I've been compiling a list of these things which "set us apart" from most other mammals: the "ones I'm more sure about" column contains: we can form complex vocal patterns, we walk upright, we don't tiptoe everywhere, we're essentially naked, we have large brains, we bleed when we menstruate, our causal intuitions have come detached from their immediate objects. (There's also a "less sure about" column which contains things like "we sing for the hell of it" and "our hearts are distinctly on the left.")
The tiptoeing one comes from when I was trying to discuss evolution with some intelligent design enthusiasts in the US (shudder). So the point they were making was, you can't possibly say that we look similar to dogs. And with my laptop I started pulling up skeletal diagrams of us and dogs, and showing that pretty much the entire logical structure of dogs' skeletons is identical to that of humans' skeletons, from shoulderblades to legs, if you think of them as standing on their tiptoes. It also points out a clear parallel between our arms, which have the same logical structure as our legs, and common ancestry suggests an elegant solution -- once, there was no difference between arms and legs, so of course they had the same structure -- natural selection just stole the recipe for one leg and used it four times.
Anyway, it's very interesting to see that these observations about our nudity and non-tiptoe bipedal walk come from such a simple, easily-expressible underlying story. Thanks.
Another change for you is the birthing process for humans is much harder than that of any other animal.
A human female is completely helpless for a much longer time during birth than any other animal - this requires a strong social structure to defend her.
Another change is the enormous amount of time it takes a human to mature. Again, this requires a complex social structure to provide for children for a long time.
I guess you're not familiar with the Kiwi bird, then. I think they qualify as the longest birthing process, with their eggs weighing about 1/4 the weight of the entire bird, and where laying an egg incapacitates the female for months. Of course, as with many birds, kiwis have a strong social structure, mating for life, and with the male participating the birthing process through incubating.
It's almost as if some animals have strong and complex social structures, too. Humans are indeed like other animals.
According to wikipedia it takes 1 month, not months, and the bird is only incapacitated toward the end of it.
The children of a kiwi bird are not fed by the parent in some of the species, and they leave the nest within a few days to a month, despite the bird living possibly 30 years.
No social relationships with other kiwis is required - only with the mate.
So your example falls totally flat.
Obviously some animals have one or another trait that compares to a human, but none have all of them - none even come close. Humans are not anything like other animals.
Not sure what pattern you want me to see - you need more than one example to make a pattern.
"we bleed when we menstruate" sounded way too weird. Maybe it still is valid if you set the emphasis on 'set apart from _most_' but it's nothing humans are unique in - according to a couple simple search terms.
(See 1 - if Wikipedia is to believe what we consider normal menstruation _is_ common mostly for humans and our close relatives in the animal kingdom, but also happens in simians and .. erm.. bats?)
"Most" is indeed key. For example, as far as "complex vocal patterns" go, there are birds which can learn to duplicate human speech and therefore have the vocal capacity of humans. Or, as far as bipedalism goes, you have the kangaroo -- and actually, if I count the animals that I've seen take a few steps on their hind legs, I'd have to also include dogs, a rabbit, a gerbil, and an elephant that was trying to get his mating on. Even our nakedness is shared by other species -- one of them is called the naked mole rat.
Also birds for bipedalism. At the extreme we have ostriches and emus.
BTW: cockatoos also have strikingly manipulative feet, which they use in combination with their beak (though they can't use both feet simultaneously). And a surprisingly high brain/body ratio. Although they lack a prefrontal cortex, birds have separately developed a different structure, called the hyperpallium. There's no necessary barrier for birds evolving sapience independently from our line (any more than for aliens) - and there's no reason that the architecture of our brains must be better/more efficient.
It would be better phrased as hidden estrus, which virtually no other animal has.
Can you imagine a world when you always knew if the women around you were menstruating? It would be tough to maintain equal rights in an environment like that - that change alone is a huge one for human culture - much larger than it appears at first.
A number of people lead normal lives with hearts on the right sides of their bodies - there is dextrocardia (just the heart reversed) and situs inversus with dextrocardia (most internal organs reversed). Pretty neat.
I'm surprised that this is even a question -- when's the last time you knew a cat or dog owner who was like, "yeah it's that time of the month for her, she's bleeding all over the house." But yes, for those of us who didn't grow up on farms, most animals reabsorb their menses and do not bleed externally. It might be one reason why pastoral farmers[1] thought that women were "unclean", and I'd be interested to know whether goddess-worship comes from more agrarian than pastoral societies.
[1] The example I'm thinking of here is actually just the Torah. The Cain and Abel story clearly establishes that the authors are pastoral farmers who distrust those sneaky evil agriculturalists; and they also have an extensive code of cleanliness which includes a woman as unclean during menstruation.
You might be interested in “The Alphabet vs. The Goddess”[1], which argues (dully, but persuasively) that literacy was the cause of the downfall of goddess worship. It doesn’t go much into the religious differences between pastoralists and agriculturalists, though, and I’d be interested to read more on that. Ishmael[2] and other books by Daniel Quinn changed the way I think about culture, and I guess I’ve been looking for the “next thing”. Anyone?
Looked up author. Discovered he is a doctor of laparoscopy, which has bugger-all to do with psychology or neurology. That he's an idiot was apparent as soon as I read his thesis which relies heavily on oversimplified, stereotypical, pop-psy brain lateralization memes straight out of books you might find in that feminist bookstore from the Portlandia skit.
It’s been years since I read it, and looking at it now, I see that it wouldn’t stand up to another reading. I do think writing was indeed as socially influential as he claims, and that patriarchal religion could be one of its social effects. But the bit about “rewiring the brain” is obvious crap.
This is different from menstruation, it occurs when the animal is ‘in heat’ during mid-cycle (at the time of ovulation) and the blood comes from the vaginal walls, not the uterus.
There's an amazing talk given by Robert Sapolsky (Stanford Neurologist), discussing similar concepts. The talk has more to do with different behaviors that emerge between species and how the brain plays a role in that; rather than simply physical characteristics such as bleeding or movement.
I'd highly reccomend watching it if at all interested
The tiptoeing one comes from when I was trying to discuss evolution with some intelligent design enthusiasts in the US (shudder). So the point they were making was, you can't possibly say that we look similar to dogs. And with my laptop I started pulling up skeletal diagrams of us and dogs, and showing that pretty much the entire logical structure of dogs' skeletons is identical to that of humans' skeletons, from shoulderblades to legs, if you think of them as standing on their tiptoes. It also points out a clear parallel between our arms, which have the same logical structure as our legs, and common ancestry suggests an elegant solution -- once, there was no difference between arms and legs, so of course they had the same structure -- natural selection just stole the recipe for one leg and used it four times.
Anyway, it's very interesting to see that these observations about our nudity and non-tiptoe bipedal walk come from such a simple, easily-expressible underlying story. Thanks.