 | |
| Author | Roger MacBride Allen |
|---|---|
| Country | US |
| Genre | Science Fiction |
| Published | 1988 |
| ISBN | 0-9671783-3-9 |
Orphan of Creation is a 1988 science fiction novel by American author Roger MacBride Allen. [1] The book was nominated for the Philip K. Dick Award in 1989. [2]
Anthropologists discover a remnant of ancestral genus Australopithecus ; pitiful creatures enslaved by a backward African village that is shunned by its neighbors for its cruel practices. It is the greatest anthropological discovery ever made, but who will guarantee that the rest of the world will treat Thursday and her kind any better than slave-masters!?
The protagonist is a paleoanthropologist who finds an odd anecdote about imported apes in her great-great-grandfather's account of growing up a slave in Mississippi. This discovery piques her curiosity, prompting her to make a small-scale excavation of ape bones. What she finds instead are several complete skeletons of australopithecines buried in the 1850s. The first section is about her and her colleagues assessing the implications while they try to keep the discovery a secret, interspersed with bits from the point of view of an Australopithecus kept as a slave in an isolated village. In the second and third sections, the paleontologist makes an expedition to Africa to look for living Australopithecus, ultimately resulting in contact with the Australopithecus. [3]
The novel is presented in three basic parts:
Introduces the protagonist, paleoanthropologist Dr. Barbara Marchando, her African-American family history and her heritage. Marchando is visiting her family during Thanksgiving, recovering from a recent, bitter divorce, prompting her to seek time alone to explore an attic. She discovers her ancestor Zebulon's diary which yields an account of the arrival of strange, new animal slaves dying from disease soon after arriving and provides motivation for digging on the grounds of the family's former plantation home. The dig is originally intended to identify the approximate location of a rumored pre-Civil War slave graveyard. A large section of the graveyard is found. A smaller separate section of graves yields skeletal remains that all display the same cranial and other bodily disfigurements. To the Dr.'s trained eye they resemble skulls known in fossil records as Australopithecus, a human ancestral species that died out some 1,400,000 years before. However, these remains are at most two centuries old. They are classified as an example of the subspecies Australopithecus boisei. The skeletons' classification and confirmed recent dates of death are impossible according to the accepted fossil record. Despite attempts to maintain a low profile, word of the unexpected findings leak to media. Skeptics express disbelief and ridicule the doctor's conclusions, jeopardizing her reputation and career.
Research of old town records disclose the sale of a new, heartier type of slave to the former plantation's master. The vessel bringing the 'new type slave' cargo is listed by name through the shipment manifest and its port of origin in Africa is identified. Marchando wins funding to visit the African port city and search for traces of what might have been a small enclave of humans displaying traits of an early human ancestor. After several unsuccessful excursions, a promising lead at last points to a remote, isolated and unfriendly group of villagers as a source of 'worker beasts'. A translator, armed escort, Marchando and several companions make plans to visit the isolated group. Marchando and the translator question the chief about stories of white men coming long ago to buy 'worker beasts' from the village and if they might help find where such 'beasts' lived. After an agreement for information is arranged, a young, dirty, naked and malnourished Australopithecus boisei female is led by collar and leash into the hut and handed over as purchased property. Aghast, Marchando realizes she has unintentionally traded a few goods and tools for a living fossil. The chief advises that the trade is fair and that most of the village has at least one beast to perform work they avoid. As the translator explains that undoing the exchange with the chief would prove insulting & dangerous, Marchando and her team leave with the nervous, but otherwise docile female. The doctor and team set about making plans to return to the port city and sedate the female while arrangements are made to transition her to Europe and eventually the United States. The female Boisei is given the name "Thursday" by Marchando. This is both a reference to the day she was found, and is a literary reference to the character of Friday in Robinson Crusoe .
Despite efforts to maintain secrecy, word leaks. Upon reaching a research hospital facility outside Washington D.C., and publication of the find, the shock to the scientific community and general public is intense. Marchando and other researchers are successful in teaching Thursday to communicate by sign language. Thursday is soon found capable of reasoning, compassion and understanding abstract ideas like time and family; far beyond any ape's cognition. The question arises, "what is Thursday"? She obviously is not a Homo sapiens nor an ape ( Hominidae ). Genetic testing reveals she is partly hybrid from past interbreeding of her ancestors and human captors, further confusing her status as a species. Conflicting ideas on her rights emerge. They're seen variously as better substitutes for chimpanzees in medical testing, an easily trained labor force, potentially living organ banks, essentially a future slave race to be considered as beasts or property. Other research centers begin plans to obtain more boisei from Africa, as specimens for study and zoos. As a descendant herself of slaves, Marchando finds this unthinkable. Authorities begin efforts to access and control Thursday in the "interest of science", endangering her safety and life. Marchando is desperate to protect Thursday and prove she should be treated as human. She tracks Thursday's ovulation and secretly conducts an artificial insemination using sperm frozen years ago by her ex-husband. When Thursday becomes several months pregnant, she ignites a legal and moral firestorm over whether to permit her pregnancy to come full term. Before a legal decision can be reached, Thursday births a healthy, mixed female child resembling both herself and a human biological father, thus demonstrating Thursday's full genetic compatibility with modern humanity.
The novel draws parallels between the conventional thinking of centuries ago that humans from Africa were not truly human beings worthy of rights. The novel's ending is left open for interpretation on what it means to be human and where a line, if any, can be drawn between ourselves and our ancestors.
While the novel was well received by critics such as Locus Magazine and cited for attention to scientific details, it did not reach a broad audience. It has lately been re-discovered, gaining more of a following among readers as discoveries of, as then unknown, subspecies of humanity have come to light since 1988; particularly the discovery of the 'Hobbit' Homo Floresiensis, and Denisova Hominins. New paperback editions were produced in both 2000, 2010 and an audio book version became available in 2016. [4]
The story of Thursday's life and her species, their thoughts, their treatment, emotions and intelligence is at first presented without a context of time, era or location. Indeed the first passages devoted to Thursday's point of view and thoughts are easily taken as perhaps a young African girl introduced to the hardships of life on a plantation in the American South during the early 1800s. The hardships endured by Thursday, beatings, foul food & water, cold nights spent sleeping outdoors and separation from family members are direct parallels to the Treatment of slaves in the United States before the American Civil War. It is only later in the novel that Thursday is revealed to be living in modern day Africa and is treated as nothing but property and an in-human beast by her village owners. She recognizes kindness in Dr. Marchando and while uneasy and scared, learns to trust this new human in her life. Once introduced to sign language and encouraged to communicate, learn and interact with humans as more than animal awakens thoughts of self identify in Thursday. The potential to becoming a person only needing a spark. Again, paralleling the pre-Civil War thinking that slaves were something less than human and incapable of actual intelligence; while also banning the education of slaves to read or write.
Within Dr. Marchando's own story are her struggles with history and the accounts of how otherwise civilized people (slave owners) could treat fellow human beings. Marchando tires of explanations that masters didn't understand their actions, actually believing their slaves to be less than human. Most damning of all is the discovery of historical advertisements attempting to sell Thursday's ancestors as a "new type slave, which cannot be considered worthy of the protections by the Northern States". Showing that slave traders, owners and masters had full knowledge of their guilt and were desperate to find replacement workers if the practice of slavery is eventually abolished. Marchando recognizes the child like intelligence and compassion in Thursday and the prospect of the doctor inadvertently beginning a new era of slave ownership terrifies her.
Since the Book's publishing in 1988, numerous scientific discoveries have eschewed the once clear timeline of human evolution, development and lineage. A 2010 study strongly indicated that all humans of Eurasian descent have up to 4% Neanderthal DNA in their genetic makeup. Genetic testing on bone fragments have also shown Neanderthals to have inter-bred with Denisovans (another human Subspecies) and some modern humans (Papua New Guinea and Australian Aborigines) also show traces of ancient direct interbreeding with Denisovans. While both Neanderthals and Denisovans became extinct some 40,000 years ago, the 'Hobbit' Homo Floresiensis may have survived until nearly 12,000 years ago (The dating of remains and tools is still contested). The book deals with a distant, archaic hominin in the form of Thursday's Australopithecus boisei which lived some 1,400,000 years ago. While the biology and genealogy of mankind was considered distinctly separate in 1988, evidence since then shows much of mankind shares at least some genetic Heridity from long gone cousin species. The intermix of genetic material between defined subspecies complicates what defines the title Human.
Human evolution is the evolutionary process within the history of primates that led to the emergence of Homo sapiens as a distinct species of the hominid family, which includes all the great apes. This process involved the gradual development of traits such as human bipedalism, dexterity and complex language, as well as interbreeding with other hominins, indicating that human evolution was not linear but weblike. The study of human evolution involves several scientific disciplines, including physical and evolutionary anthropology, paleontology, and genetics.
Homininae, also called "African hominids" or "African apes", is a subfamily of Hominidae. It includes two tribes, with their extant as well as extinct species: 1) the tribe Hominini ―and 2) the tribe Gorillini (gorillas). Alternatively, the genus Pan is sometimes considered to belong to its own third tribe, Panini. Homininae comprises all hominids that arose after orangutans split from the line of great apes. The Homininae cladogram has three main branches, which lead to gorillas, and to humans and chimpanzees via the tribe Hominini and subtribes Hominina and Panina. There are two living species of Panina and two living species of gorillas, but only one extant human species. Traces of extinct Homo species, including Homo floresiensis have been found with dates as recent as 40,000 years ago. Organisms in this subfamily are described as hominine or hominines.
Australopithecus is a genus of early hominins that existed in Africa during the Pliocene and Early Pleistocene. The genera Homo, Paranthropus, and Kenyanthropus evolved from some Australopithecus species. Australopithecus is a member of the subtribe Australopithecina, which sometimes also includes Ardipithecus, though the term "australopithecine" is sometimes used to refer only to members of Australopithecus. Species include A. garhi, A. africanus, A. sediba, A. afarensis, A. anamensis, A. bahrelghazali and A. deyiremeda. Debate exists as to whether some Australopithecus species should be reclassified into new genera, or if Paranthropus and Kenyanthropus are synonymous with Australopithecus, in part because of the taxonomic inconsistency.
Homo ergaster is an extinct species or subspecies of archaic humans who lived in Africa in the Early Pleistocene. Whether H. ergaster constitutes a species of its own or should be subsumed into H. erectus is an ongoing and unresolved dispute within palaeoanthropology. Proponents of synonymisation typically designate H. ergaster as "African Homo erectus" or "Homo erectus ergaster". The name Homo ergaster roughly translates to "working man", a reference to the more advanced tools used by the species in comparison to those of their ancestors. The fossil range of H. ergaster mainly covers the period of 1.7 to 1.4 million years ago, though a broader time range is possible. Though fossils are known from across East and Southern Africa, most H. ergaster fossils have been found along the shores of Lake Turkana in Kenya. There are later African fossils, some younger than 1 million years ago, that indicate long-term anatomical continuity, though it is unclear if they can be formally regarded as H. ergaster specimens. As a chronospecies, H. ergaster may have persisted to as late as 600,000 years ago, when new lineages of Homo arose in Africa.
Homo is the genus that emerged from the genus Australopithecus and encompasses the extant species Homo sapiens and several extinct species classified as either ancestral to or closely related to modern humans, including Homo erectus and Homo neanderthalensis. The oldest member of the genus is Homo habilis, with records of just over 2 million years ago. Homo, together with the genus Paranthropus, is probably sister to Australopithecus africanus, which itself had split from the lineage of Pan, the chimpanzees.
Paleoanthropology or paleo-anthropology is a branch of paleontology and anthropology which seeks to understand the early development of anatomically modern humans, a process known as hominization, through the reconstruction of evolutionary kinship lines within the family Hominidae, working from biological evidence and cultural evidence.
Homo floresiensis( also known as "Flores Man") is an extinct species of small archaic human that inhabited the island of Flores, Indonesia, until the arrival of modern humans about 50,000 years ago.
Paranthropus robustus is a species of robust australopithecine from the Early and possibly Middle Pleistocene of the Cradle of Humankind, South Africa, about 2.27 to 0.87 million years ago. It has been identified in Kromdraai, Swartkrans, Sterkfontein, Gondolin, Cooper's, and Drimolen Caves. Discovered in 1938, it was among the first early hominins described, and became the type species for the genus Paranthropus. However, it has been argued by some that Paranthropus is an invalid grouping and synonymous with Australopithecus, so the species is also often classified as Australopithecus robustus.
Paranthropus boisei is a species of australopithecine from the Early Pleistocene of East Africa about 2.5 to 1.15 million years ago. The holotype specimen, OH 5, was discovered by palaeoanthropologist Mary Leakey in 1959 at Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania and described by her husband Louis a month later. It was originally placed into its own genus as "Zinjanthropus boisei", but is now relegated to Paranthropus along with other robust australopithecines. However, it is also argued that Paranthropus is an invalid grouping and synonymous with Australopithecus, so the species is also often classified as Australopithecus boisei.
The Hominini form a taxonomic tribe of the subfamily Homininae ("hominines"). Hominini includes the extant genera Homo (humans) and Pan and in standard usage excludes the genus Gorilla (gorillas).
Human taxonomy is the classification of the human species within zoological taxonomy. The systematic genus, Homo, is designed to include both anatomically modern humans and extinct varieties of archaic humans. Current humans have been designated as subspecies Homo sapiens sapiens, differentiated, according to some, from the direct ancestor, Homo sapiens idaltu.
Australopithecina or Hominina is a subtribe in the tribe Hominini. The members of the subtribe are generally Australopithecus, and it typically includes the earlier Ardipithecus, Orrorin, Sahelanthropus, and Graecopithecus. All these closely related species are now sometimes collectively termed australopiths or homininians. They are the extinct, close relatives of modern humans and, together with the extant genus Homo, comprise the human clade. Members of the human clade, i.e. the Hominini after the split from the chimpanzees, are now called Hominina.
A number of varieties of Homo are grouped into the broad category of archaic humans in the period that precedes and is contemporary to the emergence of the earliest early modern humans around 300 ka. Among the earliest remains of H. sapiens are Omo-Kibish I from southern Ethiopia, the remains from Jebel Irhoud in Morocco and Florisbad in South Africa (259 ka). The term typically includes H. antecessor, H. bodoensis, Denisovans (H. denisova), H. heidelbergensis (600–200 ka), Neanderthals, and H. rhodesiensis (300–125 ka).
The Hominidae, whose members are known as the great apes or hominids, are a taxonomic family of primates that includes eight extant species in four genera: Pongo ; Gorilla ; Pan ; and Homo, of which only modern humans remain.
The Denisovans or Denisova hominins(di-NEE-sə-və) are an extinct species or subspecies of archaic human that ranged across Asia during the Lower and Middle Paleolithic. Denisovans are known from few physical remains; consequently, most of what is known about them comes from DNA evidence. No formal species name has been established pending more complete fossil material.
Homo luzonensis, also locally called "Ubag" after a mythical caveman, is an extinct, possibly pygmy, species of archaic human from the Late Pleistocene of Luzon, the Philippines. Their remains, teeth and phalanges, are known only from Callao Cave in the northern part of the island dating to before 50,000 years ago. They were initially identified as belonging to modern humans in 2010, but in 2019, after the discovery of more specimens, they were placed into a new species based on the presence of a wide range of traits similar to modern humans as well as to Australopithecus and early Homo.
There is evidence for interbreeding between archaic and modern humans during the Middle Paleolithic and early Upper Paleolithic. The interbreeding happened in several independent events that included Neanderthals and Denisovans, as well as several unidentified hominins.
Homo naledi is an extinct hominin species discovered in 2013 in the Rising Star Cave system, Gauteng province, South Africa, dating to the Middle Pleistocene 335,000–236,000 years ago. The initial discovery comprises 1,550 specimens of bone, representing 737 different skeletal elements, and at least 15 different individuals. Despite this exceptionally high number of specimens, their classification with other Homo species remains unclear.
The diet of known human ancestors varies dramatically over time. Strictly speaking, according to evolutionary anthropologists and archaeologists, there is not a single hominin Paleolithic diet. The Paleolithic covers roughly 2.8 million years, concurrent with the Pleistocene, and includes multiple human ancestors with their own evolutionary and technological adaptations living in a wide variety of environments. This fact with the difficulty of finding conclusive of evidence often makes broad generalizations of the earlier human diets very difficult. Our pre-hominin primate ancestors were broadly herbivorous, relying on either foliage or fruits and nuts and the shift in dietary breadth during the Paleolithic is often considered a critical point in hominin evolution. A generalization between Paleolithic diets of the various human ancestors that many anthropologists do make is that they are all to one degree or another omnivorous and are inextricably linked with tool use and new technologies. Nonetheless, according to the California Academy of Sciences, "Prior to about 3.5 million years ago, early humans dined almost exclusively on leaves and fruits from trees, shrubs, and herbs—similar to modern-day gorillas and chimpanzees."
Ape to Man is a dramatised documentary on the scientific community's journey to find the missing link in human evolution, between our ancestors the apes and modern man today.