My opinion
 

By Dr. Deepak Gupta , Dr. Sivanoli Ambalavanan , Dr. Pandu Ranga Rao Bangaru
Corresponding Author Dr. Deepak Gupta
Self, - India 110032
Submitting Author Dr. Deepak Gupta
Other Authors Dr. Sivanoli Ambalavanan
Self, - India 621704

Dr. Pandu Ranga Rao Bangaru
Self, - India 500070

PRIMATOLOGY

Ramayan, Homo sapiens sapiens, Homo sapiens neanderthalensis, Homo sapiens denisova, Ape to Man

Gupta D, Ambalavanan S, Bangaru P. Connecting The Dots in Theoretical Anthropology: Was This One of The Earliest Contemplation About Homo sapiens sapiens' Fight for Survival and Interactions with Homo sapiens neanderthalensis and Homo sapiens denisova?. WebmedCentral PRIMATOLOGY 2016;7(9):WMC005184

This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License(CC-BY), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
No
Submitted on: 13 Sep 2016 03:35:05 PM GMT
Published on: 14 Sep 2016 11:39:48 AM GMT

Abstract


Watching the documentary, "Ape to Man" (2005), make us wonder, whether the major plot in the Hindu mythological epic, "Ramayan", was one of the earliest contemplation about the fight for survival between the two evolving sub-species of human beings (anatomically modern humans and Neanderthals) and the coexistence of ape-like humans (the third hominin species: Denisovans) around the same time of human evolution. Our write-up is an attempt to make a case for critical reading and further exploring the ancient scriptures, with the possibility to find hidden answers (if any) to age-old questions, by utilizing modern day analytical methods.

Perspective


Watching the documentary, "Ape to Man" (2005), [1] make us wonder, "Is it so simple that we might have overlooked the obvious? Can it be another scenario for connecting the dots [2]?" The below-mentioned text is written, with the intent to explore the possibility, whether the major plot in the Hindu mythological epic, "Ramayan" [3], was one of the earliest contemplation about the fight for survival between the two evolving sub-species of human beings and the coexistence of ape-like humans (the third hominin/hominid [4] species) around the same time of human evolution, “Is it possible that, hidden within the ancient scriptures, the writers had documented scientific theories for posterity that needs to be unraveled by the descendants when they read those scriptures?” 

Forgoing the complex debates on speciation [5] (emergence of species) or species complex [6] (unclear dividing lines between related species) or species problem [7] (difficulties in defining species) due to evolution swinging back-and-forth from panmixia [8] (random mating) to total reproductive isolation, the below-mentioned text will assume the species as defined by the distinguishing capacity of the members within the groups (“species” [9]) to reproduce fertile progeny. Therefore, considering the evidence for potentially successful attempts of interbreeding [10-14] among Neanderthals and anatomically modern humans or Homo sapiens sapiens (HSS), the Neanderthals are termed as Homo sapiens neanderthalensis (HSN), and more recently found hominins, Denisovans, are correspondingly termed as Homo sapiens denisova (HSD).

The timeline when "Ramayan" was conceptualized or when the depicted fight for survival actually happened has not been ascertained yet; however, it can be easily visualized that modern story telling in "Ape to Man" [1] seems similar (analogous) in parts to ancient story telling in "Ramayan" [3]. Per Ramayan, Surpanakha, the sister of demon-king Ravan, initially proposed to Ram, the man-god and then to his brother, Laksman to marry her. When they declined her proposals, she became angry and instigated her brother Ravan to marry Ram's wife, Sita. The subsequent turn of events led to the abduction of Sita by Ravan and eventual fight, with Ram-Laksman and their allies (ape-leaders, ape-god and apes) on one side, and demons led by Ravan on the other side. The fight for survival may primarily rely on Freudian id [15] so it can be easily envisaged why modern story telling depicted hunger (in "Ape to Man" [1]) as bone of contention, whereas ancient story telling depicted companionship (in "Ramayan" [3]) as bone of contention. The mythological fight between two groups could have happened in any period in the ancient times. However, the presence of ape-like human ancestors (the third hominin species presumptively analogous to HSD) supposedly co-existing at the same time and allying with Ram-Laksman (presumptively analogous to nascent representation of HSS) against Ravan (presumptively analogous to prominent representation of HSN) preempts the readers to envisage the transition times during human evolution, when anatomically modern humans co-existed with Neanderthals and ape-like human ancestors (or Denisovans). Hereafter, the ensuing conflicts during the migration and expedition [16] might have led to the "mythological" history being written as "Ramayan" and correspondingly "modern" history being explored as "Ape to Man". Although "Ape to Man" did NOT talk about Denisovans, it talked about occurrence of pedigree branching among hominid (ape-like [4]) and hominin (human-like [4]) species that could have led to the coexistence of multiple hominid/hominin species at given points of time.

It is NOT clear why the ancient writer depicted that presumptive HSS representatives collaborated with presumptive HSD representatives, even though they fought with presumptive HSN representatives. It seems reasonable that there could have been time-sensitive, time-appropriate and preferential-circumstantial collaborations among the hominin species for the sake of survival, as analogously portrayed in “Ramayan”. Ram defeated Vali, the ape-king, so as to free the kidnapped wife of Vali’s younger brother, Sugreev, from Vali’s clutches; and subsequently, Sugreev was crowned as the new ape-king. However, apparently, none of the other ape-like humans were challenged to fight Ram. Contrastingly, for freeing his wife, Sita, Ram sought help of Vibhishan, the younger brother of demon-king, Ravan; however, Vibhishan was coronated as the next demon-king by Ram, only after ending the reign of Ravan who perished along with scores of demons. This can analogously represent that, for reasons unknown, evolutionary cycle for HSS might have realized that, at that particular point of time, HSD would have been better situational collaborators than HSN; and the eventual evolutionary success (genetically, culturally and competitively) proved that, overall, HSS had better and superior chances of survival. Besides the very slow-to-change innate genetic trait variations, it was the potential of rapidly-changing acquired cultural trait variations that might have driven the propagules of anatomically modern humans to outlast the prominent Neanderthals by competitive exclusion, during the evolutionary transition [17-18].

Among the East Asian-Oceanian modern humans [19-20], the greater percentage of genetic admixture with Denisovans (~5% compared to that with Neanderthals ~2% [12, 21-22]) might suggest that Denisovans were the collaborators and Neanderthals were the competitors; however, it could have been the other way round too. Competition and collaboration is part and parcel of all fights for survival; and irrespective of whom were the collaborators or the competitors, the anatomically modern humans have outlived Neanderthals and Denisovans, with whom they coexisted once upon a time. Moreover, the existence of more than three hominin species can be discovered in the future, further raising the question, if all hominin species were either collaborators or competitors to anatomically modern humans, and we got lucky (genetically, culturally and competitively) to survive, question and then discover that our "presumptively" extinct hominin ancestors still survive as contributions among our genes [10-11, 23-25].

In summary, the above-mentioned analysis may be ignored as just another attempt, to answer a theory with another theory, or it may be visualized as an attempt to make a case (akin to theory-bashing and answer-improving [26]), for critical reading and further exploring the ancient scriptures, utilizing modern day analytical methods [25], with the possibility to find hidden answers (if any) to age-old questions.

REFERENCES


  1. IMDb.com Ape to Man (2005) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1221123/ Last Accessed on August 31, 2016.
  2. Youtube.com Steve Jobs Connecting the Dots  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sr07uR75Qk0 Last Accessed on August 31, 2016.
  3. Sharma DP, Hindi Translator. Shrimad Valmiki Ramayan - Sanskrit Text with Hindi Translation-10 volumes. 1st ed. Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh, India: Ram Narayan Lal, Publisher; 2000. https://archive.org/details/ShrimadValmikiRamayan-SanskritTextWithHindiTranslation-DpSharma10 Last Accessed on August 31, 2016.
  4. Sasquatchchronicles.com Hominid and hominin - what's the difference? https://sasquatchch ronicles.com/hominid-and-hominin-whats-the-difference/ Last Accessed on August 31, 2016.
  5. Wikipedia.org Speciation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speciation Last Accessed on August 31, 2016.
  6. Wikipedia.org Species complex https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Species_complex Last Accessed on August 31, 2016.
  7. Wikipedia.org Species problem https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Species_problem Last Accessed on August 31, 2016.
  8. Wikipedia.org Panmixia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panmixia Last Accessed on August 31, 2016.
  9. Wikipedia.org Species https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Species Last Accessed on August 31, 2016.
  10. Quantamagazine.org How Neanderthal DNA helps humanity. Neanderthals and Denisovans may have supplied modern humans with genetic variants that let them thrive in new environments https://www. quantamagazine.org/20160526-neanderthal-denisovan-dna-modern-humans/ Last Accessed on August 31, 2016.
  11. LiveScience.com DNA from mysterious 'Denisovans' helped modern humans survive http://www.l ivescience.com/54084-denisovan-dna-helped-modern-humans-survive.html Last Accessed on August 31, 2016.
  12. Sankararaman S, Mallick S, Patterson N, Reich D. The Combined Landscape of Denisovan and Neanderthal Ancestry in Present-Day Humans. Curr Biol. 2016 May 9;26(9):1241-7. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2016.03.037 Last Accessed on August 31, 2016.
  13. Nature.com Evidence mounts for interbreeding bonanza in ancient human species. Nature tallies the trysts among Neanderthals, humans and other relatives http://www.nature.com/news/evidence-mounts-for-interbreeding-bonanza-in-ancient-human-speci es-1.19394 Last Accessed on August 31, 2016.
  14. Kuhlwilm M, Gronau I, Hubisz MJ, de Filippo C, Prado-Martinez J, Kircher M, Fu Q, Burbano HA, Lalueza-Fox C, de la Rasilla M, Rosas A, Rudan P, Brajkovic D, Kucan Ž, Gušic I, Marques-Bonet T, Andrés AM, Viola B, Pääbo S, Meyer M, Siepel A, Castellano S. Ancient gene flow from early modern humans into Eastern Neanderthals. Nature. 2016 Feb 25;530(7591):429-33. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articl es/PMC4933530/ Last Accessed on August 31, 2016.
  15. Simplypsychology.org McLeod SA. (2016). Id, Ego and Superego www.simplypsychology.org/psyche.html Last Accessed on August 31, 2016.
  16. Wikipedia.org The evolution and geographic spread of Denisovans as compared with other groups ht tps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denisovan#/media/File:Spread_and_evolution_of_Denisovans.jpg Last Accessed on August 31, 2016.
  17. Gilpin W, Feldman MW, Aoki K. An ecocultural model predicts Neanderthal extinction through competition with modern humans. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2016 Feb 23;113(8):2134-9. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articl es/PMC4776499/ Last Accessed on August 31, 2016.
  18. Banks WE, d'Errico F, Peterson AT, Kageyama M, Sima A, Sánchez-Goñi MF. Neanderthal extinction by competitive exclusion. PLoS One. 2008;3(12):e3972. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articl es/PMC2600607/ Last Accessed on August 31, 2016.
  19. Reich D, Patterson N, Kircher M, Delfin F, Nandineni MR, Pugach I, Ko AM, Ko YC, Jinam TA, Phipps ME, Saitou N, Wollstein A, Kayser M, Pääbo S, Stoneking M. Denisova admixture and the first modern human dispersals into Southeast Asia and Oceania. Am J Hum Genet. 2011 Oct 7;89(4):516-28. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articl es/PMC3188841/ Last Accessed on August 31, 2016.
  20. Skoglund P, Jakobsson M. Archaic human ancestry in East Asia. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2011 Nov 8;108(45):18301-6. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articl es/PMC3215044/ Last Accessed on August 31, 2016.
  21. Green RE, Krause J, Briggs AW, Maricic T, Stenzel U, Kircher M, Patterson N, Li H, Zhai W, Fritz MH, Hansen NF, Durand EY, Malaspinas AS, Jensen JD, Marques-Bonet T, Alkan C, Prüfer K, Meyer M, Burbano HA, Good JM, Schultz R, Aximu-Petri A, Butthof A, Höber B, Höffner B, Siegemund M, Weihmann A, Nusbaum C, Lander ES, Russ C, Novod N, Affourtit J, Egholm M, Verna C, Rudan P, Brajkovic D, Kucan Z, Gusic I, Doronichev VB, Golovanova LV, Lalueza-Fox C, de la Rasilla M, Fortea J, Rosas A, Schmitz RW, Johnson PL, Eichler EE, Falush D, Birney E, Mullikin JC, Slatkin M, Nielsen R, Kelso J, Lachmann M, Reich D, Pääbo S. A draft sequence of the Neandertal genome. Science. 2010 May 7;328(5979):710-22. DOI: 10.1126/science.1188021 Last Accessed on August 31, 2016.
  22. Reich D, Green RE, Kircher M, Krause J, Patterson N, Durand EY, Viola B, Briggs AW, Stenzel U, Johnson PL, Maricic T, Good JM, Marques-Bonet T, Alkan C, Fu Q, Mallick S, Li H, Meyer M, Eichler EE, Stoneking M, Richards M, Talamo S, Shunkov MV, Derevianko AP, Hublin JJ, Kelso J, Slatkin M, Pääbo S. Genetic history of an archaic hominin group from Denisova Cave in Siberia. Nature. 2010 Dec 23;468(7327):1053-60. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articl es/PMC4306417/ Last Accessed on August 31, 2016.
  23. BBC.com Why are we the only human species still alive? http:// www.bbc.com/earth/story/20150929-why-are-we-the-only-human-species-still-alive Last Accessed on August 31, 2016.
  24. NewScientist.com Meet our hybrid ancestors who kept extinct humans' DNA alive. Neanderthals, Denisovans and other extinct humans live on inside our cells - but what was life like for the hybrid humans who carried their genes? https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg23030700-600-meet-our-hybrid-ancestors-wh o-kept-extinct-humans-dna-alive/ Last Accessed on August 31, 2016.
  25. MessageToEagle.com Four other humans species lived alongside modern humans - new study suggests http://www.messagetoeagle.com/four-other-humans-species-lived-alongside-modern-humans-n ew-study-suggests/ Last Accessed on August 31, 2016.
  26. Lofland J. Theory-Bashing and answer-improving in the study of social movements. The American Sociologist. 1993 Summer;24(2):37-58. http://www.jstor.org/stable/27698646 Last Accessed on August 31, 2016.

Source(s) of Funding


None

Competing Interests


None

Reviews
1 review posted so far

Connecting The Dots in Theoretical Anthropology:
Posted by Prof. Uner Tan on 28 Sep 2016 07:22:42 AM GMT Reviewed by WMC Editors

Comments
0 comments posted so far

Please use this functionality to flag objectionable, inappropriate, inaccurate, and offensive content to WebmedCentral Team and the authors.

 

Author Comments
0 comments posted so far

 

What is article Popularity?

Article popularity is calculated by considering the scores: age of the article
Popularity = (P - 1) / (T + 2)^1.5
Where
P : points is the sum of individual scores, which includes article Views, Downloads, Reviews, Comments and their weightage

Scores   Weightage
Views Points X 1
Download Points X 2
Comment Points X 5
Review Points X 10
Points= sum(Views Points + Download Points + Comment Points + Review Points)
T : time since submission in hours.
P is subtracted by 1 to negate submitter's vote.
Age factor is (time since submission in hours plus two) to the power of 1.5.factor.

How Article Quality Works?

For each article Authors/Readers, Reviewers and WMC Editors can review/rate the articles. These ratings are used to determine Feedback Scores.

In most cases, article receive ratings in the range of 0 to 10. We calculate average of all the ratings and consider it as article quality.

Quality=Average(Authors/Readers Ratings + Reviewers Ratings + WMC Editor Ratings)