What is the first sign of civilization?

[worldscolide]

Just curious. It's something I have an idea about. It may seem anti climactic, but I think it's a healed femur.

What do you think?

[Oliverlogan263]

Yeah dude, I think a healed femur could definitely be considered one of the first signs of civilization. Here's why:

When someone breaks a bone like their thighbone (femur) and it heals all crappy, that usually means they didn't get proper medical care to set it right. In early hunter-gatherer societies before modern medicine, if you broke a major bone you were kinda screwed. It would probably heal all messed up and leave you injured or disabled.

But a femur that healed cleanly shows the person must have been supported somehow - given time to rest, had the bone reset, and possibly even splinted or whatever to heal straight. That level of medical care and support for an injured member of the group implies some level of social structure and cooperation had to be in place.

Somebody must've looked after that dude while he recovered. They helped each other out, you know? And that kind of looking out for one another is really what separates us humans from other animals and marks the beginnings of civilization as we understand it.

Once societies started forming where they cared for injured or sick peeps long-term instead of just leaving them behind, that allowed civilization to really take off. So in a way, an old healed bone could be a sign that social and medical practices were becoming sophisticated enough to support the development of larger, more organized communities. Kinda cool when you think about it!

[worldscolide]

Finally someone gets why i said that.

[sirderpsalot123]

I see where you're going with this, but wouldn't that also mean geese are civilized? when a goose gets injured or sick during migration another goose stays back to help guard and feed it until it heals. I wouldn't say that geese are civilized.

[sirderpsalot123]

At least I think that's where you were going with this

[worldscolide]

It depends. Breaking a femur though was pretty catastrophic. It takes weeks or more to heal, you don't see geese hanging around that long.

[sirderpsalot123]

That's true but hanging around is still showing compassion and empathy. It's something to think about, though.

[worldscolide]

agreed

[exitseven]

@sirderpsalot123 I don;t know. Nobody ever saw a goose cutting off the heads of baby goslings.

[Lliam]

Margaret Mead supposedly said that.
I make sense. It is a sign that there was a society that worked together.

If an animal breaks a leg or gets incapacitated, it's either going to starve to death or get eaten. But in a human tribe or clan, there is someone who can help set the bone, and there are people who will feed and care for the injured person.
The bone didn't even have to be set perfectly, but the fact that it fused means that the person was kept alive long enough for it to do so and kept living after it healed.

[NaultD]

Stone age Arm amputation. anything broken leg or ankle is a death sentence being nomadic or farming.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/kfcPZ7Wtri0https://www.youtube.com/embed/V-uqrnLrif8

[SotiCoto]

A sharpened flint.
For what is key to humanity is not their capacity to heal, but the means by which they kill. Crafting weapons is the most human thing there is.

[jimmy2]

When God made Adam them God saw Adam was lonely so God put Adam into a deep sleep took a run out of Adam and made Eve.
She was a hottie so they had children and God said be prospers and make children


So the sign of the first civilization was Adam and Eve and their children

[OlderAndWiser]

Glenlivet.