THE ORIGIN OF MAN

INTRODUCTION

Man is the most gifted creature that lives on earth. He is the only creature that lives and adapt to all climates. Where the climate is harsh to him, he changes it with the use of the knowledge he has acquired. But if he cannot, he adapts to it. Man, for example adapt to cold season by wearing thick clothes. He uses heater to heat his room.

Also since it is not possible to prolong the rainy season period, he constructs dams to irrigate his farmland during dry season.

He makes and uses tools. First by sharp stones and when he gained the art of iron making, made crude implements. He has become the only living thing that destroys his type in wars and conflicts, using dangerous weapons of mass destruction. He has, with the use of science and technology, discovered some secrets hidden in the world.

He has been able to cure some illnesses which had eluded him in the past and has gone far to eradicate such diseases. In addition to all these, he has learnt to create objects transport himself to space and far beyond, made communication easier and faster, so that the entire world now look like a global village.

                             BIOLOGICAL CLASSIFICATION OF MAN

Man belongs to the animal kingdom. He is a mammal because he is warm-blooded, air breathing, with a covering of skin and hair. Mammals generally have the same way of reproducing and taking care of the young. In addition, man is a primate. According to Crowder, Cootes and Snellgrove (1977), a primate is a group of mammals that have higher brains, hands and feet and have the ability to adapt to various environments. Other mammals that are primates include; monkeys and man like apes such as orangutans, gorillas and chimpanzees.

                   THE VARIOUS EXPLANATION S OF THE ORIGIN OF MAN

1) Legends:

These are stories of the past told by an elderly person to the young ones at night. They are fairy tales and are fabricated. They are subject to a high degree of distortion. One of such myths or legends which attempt to explain the origin of man is the Yoruba legend which traced their origin to the east. According to the legend, they were said to have sprung up from Olorun who had a son called Oduduwa. At the dawn of time, according to the legend the earth was covered with water. Olorun, the supreme god sent his son Oduduwa down to the earth from the sky on a chain (A chain preserved in Ile-Ife to this day, is believed to be the celestial chain of the legend). He took taking clown with him a handful of earth, a cockerel and a palm nut. Oduduwa scattered the earth over the water and the cockerel scratched it so that it became the land on which the palm tree grew.

2) Scientific theory of evolution

According to this theory, as in the Encyclopedia Americana (1995) species go through some changes in their inherited form for a long period of time and that as a result of these changes, some species have transformed to become what they are today. Among their beliefs also is that all species had their origin in one life. This means that human beings and all other creatures have one common ancestor.

Those who hold this view go on to say that closely related species share more recent common ancestors, but, distantly related species trace their ancestry far into the past to find a common ancestor. That is, to say human beings and man-like apes have common ancestor as far back as 4 - 10 million years ago, because they look alike. The ancestor of human beings and reptiles, for example, lived about 300 million years ago because there is no close resemblance. They professed that the family of primates are called hominids which evolved about 10 million years ago. While human lineage evolved and separated from that of man-like apes about 6 million years back. The hominid was given a name Australopithecus. The homosapiens which they said evolved about 25 thousand years ago is according to them the beginning of modern man.

                 Charles Darwin proposed the theory of evolution which becomes accepted in science

3) Religious explanation to man's origin

The religious explanation of the origin of man is based on the Holy Books (the Quran and the Bible) revealed to mankind as a source of guidance. According to the Holy Books, all creatures, living and non-living are created by God in the form of life essentially as they exist today.

According to Islam, the creation of man as recorded in the Holy Quran, states that Allah created everything - including man and it reads:

He who has made everything which

He has created most good; He began

the creation of man with (nothing

more than) clay, and made his

progeny from a quintessence of the

nature of fluid despised. But, he

fashioned him something of his

spirit. And he gave you (the faculties

of) hearing and sight and feeling

(and understanding) (Quran chapter

3 verses 7-9.)

In another verse, more explanation is given in connection with the process of the creation of man where it says “Man we did create from a clay" (Quran Chapter 23 verse 12-14). Based on the position of the Holy Quran, it is to be summed up that there is one strongly held view that God is the Creator of man.

From the Bible, God in the beginning created heaven and the earth. The earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep and the spirit of God was hovering over the waters hence the creation of the sea and land. After God had created everything, as in Genesis Chapter 1, verse 26: He commanded;

Let us make man in our image, in

our likeness, and let them rule over

the creatures that move over the

earth.

So God created man in His own image; male and female. He then blessed them and said to them:

Be fruitful and increase in number,

Fill the earth and subdue it (Genesis

Chapter 1 verse 28)

THE BEGINNING OF MAN FROM APES TO HOMOSAPIENS

Pre-ape Man

According to Black (1973), Charles Darwin in his origin of species by means of national selection established the fact that all species were created to each other. However, distantly, he later argued that man and the higher apes have a common ancestor. He further said our common ancestor is the one that came from modern Primates that lived about 30 million years ago, moved on all four hands have been established as our common ancestor.

The encyclopedia Americana described primate and other animals like monkeys, apes and man to typically have higher developed brain, stereoscopic vision, hands and feet adapted for grasping, and an ability to adapt their behaviour to a wide variety of environments living as primates, with the exception of man which is typically restricted towards temperate areas.

Neanderthal man

The fossil specimens referred to as Neanderthal man was first discovered in 1856 in western Germany. They are regarded as being different from modern man. They use ape like imaginary to portray them. It was concluded that, they were probably an aberrant side line that became extinct without giving rise to any offspring. Some scholars see them as direct ancestors of modern man. They suggested that Neanderthal man had greater muscularity, large teeth, jaws and related facial characteristics and that the brain size and structure had not changed at that time.

This classic evolutionary hypothesis stated that a series of homosapiens (Homo ergaster and Homo antecessor) evolved into Neanderthals (Homo Neanderthalensis formerly homo septers neandertalensis), which gave rise to modern humans (Homo sapiens).

                                    HOMOSAPIENS (MODERN MAN)

Modern man developed between 35,000 to 40,000 years ago. By this time, Neanderthal man has virtually disappeared and the homosapiens occupied Africa, Asia and Europe. Among the numerous specimen of the modern form of man, discovered all over the world, the closest studies found in France estimated about 35,000 years of age. The most popular of the specimen was the cro-magnan. The skull was said to be that of an old man who had lost his teeth. He has the facial features of modern European. It was suggested that there was a sharp break between the Neanderthal and the Cro-magnan.

It is now generally believed that there was a transition from Neanderthal man to modern man. It was suggested that the transition was very rapid in some places and gradual in other places. In Western Europe, the transition was so abrupt that most scholars believed that modern man invaded the area probably the Middle East. In South Africa, Neanderthal man and modern man appeared to have lived side by side for a short period. Only the Middle East specimens showed a series of progressive change. Starting around 70,000 years, on the basis of the present evidence it can be suggested that modern form of man, first appeared in Africa, Europe and other parts of the world.