Toads in the Poetry Jam!

Ah, the evolution of man. If you could be anywhere, see anything, surely we'd all pick that God or gene moment when modern man, Homo sapiens sapiens, appeared? The past, and the path, are still muddy here; the fossil record vanishingly rare; any new discoveries necessarily change, sometimes seismically, the theories posited before. And there are a plethora of theories.

Popular Western culture has given us cavemen with pronounced foreheads saying 'Ug' as our ancestor image, but this only bears the vaguest resemblance to Homo neanderthalensis, who is a relation, but no forebear. Adam, and perhaps more crucially, Eve, were black and lived in Africa. I veer towards the theory that their true emergence occurred just before the last great migration of the Homo species out of Africa, which is only around 60,000 years ago. That's a skinny 3,000 generations.

It is also my view that by this point language had been developing through our predecessor hominins, and it is inconceivable to me that culture had not developed too. Homo erectus may have had art, and religion - yes, Mother Goddesses! - if the Venus of Tan-Tan and the Venus of Berekhat Ram can conclusively be shown to be produced artefacts. Their current dating? Between 300,000 and 500,000 years old. Or of course, it could have been archaic sapiens in the cave. And archaic sapiens may actually be a distinct a species, like helmei. Which shows how clear we are.

One thing is for certain. We are the last standing ape standing.

All of which preamble is merely to show my fascination for our earliest past, and why I'd choose to hang about in mainly Africa for around 3 million years. And Peggy at the Poetry Jam said I could!
For other time travellers, go here:
http://poetryjaam.blogspot.com/2011/12/past-and-future.html

I'm also open linking with the Monday Toads on this one, because I like them. They live here: http://withrealtoads.blogspot.com/2011/12/open-link-monday_12.html




The Birth of Shiva

Wishing I would be present at his first
words, rich click redolent with real belief
about the whys of the world, not just whats,
whens, wheres. In the geological rift
observe, keen, transitional man of species
indeterminate. I need not imagine.
To stand beside australopithecines
(we did for them, one way or another)
with habilis, handy, then ergaster,
then heidelbergensia in that place.
Step time, step pace; erectus in Asia,
we did for them, one way or another;
neanderthalensis we did for too.
You know the rest. Not just skulls, skulls, skulls
and syllables, but carving flesh man,
these ones that went before, the ones that bore
familiar stuff, unusual nonsense.
All that requires is several million years:
I would attend until the moment when,
precisely when, the canny man became.
There is no shade between us; his sun ours,
his needs, wants, lusts and his unsettling tongue
ours. I could press flat forehead against his,
he would press and penetrate, dark, fertile.
He is the sole survivor, sapiens, and we
not luck, strength or size of brain but wisdom
which means drive, cunning and a will to kill.