What makes homo sapiens "human"?

Hey, SasqSorry to get into this so late. In other issues of my thinking I've been musing on sensory/motor life/awareness vs. conceptual/imagination. I'm thinking perhaps it's this increased conceptual activity leading to imagination and participation in shared imaginary worlds such as revealed religous concepts of spirits, heaven, etc. that is what distinguishes homo sap from the rest of the life forms on this planet.It's not what we do, it's all the dramatic imagining we add to our doing that makes us different. Whaddya think?peace,
lfen

Andya,Point taken on neanderthal and possibily erectus. As they are extinct the point maybe a bit moot. I'll draw a line or at least a grey transition zone at other primates though. Chimps and gorilla have been shown to acquire language but I don't know how abstract their conceptualizations are. I am basing my speculation on language being in some way a basis or prerequiste for imagination.This was an idea that came to me as I read this thread and so it is speculation.lfen

Sas,Gotcha, it is a matter of degree and homo sap is pretty drastic.Do you know this book A WANDERING GOD: a study in nomadic spirituality by Morris Berman? Interesting speculation of the differences that the settled agarian lifestyle brought to humans. A thoughtful read.lfen

A dim memory is coming back from when I used to watch television, like 10 years ago? Some show did have a grey parrot and they were using a test involving shapes of different colors. And my memory is extremely hazy on this. I recall it had a lovely feminine soft voice not what I expected a parrot to sound like. I was pretty amazed. Does anyone know anything about that bird? Seems like it was a woman who taught it to speak. The cue might have been something like "what is green and large" and the parrot would look over the objects and say "triangle" if it was the green large shape.I remembering being very impressed. I can't say how well controlled the study was to rule out subliminal cueing though.lfen

Crash,I should have read through the thread first! That is the bird. And that Docter, what a voice they both have!lfen