¿What Is Human?

What is Human?

We can guess that to be human one must have the usual features such as fingers, hands, arms, toes, feet, legs, etc., but what does to be human REALLY mean? Do we need feelings? Do we need all of our 5 senses?
That is why when we first ask ourselves ‘What is human?’. First of all we state the obvious such as being bipedal, having the ability to create complex sounds (notnecessarily in form of speech) and our abilities to create tools and technology.
Human beings are animals, a creature occupying a small place in space and time, the highest form of life, an occupant of a really small body in the solar system and a vertebrate creature, Homo sapiens, at the highest level of animal development characterized by a highly developed brain.

Then is it language that makes ushuman? Language is what makes humans unique as it differentiates us from primates (apart from our appearance). Language is generally acquired during childhood and is developed throughout our lives. But what would happen if language was not acquired during childhood? There are cases of children lost or abandoned who even grew up with dogs, wolves, and other animals. These children are called feralchildren and there are about 100 knows cases of these children.
There is a critical period for when language must develop, sometime after infancy and before puberty; otherwise it will never reach its potential. So my question is, can language be developed after puberty? I suppose that although language comprehension can be acquired after puberty, complete language development will never beachieved. Childhood is the moment for adaptation in our society and the time when learning is easiest.

There is a case of a girl who was named Genie to keep her identity anonymous. She was born in 1957 and from the age of 20 months until her rescue at the age of 13 years and nine months (she missed the entirety of the critical period) she was isolated in a dimly lit room. Her father, believing shewas mentally retarded, locked her away, separating her from her almost blind mother and 6-year-old brother to ‘protect her’.

“She was physically punished if she made any noise and received no communication other than the occasional bark from her father or brother.”
When she was found she was described as mute and didn’t respond to anything she was told, therefore she was sent to hospital.After a tortured life she was speechless and wild with no proper social relationships.

When she was found she was sent into a hospital. There she was taught to speak and write. In a short period of time when began to respond and make friendships, this surprised everyone. She understood that language could be used as a way of communicating.
“Despite intensive therapy Genie never managed to detectphonological (differences in words such as hair and hare) and syntactic (speech patterns) relationships”

First of all that my ideology makes me believe that all creatures that look like humans are human beings so my statement will be based on that. I think that not speaking because you haven’t learnt to speak does not make you less human. It doesn’t have to be a language it is just important tobe understood or a way of communicating with others.

I would also like to mention the case of Hellen Keller to prove that we don’t need to be able to speak nor see to be human, we just need to be taught how to and have a little curiosity to learn and do it by whichever means.

Helen Keller was not born blind and deaf, it was not until she was 19 months old that she contracted an illnesswhich might have possibly been scarlet fever or meningitis. The illness did not last for too long but it left her deaf and blind.
She was able to ‘communicate’ with Martha Washington the six-year-old daughter of the family cook. Martha understood her signs and by the age of seven Hellen Keller had over 60 signs to communicate with her family at home.

It wasn’t until Hellen Keller realised that...