Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Mostly Wordless Wedneday

My dad and Miss B.

A student asked anthropologist Margaret Mead for the earliest sign of civilization in a given culture. He expected the answer to be a clay pot, or perhaps a fishhook or grinding stone. 


Her answer: "A healed femur."


Mead explained that no mended bones are found where the law of the jungle, survival of the fittest, reigns. A healed femur shows that someone cared. Someone had to do that injured person's hunting and gathering until the leg healed. 


The evidence of compassion is the first sign of civilization.


                                                                                  ~R Wayne Willis





2 comments: