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Article: Us and them, nature and humanism. (relevance of humanity's scientific origin in man's relationship with nature)
- Article from:
- Free Inquiry
- Article date:
- March 22, 1993
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1993 Council for Democratic and Secular Humanism, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Does humanism exclude the membership of Homo sapiens in a wider ecosystem? I believe it does just the opposite: it requires a recognition of our kinship with nature.
Let me explain. Anthropology shows us that human beings tend to rank other individuals in importance, value, or mode of treatment based on kinship. As the Bedouin say, "Me against my brother; me and my brother against my cousin; me, my brother and my cousin against the world."
Modern societies do not differ from tribal ones in this regard. We tend to treat other citizens differentially depending on how much they are like us, which is really just an expression of the tribal society's concern with ...