Hominization

Academic term for the process of becoming human Hominization, also called anthropogenesis, refers to the process of becoming human, and is used in somewhat different contexts in the fields of paleontology and paleoanthropology, archaeology, philosophy, theology, and mythography. In the latter three fields, the alternative term anthropogony has also been used. Both anthropogenesis and anthropogony sometimes instead refer to the related subject of human evolution. Paleontology As of 2013[update], paleoanthropologists tend to regard the search for a precise point of hominization as somewhat irrelevant, seeing the process as gradual. Anatomically modern humans (AMH, or AMHS) developed within the species Homo sapiens about 200,000 years ago. Many thinkers have attempted to explain hominization – from Classical times through Hobbes, Rousseau, Hegel, and Engels, who wrote an essay on The Part Played by Labour in the Transition from Ape to Man. The contemporary study of hominization in archeology often looks for signs that mark out human habitations from pre-human forms: for example, the use of grave goods. Philosophy and theology In ancient philosophy, "hominization" referred to the ens