The Misfits: Genesis of a non-Darwinian Myth

The term anthropogenesis - or hominisation - is applied to the process by which the human came to be differentiated from the animal to the extent of occupying and exploiting the principal ecological niches of the planet. By insisting on the 'disadaptation' of early humanity, the question of the evolutionary advantages which permitted the selection of language, bipedalism and hunting is passed over, as if such behaviours did not result from selective processes, whether or not issuing from reiterated choice. Our proposal is therefore to make an analysis of contemporary arguments concerning the origin of man by studying them in the manner by which any ethnologist would analyse myths, that is by picking up on constants, isomorphisms and underlying structures, so as to emphasise that they refer back to an aetiological account, a 'self-founding discourse'. Our hypothesis is that the narrative thread structuring the story of hominisation participates in the construction and reinforcement of our specific identity, with the characteristics of what constitutes Man being contrasted point by point with those of an abstract entity called 'Animal'.