous records of this cause celebre nothing is found to show whether the offenders braved the punishment, or departed forthwith out of that inhospitable jurisdiction. |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| Speaker | Phrase(s) |
Sarah Ferguson | If they're regular human beings, they're going to talk about regular human being things. And I would say the news is a regular thing to discuss. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Speaker | Term | Phrase(s) |
Jimmy Carter | 1977-1981 | I'm determined that the United States will remain the strongest of all nations, but our power will never be used to initiate a threat to the security of any nation or to the rights of any human being. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day |
human being | 46 |
cloning human being | 4 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Language | Translations for "human being"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Afrikaans | mensekind (human, man), mens (human, man). (various references) | |
Albanian | qenie njerëzore (Wight), njeri (creature, Cully, dog, homo, human, laddie, man, one, person, relative). (various references) | |
Arabic | مخلوق بشري, البشر (man, mortal, universe, world), إنسان بشر أو شخص (human, individual), إنسان (creature, man, person). (various references) | |
Bulgarian | човек (being, bloke, bod, body, fellow, figure, guy, head, homo, human, individual, Jack, Johnny, joker, liver, Mac, man, person, piece, subject, thing, type, Wight, you). (various references) | |
Catalan | home (man). (various references) | |
Czech | èlovìk (fellow, homo, one, person). (various references) | |
Danish | menneske (man). (various references) | |
Dutch | mens (man). (various references) | |
Esperanto | homo (man). (various references) | |
Faeroese | menniskja (man), fólk (folk, man, nation, people). (various references) | |
Finnish | ihminen (human, man, person). (various references) | |
French | homme, être humain. (various references) | |
Frisian | minske (man, woman). (various references) | |
German | Mensch (body, crumb, human, individual, man, person, phew). (various references) | |
Greek | άνθρωπος (dude, human, man, people, person). (various references) | |
Hebrew | א"ם (humanity, individual, man, mankind, person), בן א"ם (man, mortal, person), בן א וש (mortal), בשר ו"ם (flesh and blood, mortal), בר ש (creature, fellow, guy, son of a gun, specimen). (various references) | |
Hungarian | emberi lény (earthling, soul). (various references) | |
Icelandic | manneskja (man), maður (fellow, husband, man, person). (various references) | |
Italian | persona (body, figure, man, person, piece), essere umano. (various references) | |
Japanese Kanji | 人" (man, person), 人" (man, person), 人 (adult, character, man, man of talent, mankind, messenger, other people, people, person, personality, true man, visitor). (various references) | |
Japanese Katakana | ひと (adult, bandit, character, condemning, denouncing, man, man of talent, mankind, messenger, other people, people, person, personality, spending, true man, visitor), に"'" (man, person), に" (adult, character, charge, duty, kernel, man, man of talent, mankind, messenger, obligation, other people, people, person, personality, responsibility, true man, visitor). (various references) | |
Malay | manusia (man). (various references) | |
Manx | sheelnaue (humanity, humankind, mankind), peiagh (human, person), peccah (sin, sinner). (various references) | |
Norwegian | menneske (man). (various references) | |
Papiamen | hende (man). (various references) | |
Pig Latin | umanhay eingbay.(various references) | |
Polish | człowiek (man). (various references) | |
Portuguese | homem (fellow, he, husband, male, man, person), ser humano (creature, human, man, mortal, person). (various references) | |
Romanian | fiinţã umanã (flesh and blood). (various references) | |
Russian | человек (a man of great worship, April-fool, bodybuilder, contrarian, diarist, dieter, digamist, diner-out, fruitarian, fugleman, globe-trotter, good-timer, haemophiliac, hipster, hobbyist, hot stuff, human, insomniac, interloper, irrepatriable, Job's post, kibitzer, killjoy, lawman, leading light, leaker, leaky vessel, left-winger, man, man set in authority, megalomaniac, middle-of-the-roader, name-child, Nosey Parker, nothingarian, pallbearer, person, prevaricator, prizeman, pseud, raver, returner, shopaholic, spoilsport, weather forecaster, wight 1, workaholic, worldling). (various references) | |
Scottish | tì (any one, designing to, intention, intention : air tì a ghlacadh, nm.ind. any human being, tea), muineal (neck of human being, the neck), duine (a gentleman, a man, fellow, human being : duin-uasal, man). (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | ljudsko biće, čovek (bloke, chap, fellow, homo, human, jack, man, maun, one, person, stiff, walla). (various references) | |
Spanish | hombre (Cully, fellow, hubby, husband, inamorato, light, love, man, old bean). (various references) | |
Swedish | människa (creature, man, mortal, person). (various references) | |
Thai | มนุษย์ (earth, earthling, earthman, flesh and blood, human, man, soul). (various references) | |
Turkish | insanoğlu (human, humankind, mankind, mortality, the human race), insan (anthropo-, born of woman, hominid, human, humanity, lords of creation, man, microcosm, mortal, naked ape, spirit), ínsan (man). (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
| Language | Period | Translations |
| Sumerian | 3100 BCE-2500 BCE | 1. na, lu. (various references) |
| Latin | 500 BCE-Modern | homine, hominem, hominemque, homines, homini, hominibus, hominis, hominum, homo, homo hominis, persona, terrigenus. (various references) |
| Old French | 900-1400 | persone. (various references) |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "a-b-e-g-h-i-m-n-n-u" | |
-2 letters: benaming, inhumane. | |
-3 letters: anguine, beaming, beaning, guanine, hangmen, inhuman, meaning, numbing, unhinge. | |
-4 letters: bagmen, baning, benign, enigma, gamine, guanin, guinea, gunman, gunmen, haeing, haemin, humane, inhume, naming, numina, unhang. | |
-5 letters: amine, anime, began, begin, begum, begun, being, benni, bhang, bimah, binge, ennui, gambe, gamin, genua, hemin, henna, hinge, human, image, imbue, inane, mange, minae. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Modern | 5. Usage: Commercial 6. Images: Photo Album 7. Quotations: Familiar 8. Quotations: Fiction | 9. Quotations: Non-fiction 10. Quotations: Spoken 11. Quotations: Speeches 12. Expressions: Internet | 13. Translations: Modern 14. Translations: Ancient 15. Anagrams 16. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
