Migration Fuels Human Development

                              

Migration has always been the fuel of human development. Think about this, if our ancestors, the very first 'Homo Sapiens' did not leave the primordial home Africa, perhaps things would turn out differently, or worse, this branch of human species would have gone into extinction. From the moment Homo Sapiens moved out of that original home, a stunning feat of migration, a new pace of human evolution began. This movement from one place to varied environments had impacted that social skills of thinking, enhancing more than innate quality in him, fashioning tools and weapons, a way to adapt in the ever-changing realities of the surroundings presented to him. (Obviously a reference to Darwinian adaptive evolution). The movement of humans was also a movement of groups, tribes, and communities. From this, migrating tribes developed their own unique signals or calls in hunting, moving, etc., using sounds created by mouths, hands, bodily gestures with objects they find around as added tools – that's how the need for intricate communication came and how languages evolved.

Early man also found time to contemplate his environment, painting, for example, animals he hunted, animals he domesticated in the walls of his dwellings. Some found time to tell stories of hunts, long walks perhaps even stories/legends of their beginnings. That's how the need for symbols to represent such stories or situations came, how writings developed, and how culture and also religion entered human consciousness.

As humans moved, groups emerged into larger communities developing loose federations and confederations, finally settling in a choice territory. From here, kingdoms and nations are born, collective identities defined, and so does "collective prejudices." Religion, color, language, and culture are those invisible boundaries that man long ago built, and from these realities, humans also fashioned physical barriers like stone walls. Territories were even defined on natural borders that would require superhuman effort to scale; Rivers, mountains, deserts, etc. But mankind still moved. The migration happened, nations were built through discoveries of other lands. New communities and nationalities evolved.

~Pasig. February 2017

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