Evolutionary Cooperation, Prehistoric Genocides, Ancient Myths, Self-Domestication, and Humanity Now

Our knowledge of our and other human species has expanded rapidly. The chrono-frontiers of Homo sapiens has been pushed back to at least 300,000 years ago, further back in time than the 150 ka or kyr as initially believed. At one time we coexisted with at least eight and possibly up to ten different human species up to about 10,000 years ago. There were probably more hominin species and subspecies, too, still unidentified from the fossil records. Unknown or mystery genetic markers point to the DNA ghosts of such distant and remote ancestors.

Clearly the different hominins interbred with each other, including together with and apart from Homo sapiens. How much was consensual versus coerced is unknown, but clearly we know Neanderthals, Denisovans, and what we now call Early Modern Humans (early Homo sapiens) intermixed frequently and even lived together. The different species, not counting their various hybrids, are as follows:

Homo erectus
Homo floresiensis
Homo luzonensis
Homo naledi
Homo denisova*
   (*May be two or three different species or subspecies:
      D0,
      D1 – proposed as a clearly distinct Homo species,
      D2)
Red Deer Cave People**
   (**Currently undecided what to name this Homo species)
Homo rhodesiensis 
Homo neanderthalensis
     &
Homo sapiens

It is a sobering roll call.

The list feels sobering because the evidence demonstrates we Homo sapiens are a hypertribalistic species compelled to violence and war. We massacre our enemies. We exterminated at least eight other hominin species, eight other Homo species we had coexisted with. The number of fellow human species we wiped out may be more, possibly nine or ten if not more. Genocides. It’s as if we annihilated our evolutionary brothers and sisters and cousins. Knowing these things leaves a pit in my gut, sadness in my heart, horror in my mind, and tears in my eyes.

Apparently our penchant for slaughter extended to other life forms back then as our species triggered the so-called Sixth Mass Extinction. This on-going event is also variously referred to as the Holocene, Anthropocene, or even the Holocene-Anthropocene Extinction. The causes are a combination of climate changes from the natural cycles of ice ages and global warmings to the human-caused and human-amplified global climate disruptions.

Overhunting, overfishing, and allowing for the rapid spread of invasive species instead of gradual evolutionary adaptation played significant roles in extinction. Habitat destruction, however, proved to be the largest killer of life forms. Agriculture, urbanization, road building, land clearing, desertification, ocean warming, human overpopulation and the widespread introduction of toxic chemical and radioactive pollutants into our biosphere led to the ongoing extinction of plants, animals, fungi, protists, bacteria, and other organisms.

One of the great ironies is we Homo sapiens learned to become extremely cooperative in order to succeed at being highly competitive. What led us to conquer ourselves and others? What led us to become a planet-wide superpredator who also domesticated animals and plants? What led us to develop from bands of families to competing transimperial superpower alliances? What led us to wipe out all other Homo species and many rival Human groups? What led us to the brink where we stand at the crossroads of the collapse of global civilization and possibly our extinction versus choosing to work together to overcome our global wicked problems and build a democratic world republic?

We self-domesticated, that’s what we did. Humans domesticated themselves and each other. Apparently we had to survive as a species or be wiped out by other Homo species as well as by other apex predators. Our collectivist cooperation led us to work together to conquer the world only to fall upon each other.

What if we consciously choose to work together as a planetary species?

Also…what of the legends of other humanoid species from pixies, elves, and faeries to red-haired, six-fingered giants and one-eyed cyclops to intelligent saurians and other lizard people to blue-skinned entities to fish kings and merpeople who vanished or hid themselves including underground to not prey on humans but to protect themselves from being destroyed? What of these ancient myths? We know the actual fossil record is quite small relative to the vast number of species that once existed on this planet. Even the archaeological evidence for ancient civilizations is still small as more and more continue to be discovered. Significant Earth changes over eons eradicate even the gigantic craters of prehistoric meteor impacts.

In a related tangent, isn’t it more likely those individuals and groups portrayed as gods, goddesses, devils, and angels in our religious literature are either cryptoterrestrial or extraterrestrial biological organisms than actual deities? Or the spiritual realm represents biological or plasma or consciousness-based entities and beings inhabiting parallel dimensions and universes we fail to recognize, measure, and understand as such? There is so much we have learned, and yet so much more we do not know, recognize, or understand.

Regardless of such matters we must remind ourselves time and again we are at choice. We can choose to be the masters of our destiny both as individuals and collectively as a species. We can choose to evolve and save this planet, or move to destroy it completely as we once destroyed even the gods.

William Dudley Bass
Saturday 21 December 2019
Wednesday 22 January 2020
Seattle, Washington
USA
Cascadia
Earth
Sol

Sources:

Berman, Robby. “Is human civilization Earth’s first?” Big Think, 16 April 2018. https://bigthink.com/robby-berman/is-human-civilization-earths-first.

Jacobs, Guy S., & 13 other authors. “Multiple Deeply Divergent Denisovan Ancestries in Papuans,” Cell. 177(4). 02 May 2019. https://www.cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092-8674(19)30218-1#%20.

Longrich, Nick. “Nine Species of Human Once Walked Earth. Now There’s Just One. Did We Kill The Rest?” Science Alert/The Conversation, Canberra, Australia. 22 Nov 2019. https://www.sciencealert.com/did-homo-sapiens-kill-off-all-the-other-humans.

Price, Michael. “Early humans domesticated themselves, new genetic evidence suggests,” Science Magazine: Evolution. AAAS, NYC, NY. 04 Dec 2019.

Tonnies, Mac. The Cryptoterrestrials: A Meditation on Indigenous Humanoids and the Aliens Among Us. Internet Archive, originally Anomalist Books, San Antonio, TX. 2010.
https://archive.org/stream/TheCryptoterrestrials/The%20Cryptoterrestrials.%20%20Mac%20Tonnies_djvu.txt.

Scharping, Nathaniel. “The Denisovans May Have Been More Than a Single Species,” Discover Magazine: Planet Earth, 11 April 2019. https://www.discovermagazine.com/planet-earth/the-denisovans-may-have-been-more-than-a-single-species.

Copyright © 2019, 2020 by William Dudley Bass. All Rights Reserved by the Author & his Descendants until we Humans establish Wise Stewardship over and for our Earth and Solarian Commons. Thank you.