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Jun. 20th, 2020 at 1:45 AM
Margaret Mead thought for a moment, then she said, “A healed femur.”
A femur is the longest bone in the body, linking hip to knee. In societies without the benefits of modern medicine, it takes about six weeks of rest for a fractured femur to heal. A healed femur shows that someone cared for the injured person, did their hunting and gathering, stayed with them, and offered physical protection and human companionship until the injury could mend.
Mead explained that where the law of the jungle—the survival of the fittest—rules, no healed femurs are found. The first sign of civilization is compassion, seen in a healed femur.
Contemplation
By the same token, the first sign of an advanced civilization is not reading and writing, computer technology, robotics, nuclear weapons, music, or a high level of civil organization. Rather, the first and last sign of civilization is compassion.
How well we care for those who are wounded or injured, in body or soul; how well we rally around a person in their time of need, offering healing and comfort and protection and companionship until they are able to rise up and walk again, are the true signs of civilization.
Learning to live a life of compassion towards the weak, the vulnerable and the disadvantaged is the most important part of our civilization’s ‘coming of age’.
(Source: https://robmackintosh.net/a-healed-femur/)
Comments
To quote Captain G.M. Gilbert (U.S. Army psychologist assigned to watching
Nazi defendants at Nuremberg): "Evil, I think, is the absence of empathy."
Sadly, there are people in this world who exhibit such evil, as they're entirely lacking in empathy and compassion.
That said, I like to think that most of us *do* empathize with others, and feel compassion. Agreeing with this post, that those sterling traits really are the ultimate signifier of true civilization.
Edited 2020-06-20 09:35 pm (UTC)
And yes, it is just as you say...
Animals have compassion. Many of them will stay by their wounded loved ones as long as life endures, doing their best to help, and mourning pitifully when their efforts are in vain. What humans have, that other animals don't have, is the ability to provide effective care for a prolonged period. A chimp might try hard to keep her broken child alive, but the exigencies of chimpanzee life don't allow for weeks of even relative immobility; they're always on the move. Chimpanzee thought doesn't look past the needs of the moment, either, or make plans with others.
The healed femur is a sign that some humans had the ability to camp in one place for six weeks, and to feed and care for someone who couldn't walk. The first sign of civilization is structure, without which, compassion is helpless.
Edited 2020-06-21 08:29 pm (UTC)