Completed on April 8th, 2020, for an honor’s sophomore-level archeology course.
Loneliness is more than a feeling, it’s a torturous state of mind. In fact, loneliness in humans impacts our physical and mental health. It can lead to or worsen mood disorders such as depression and anxiety and can manifest physically, increasing the risk of heart attack and stroke. Although it seems curious, humans depend on connecting with the world around them. Our need to connect allows us to feel that we belong. In my virtual of the Hall of Human Origins, I realized that humans are connected through our generations of evolution, our ability to empathize and sympathize, and our expressive abilities through art and symbol.
The display of skulls in the Hall of Human Origins shows the evolvement of the human. In those skulls, I see the faces that came before mine. Some faces have a heavier brow ridge, a protruded maxilla, a sagittal crest, and larger teeth while others resemble my own face more closely. These familiar skulls have smoother, more rounded features; the eyebrow ridge less robust, a rounded maxilla and cranium, and teeth sizes closer to mine. The shapes of the skulls were molded by a change in diets, becoming obligate bipedal, and growing brains. Although the skull of Sahelanthropus tchadensis is from about 7-6 million years ago, its features are strikingly similar to those of a modern facing human. The front-facing eyes, the less protruding maxilla, and the rounded features of the face are very similar to my own skull. It’s amazing that all these different faces in the display lead to becoming the skull shape and size that humans have now.
But humans are more than our physical selves, we also have a profound conscience.
A bronze sculpture of a woman stands at the entrance of the Hall. She has her palms faced away from her and toward the sky. Her feet firmly ground her as her head falls back, arching her back with it, revealing her torso and breasts. It dawns on me, as I stare at this sculptured woman, that women from millions of years ago also probably had menstrual cramps. Maybe these women had nausea, a craving for something sweet, sore legs and breasts, or a short-lived flame of red-hot anger. Perhaps it was the discomfort of these women that inspired and influenced the herbal tea recipes, the yoga positions, and the meditation that women today practice to relieve ourselves.
Between my first period in fourth grade to the one I had last month, I’ve had uncountable conversations with my sisters and girlfriends about how much we hate getting them. In every conversation, we sympathize with each other, recycling words of comfort and tips to help feel better. But these conversations have never been exclusive to the women I’m close to. There have been times in swimming pool locker rooms when a frantic pre-teen has asked me for a tampon, or a classmate urgently whispers to me, “Do you have Advil?” Even though these girls are strangers to me, my ability to sympathize and empathize with them never lacks. Although these specific experiences are exclusive to women, humans throughout time have proven to be able to look beyond themselves when forming bonds in social groups.
The social life display shows the change over time in how humans became more social. The timeline begins between 2.6 to 1.8 million years ago and is titled, “Sharing Resources.” This part of the timeline shares that humans began collecting resources from far away to bring back to share with other members of their groups, deepening bonds and raising the survival rates of the group as they were all being provided for. I find this to be one of the most important actions because it shows an understanding of bonds and roles within relationships. Humans today, especially during this pandemic, have gone out of their way to donate and help each other. This need to care for each other seems innate.
Next in the timeline is “Gathering at the hearth,” dating from 800,000 years ago. It’s assumed that humans gathered here to keep warm, eat shared food, and protect themselves from predators. Feasting together is a popular bonding event that is practiced in cultures from around the world, and perhaps originated when humans gathered around the hearth.
The next two displays are “More time to grow,” dating from 300,000 to 160,000 years ago, and “Building social networks,” dating from 130,000 years ago. The first one explored how, since the human brain was larger and birth was more difficult, the babies grew more outside of the womb. This is important not only because of there more cultural exposure for the baby, but also maybe the origins of birth practices today. The last part of the display is the most important to me because is shared that this is when humans began interacting outside of their own groups and bonding with them as well. Today, most humans (adults and children) spend time with people outside of their family. These external bonds are an important part of a person’s identity as they are able to explore cultures outside of their own and learn to believe what they want.
My bedroom walls are covered with paintings of things that have deep meaning to me; an exploding TARDIS from Doctor Who, a portrait of Phoebe Waller-Bridge, scenes from Portrait de la jeune fille en feu and Killing Eve, the beach, and more. My room is personalized by things that incite appreciation and joy within me and show the story of my experiences. My ability to express my appreciation through art is a way to process my thoughts and feelings. The display of symbols and art in the Hall of Human Origins is beautiful.
At the center of the display, there is a replica of cave art, specifically handprints. Together, the handprints look like an erupting fire. There’s something profound in expressing yourself directly on a wall, a sort of permanence. I’d like to think of the handprints as statements; “I’m here, I exist.” I also think that the fact that there are usually clumps of handprints, it may signify a sort of interconnectedness between the families and groups that lived together in caves. Other art made is jewelry, which may have symbolized an array of things. Growing up, I made friendship bracelets with my friends to show that we mattered to each other. Recently, jewelry has also symbolized a connection to someone’s own family, such as passing jewelry down through generations. Jewelry is expressive of relationships or other important things in a person’s life.
Humans are fascinating in so many ways, and the Hall of Human Origins display at the National Museum of Natural History expresses that all humans are so much more similar than we realize. Discussions of differences in humans seem irrelevant when we all have the same desire to feel connected with each other, and practice traditions around the world that existed far back. The ability to express ourselves through art and symbols, to connect with and share our experiences with culturally different people, and creates the human essence.
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