Material Evidence: caring for adult vulnerabilities (original) (raw)

Hidden Depths: The Origins of Human Connection

What can archaeological evidence contribute to our understanding of the origins of human empathy, compassion and generosity? We have seen in Chapter 1 that our human capacity for compassion and our tendencies to help others have an important evolved biological basis. Here, we focus on what the preserved material evidence of early humans and their behaviours can contribute to our understanding of how our emotional motivations to help others emerged. We particularly consider often-overlooked archaeological evidence for care for adults made vulnerable by illness or injury. This evidence demonstrates a deep past to human emotional motivations to help those around them. Furthermore, changing emotional motivations are a response to wider context and selective pressures, similar to those also seen in some other social mammals. A critical appraisal of evidence for responses to illness and injury suggest that significant changes in helping behaviour and responses to vulnerability may have ta...

From Hominity to Humanity: Compassion from the Earliest Archaics to Modern Humans

Time and Mind, 2010

We are increasingly aware of the role of emotions and emotional construction in social relationships. However, despite their significance, there are few constructs or theoretical approaches to the evolution of emotions that can be related to the prehistoric archaeological record. Whilst we frequently discuss how archaic humans might have thought, how they felt might seem to be beyond the realm of academic inquiry. In this paper we aim to open up the debate into the construction of emotion in early prehistory by proposing key stages in the emotional motivation to help others; the feeling of compassion, in human evolution. We review existing literature on compassion and highlight what appear to be particularly significant thresholds in the development of compassion for human social relationships and the evolution of the human mind.

From Homininity to Humanity: Compassion from the Earliest Archaics to Modern Humans

We are increasingly aware of the role of emotions and emotional construction in social relationships. However, despite their significance, there are few constructs or theoretical approaches to the evolution of emotions that can be related to the prehistoric archaeological record. Whilst we frequently discuss how archaic humans might have thought, how they felt might seem to be beyond the realm of academic inquiry. In this paper we aim to open up the debate into the construction of emotion in early prehistory by proposing key stages in the emotional motivation to help others; the feeling of compassion, in human evolution. We review existing literature on compassion and highlight what appear to be particularly significant thresholds in the development of compassion for human social relationships and the evolution of the human mind.

Calculated or caring? Neanderthal healthcare in social context

2018

(Open access: https://doi.org/10.1080/00438243.2018.1433060) Explanations for patterns of healed trauma in Neanderthals have been a matter of debate for several decades. Despite widespread evidence for recovery from injuries or survival despite impairments, apparent evidence for healthcare is given limited attention. Moreover, interpretations of Neanderthals’ approach to injury and suffering sometimes assume a calculated or indifferent attitude to others. Here the authors review evidence for Neanderthal healthcare, drawing on a bioarchaeology of care approach and relating healthcare to other realms of Neanderthal social life. The authors argue that Neanderthal medical treatment and healthcare was widespread and part of a social context of strong pro-social bonds which was not distinctively different from healthcare seen in later contexts. They suggest that the time has come to accept Neanderthal healthcare as a compassionate and knowledgeable response to injury and illness, and to turn to other questions, such as cultural variation or the wider significance of healthcare in an evolutionary context.

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