What If Their Existence Was Acknowledged One Day? (F&B)
Posted: Fri Jul 04, 2014 8:46 am
I might be right to guess that most of us have pondered what impacts would occur should, one day, the Yowie may be accepted as real, living being. These are my thoughts. Generated for input and discussion.
Historical Recompiling
Not too long ago Neil Frost posted a recent link to a terrific ABC documentary, Enigma Man: A Stone Age Mystery based on the contemporary finds of previously unknown skeletal hominids in Southern China. Further back, Rusty2 posted a link to The Relict Hominid Inquiry, a couple of papers written by Jeff Meldrum of the Idaho State University that explored the same issue of skeletal remains of hominid remains carbon dated far more current than believed, and goes that step further, and questions whether other hominids alive today. Both examples highlighted the sensitivity of even breaching the idea of confronting conventional understanding of human history.
But the existence of Yowies would blow that out of the water. From a historical viewpoint, much of that specific chronicle would be tossed out and rewritten worldwide. The popular theory ‘Out of Africa’ might be challenged (which it already is following the finds in Asia) revealing a whole new possibility. A study would be undertaken to try and connect the current Yowie to paleontological finds in order to recreate the puzzle – as it is obviously the living descendant of a line long thought extinct. This in itself, if they were to be successful, would shed direct light on how evolution has shaped its living journey over hundreds of thousands of years. What this might do however, is confuse our own homo sapien origins; if the Yowie had not undergone much change over that expanse of time, how is it that we humans were supposedly evolved from similar creatures? Yet there is no evidence of sapiens before two hundred thousand years ago? It may only confuse the ‘missing link’ conundrum.
Religions Views
I don’t know how this may effect peoples faith or challenge religious doctrine. Therefore I won’t say too much, however the first thing I thought of was this:
When Charles Darwin first saw a great ape (an Orangutan named ‘Jenny’) he said: ‘Let man visit Ouranoutang in domestication, hear its expressive whine, see its intelligence when spoken to; as if it understands every word said - see its affection. - to those it knew. - see its passion & rage, sulkiness, & very actions of despair; ... and then let him boast of his proud pre-eminence ... Man in his arrogance thinks himself a great work, worthy the interposition of a deity. More humble and I believe true to consider him created from animals.’
As we would have a cousin not too dissimilar, it would mean we are not entirely unique as to be the ‘chosen’ species to have been created in the image of God. There’s an old saying, ‘In a horses world, God is a horse’, however I’d hope that in our current age most faiths would simply embrace the yowies, simply as a another child of the earth.
Genetic Classification
A comprehensive genetic classification based on a full construct of its DNA would set the foundations of its place in our world. The biggest answer from this would be to ascertain whether it is human. Of course even without a full decoding of it’s DNA a layman could see it belongs with the Hominidae family and within the homo genus, however not exactly Homo Sapien. But to what degree do we define this? I raise this in pursuant of our Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR).
In 10 December 1948 when the draft for the UDHR was created, a member quoted: “I perceived clearly that I was participating in a truly significant historic event in which a consensus had been reached as to the supreme value of the human person, a value that did not originate in the decision of a worldly power, but rather in the fact of existing—which gave rise to the inalienable right to live free from want and oppression and to fully develop one’s personality.”
By this definition, do the Yowie not exist as homo sentients, living free and possessing their own personality? Would they fall under the UDHR, or would an entire new universal bill of rights be written to encompass them? What sort of effort would that take?
Even today, the close genetic relationship between humans and other great apes, certain animal rights organizations, such as the ‘Great Ape Project’, argue that nonhuman great apes are persons and should be given basic human rights. Some countries have instituted a research ban to protect great apes from any kind of scientific testing.
Would they be seen as animals or humans, or something in between? The answer would define their future more than people might expect.
Domestic Issues
An immediate information dump of the Yowie (emphasizing its solitary and non-threatening nature if unprovoked) would be provided for the Australian people through social media and news broad casts, particularly for the local communities living near hot spots to ensure there would be no wide panic or lynch parties marching off into the bush.
Australia would have to immediately grant them indigenous status in this country or a species of the Australian native wildlife, depending on what definition they would fall under. Regarding the former, would they be immediately quarantined into reservations as the Aboriginals were dealt with long ago in an effort to provide cordoned land and control numbers? If there were a bill of rights for them, what and how would Australia seek to ensure those rights? Would there be efforts to try an educate them, teach them language so that their people could be represented on a cultural or even political stage?
If the latter, their numbers would reveal they are endangered. Would there be zoo’s wanting to find a place for them? If left in their habitat, would this change the classification of state forests or national parks? Would identified areas be changed to ‘no-go’ areas policed by a form of government created to protect the environment of the Yowie in pursuant of either a bill of rights or an endangered species act? Ultimately the Australian government be under enormous pressure to appear considerate and solicitous of its responsibilities to the Yowie, especially if it were reflected on a world stage.
The Future
What would follow would be a craze of searches for other undiscovered hominids possibly living in the world. The Sasquatch, Orang Pendak, the Yeti and the list goes on. In Australia, millions of dollars would be injected into their study, relentlessly seeking to identify their locations under every leaf and rock, possibly to the point of saturation. There would be a danger not only of poachers but hunters backed by international multimillion-dollar private companies bent on capturing a handful for their own purposes.
How many Yowies would be abused, mistreated and exploited in this unknown future?
I ask, are they better off being left in the shadows of ignorance?
Historical Recompiling
Not too long ago Neil Frost posted a recent link to a terrific ABC documentary, Enigma Man: A Stone Age Mystery based on the contemporary finds of previously unknown skeletal hominids in Southern China. Further back, Rusty2 posted a link to The Relict Hominid Inquiry, a couple of papers written by Jeff Meldrum of the Idaho State University that explored the same issue of skeletal remains of hominid remains carbon dated far more current than believed, and goes that step further, and questions whether other hominids alive today. Both examples highlighted the sensitivity of even breaching the idea of confronting conventional understanding of human history.
But the existence of Yowies would blow that out of the water. From a historical viewpoint, much of that specific chronicle would be tossed out and rewritten worldwide. The popular theory ‘Out of Africa’ might be challenged (which it already is following the finds in Asia) revealing a whole new possibility. A study would be undertaken to try and connect the current Yowie to paleontological finds in order to recreate the puzzle – as it is obviously the living descendant of a line long thought extinct. This in itself, if they were to be successful, would shed direct light on how evolution has shaped its living journey over hundreds of thousands of years. What this might do however, is confuse our own homo sapien origins; if the Yowie had not undergone much change over that expanse of time, how is it that we humans were supposedly evolved from similar creatures? Yet there is no evidence of sapiens before two hundred thousand years ago? It may only confuse the ‘missing link’ conundrum.
Religions Views
I don’t know how this may effect peoples faith or challenge religious doctrine. Therefore I won’t say too much, however the first thing I thought of was this:
When Charles Darwin first saw a great ape (an Orangutan named ‘Jenny’) he said: ‘Let man visit Ouranoutang in domestication, hear its expressive whine, see its intelligence when spoken to; as if it understands every word said - see its affection. - to those it knew. - see its passion & rage, sulkiness, & very actions of despair; ... and then let him boast of his proud pre-eminence ... Man in his arrogance thinks himself a great work, worthy the interposition of a deity. More humble and I believe true to consider him created from animals.’
As we would have a cousin not too dissimilar, it would mean we are not entirely unique as to be the ‘chosen’ species to have been created in the image of God. There’s an old saying, ‘In a horses world, God is a horse’, however I’d hope that in our current age most faiths would simply embrace the yowies, simply as a another child of the earth.
Genetic Classification
A comprehensive genetic classification based on a full construct of its DNA would set the foundations of its place in our world. The biggest answer from this would be to ascertain whether it is human. Of course even without a full decoding of it’s DNA a layman could see it belongs with the Hominidae family and within the homo genus, however not exactly Homo Sapien. But to what degree do we define this? I raise this in pursuant of our Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR).
In 10 December 1948 when the draft for the UDHR was created, a member quoted: “I perceived clearly that I was participating in a truly significant historic event in which a consensus had been reached as to the supreme value of the human person, a value that did not originate in the decision of a worldly power, but rather in the fact of existing—which gave rise to the inalienable right to live free from want and oppression and to fully develop one’s personality.”
By this definition, do the Yowie not exist as homo sentients, living free and possessing their own personality? Would they fall under the UDHR, or would an entire new universal bill of rights be written to encompass them? What sort of effort would that take?
Even today, the close genetic relationship between humans and other great apes, certain animal rights organizations, such as the ‘Great Ape Project’, argue that nonhuman great apes are persons and should be given basic human rights. Some countries have instituted a research ban to protect great apes from any kind of scientific testing.
Would they be seen as animals or humans, or something in between? The answer would define their future more than people might expect.
Domestic Issues
An immediate information dump of the Yowie (emphasizing its solitary and non-threatening nature if unprovoked) would be provided for the Australian people through social media and news broad casts, particularly for the local communities living near hot spots to ensure there would be no wide panic or lynch parties marching off into the bush.
Australia would have to immediately grant them indigenous status in this country or a species of the Australian native wildlife, depending on what definition they would fall under. Regarding the former, would they be immediately quarantined into reservations as the Aboriginals were dealt with long ago in an effort to provide cordoned land and control numbers? If there were a bill of rights for them, what and how would Australia seek to ensure those rights? Would there be efforts to try an educate them, teach them language so that their people could be represented on a cultural or even political stage?
If the latter, their numbers would reveal they are endangered. Would there be zoo’s wanting to find a place for them? If left in their habitat, would this change the classification of state forests or national parks? Would identified areas be changed to ‘no-go’ areas policed by a form of government created to protect the environment of the Yowie in pursuant of either a bill of rights or an endangered species act? Ultimately the Australian government be under enormous pressure to appear considerate and solicitous of its responsibilities to the Yowie, especially if it were reflected on a world stage.
The Future
What would follow would be a craze of searches for other undiscovered hominids possibly living in the world. The Sasquatch, Orang Pendak, the Yeti and the list goes on. In Australia, millions of dollars would be injected into their study, relentlessly seeking to identify their locations under every leaf and rock, possibly to the point of saturation. There would be a danger not only of poachers but hunters backed by international multimillion-dollar private companies bent on capturing a handful for their own purposes.
How many Yowies would be abused, mistreated and exploited in this unknown future?
I ask, are they better off being left in the shadows of ignorance?