Space Technology

By: LESLEY SUMMERS
 ANTHROPOLOGY

The definition of Anthropology applies totally to Mankind.  The subject study involves the evolution of human beings worldwide.  It includes the habits and habitats of all and the effect on the environment.  That is, the science of man, in the widest  sense, or dealing with the Natural History of Mankind. 

The Bible has the conflicting report that ‘In the beginning God created man’.  It is generally known that by the 4th Century Christianity was the official religion of the Roman Empire.  There was then a choice, for all of mankind, between the ‘Kingdom of the World’ and the ‘Kingdom of God’.   Human beings always wish to achieve personal fulfillment and happiness.  Aristotle, the known philosopher, in 322 B.C. was interested in ‘ordinary’ people with common sense and thought they were social beings, who think about the ‘question of morality’ on a day to day basis.  Thus, it was taught by him, to the ‘general public of the day’,  that if you do something wrong you are punished for it!  This, then became the general assumption. 

Being moral became second nature to most of Mankind.  The information had released the people from ignorance which then became enlightenment.  Man then had an awareness of life issues and refinement, civilization, wisdom and understanding of morals which then became the accepted way of life.  Enlightenment gave Mankind a belief in universal human progress with the importance of reason.  The Hindu and Buddhist Religions gave the name of ‘Nirvana’ to their line of reasoning.  Nirvana inferred ‘a state of final bliss and freedom’ and a ‘state of relief from pain and anxiety’.

The evolution of Mankind is a process of change and development from a lower or simpler state to a higher or more complex state.  Man had distinguishable differences due to a ‘natural selection’ of mates when producing young.  That is the reality of sex, the needs of male and female sometimes common, sometimes contrasting which decide much of the communal life of Mankind.

Race is the way we are defined in culture.  There is development of mind by education and beliefs which are in a socially transmitted pattern.  It is human behavioral attitudes which form a distinct human type or race.

Mankind exists by cohabiting on environmental areas of our Planet the World.  It can be where there are rural and urban areas, between climatic regions and between different nations and different types of environmental management.  The World, our Planet, has multiple land-systems.  Topography is the relief of the land and position of man-made features. The soils of the land are dependant on the kind of underlying rock and the climate under which the area has been processed.  Mankind inhabits land which is pertinent to the implementation and evaluation of the natural environment in urban and regional development.  There can be human activity with land-use change such as afforestation, agriculture and urbanization.  This can mean each land-use system responds to change in distinctive and different ways.  We have, for environmental management, several ways of explaining the past, understanding the present and predicting the future.  This is very time consuming for Mankind. Investigation depends on the time available for monitoring each land-use system.  There is the example of  Darwin and his theories of ‘Natural Selection’ which can be proved inadequate although a type of land system can be an adequate basis for prediction of another example.  Historical records can be of potential value too for environmental evidence of land change for use by mankind for developmental uses.

The largest step in the ‘ascent of man’ was the change from nomadic living to village agriculture.  At the end of the last ice age bands of hunters lived by constantly searching for food.  Then there was the domestication of animals, such as sheep and cattle.  Farming also appeared, often when there were flood plains next to rivers, plus a warm dry climate occurring, with a permanent water supply from the rivers to aid growth of food supply for mankind.   Therefore rural settlements cropped up in various patterns or shapes of villages and small towns.  Defence became necessary.  We remember the ‘walls of Jericho’ as many as 10,000 years ago.  Many settlements were surrounded by water or built on a hill, for example, Edinburgh.

With time, population growth has occurred, due to a natural increase following the food supply and better resources and the concept of economic development growth.   More urban structures and functional zones within cities have been developed.  Unfortunately, in Amazonia the rain forest clearance has meant a loss of habitat to tribes of mankind, animals and reptiles and insects.  Many medical cures, such as leukaemia, aids and other incurable diseases may now be lost already.  Also serious climatic repercussions caused by the loss of the trees.  Luckily, Malaysia is doing well having imposed a restriction on tree felling under a specific height, girth and age.  So some stocks are successfully maintained by mankind!

Mankind needs leisure time to manage to have family ties and unity with friends and to refuel his need for being a social animal!  He has hobbies to use his exercise time in leisure and utilize his competitive spirit.  Some of the cities, built for Mankind, have taken into account the fact that leisure is a vital part of the scheme of events.  They have included a children’s village and crèche and cinemas with a ‘space city’ for computer and space enthusiasts, plus an exhibition centre and other items of interest for leisure time.

The ‘Third World’ of Mankind are the ‘underdeveloped Nations of the World’, such as Africa and Asia.  They, nowadays include the poorest, who are living farther from the centre of the cities and the more affluent living near to the centre.  Usually shanty towns, of  the poorest, lack the basic amenities, so there is great social inequality within these Nations.  We, as Mankind, have had a ruthless pursuit for equality of life and need to become more morally aware to survive as a species.  We could destroy ourselves and our Planet with selfishness and technology.   Let us now hope that all Governments give attention to this thought for the sake of Mankind worldwide.

 

LESLEY SUMMERS

MARCH 2009

(1017 WORDS)