Chapter One:

Who and What We Are

Before I get into the details of my many different theories, I should first educate the huddled masses on exactly what species we are speaking of. After all, how can I expect you to fully understand what creature I'm speaking of if you don't have the same understanding of the human species that I have. I cannot expect you to, so I shall educate you on my perception and understanding of the human species.

You are, of course, free to completely ignroe this chapter, but I will warn you, that much of the content is based primarily on the observations I record in this particular chapter. You cannot even begin to understand the things contained further in this piece of literature without reading onward about the Humans species in my eyes, and in my mind.

Speaking From Science:

Science, and just about every dictionary I could get my hands on define a Human as being: "A member of the genus Homo and especially of the species H. sapiens." This of course means nothing to any person who doesn't have a working knowledge of the method Science uses to classify different "things" into groups and categories for easy reference. Of course, I will not leave you in the dark on this , since I did adore my Medical Biology Class, I'll walk you through our classification bit by bit to stress the importance of such things.

Human Beings, in all of their apparant importance belong to the Kingdom of Animalia. We are, after all, animals and not plants. Plants have their own Kingdom name. Animals are defined as multicellular organisms, differing from plants in certain typical characteristics such as capacity for locomotion, nonphotosynthetic metabolism, pronounced response to stimuli, restricted growth, and fixed bodily structure.

In English, this states that Animals are not Plants, because they can move, the cannot rely upon the sun to feed them, they respond to pokes and prods, they cannot grow to be twenty feet tall, and they bodies are always going to have the same basic joints, bones, and muscles. Mose of these are subject to health, and wellbeing, but for the most part, these are true.

Onward. As we belong to the Kingdom of Animalia, we are further divided from just being Animals into the Phylum of Chordata.This is in reference to our back-bone. This is what separates us from beings such as insects and some sea-dwelling creatures. The existence of our "back-bone" furhter separates us into our grouping as human beings.

To continue down the trail of our classification, the Grouping of Animalia-Chordata is further divided into the Class of Mammalia. We, along with several other beings, mammals. Mammals are defined as warm-blooded vertebrate animals, including humans, characterized by a covering of hair on the skin and, in the female, milk-producing mammary glands for nourishing the young.

Once again, In English, this states that Mammals, are characterized by the covering of hair over their bodies, and the ability to give live-birth, and to nurse that birth, via mammary glands.

The Classification of Mammal can be taken into many different directions. But for the sake of simplicity, and because I intend to attack one very popular Evolutionary Theory later, I shall include the further classification of the Order of Primate. According to the scientific world, we are indeed Primates. I will nto dispute this right now, because I intend to save that for the upcoming chapters, but this argument assists me for thsi chapter, thus I will utilize it fully. In essence, we are apes. scientifically speaking of course.

Now we know we belong to the Classification of: Animalia-Chordata-Mammalia-Primate but according to that, we are monkeys, or more specifically apes, since monkey are something entirely different. If you're really interested, I'll give you information on that at a later date. At any rate, in order to further classify Humans, we must be broken from the Order to the Family. Our Family is Hominidae. This separates Apes into two groups, those that walk upright and those that do not. We walk upright, Gorillas do not.

Now this one you might recognize, I know the others are a bit difficult to recall from High School Biology class, but our Genus is well known and is primarily responsible for our scientific name. Homo , our Genus, includes all Upright Apes who are considered either extinct, or extant versions of Humans. Extinct means long dead. and Extant means still around.

Our final division is into a Species. Our current Species is Sapiens. Which classifies us as being the current living species of the Genus Homo. These particular species are subjected directly from CHarles Darwin's Evolutionary THeory which will be discussed in extensive detail in Chapter Eight.

To review: We, as humans, are placed into the extended classification of : Kingdom: Animalia, Phylum: Chordata, Class: Mammalia, Order: Primate, Family: Hominidae, Genus: Homo, and Species: Sapiens. These can be broken further, but those restrict the view too much. Centering on the species is enough for our needs, though eventually, I will indeed break this goup further into more, easier to work with, groups.

Psychologically Speaking

Humans have an unusual psyche. They are animals with wills and thoughts of their own. They are animals wih the abilites to speak and convey emotion. Theya re animals who learn from their mistakes and continue on with their lives. They are, in a word, remarkable. Remarkable, but animals none-the-less. That singular fact should remain in your mind at all times. We are still animals

What does this mean? It means that Animals can be trained, and though they may be resistant, and in cases, resiliant, to training, they are never completely immune. Several factors go into the training of an animal. The two most important though, are Genetics and Environment. This piece of literature has more to do with Genetics that Environment; However, should you wish to hear about my thoughts on Environment, I have a few pieces that might interest you Here.

Pre-Elemetary School

Firstly, I apologize to those readers who are not familiar with Schooling in the United States. I will be the first to acknowledge that schooling within the United States of America is by far the worst possible place to put a child; However, I am not here to dispute the appropriatness of US Schooling, rather, I am here to discuss how the stages of a human's life can easily explain the different stages of their individual evolution.

Elementary school starts for most people at the age of Five(5). Before then, a child is exposed to extensive ammounts of stimuli, from sights and sounds, to tastes and sensations. It is in these first Five years when a child develops personality traits that will continue to evolve with him or her throughout his or her life. These traits will later prove to be the most vivid and pronounced of their personality traits later in life.

The main factor in the development of these traits, I am sad to say, is Environment. On the ocassion , Genetics plays a role in these things, such an innate fear of the opposite sex, but , for the most part, Your parents have the biggest impact on you. Which leads one ot believe that their parents had the biggest impact upon them, and theirs upon them and so on and so forth, which leads you to believe that, in all logicality, we are the products of our forefathers not our fathers.

Remember that, because it will help you to understnad what I mean later when I speak of Inherent Traits or Intrinsic Traits These are the traits that are handed down to use by those before us in our family line. Some of these traits are universal, and everybody has them, yet others are rare and sometimes muted. The rarer ones are still communicated to use in our early years; however, they are not pronounced until later in our lives when they become more obvious.

What is this saying exactly? In essence it is my theory that all of our traits, are indeed genetic, not environmental. They are predetermined to happen and when or how they occur or pronounce themselves is dependant on how pronounced these traits are in our family lines. This too, is dependant on genetics. A female child is more likely to take on more of the Woman's characteristics than a male child, and vice versa.