What Does It Mean to Be Human?: Human Nature, Society, and Culture

This article by Joel M. Charon explains the key qualities that differentiate us from animals. Though we are animals, many believe that there are differences such as humans having a soul and a conscience, or that humans are instinctive, or that we are the only animal that makes war on its own kind. Human beings are mammals, which mean that we are warm blooded, we give birth to live young, the female nurses the younbg, and we have hair covering parts of our body. The unique qualities we maintain is that we are social and cultural.  Without those two qualities we wouldnt be who we are. Humans need others for survival and culture arises from social life. Through the use of symbols, selfhoos and mind we are able to figure out our world and develop ideas uniquely our own. So to summarize what a human is, it is a being who is social and cultural in nature. Being social, he/she survives by depending on others, learning how to survive from others, and develops individual and human quaities through socialization. Being cultural is basically one who interprets the world according to what they've learned in society.