So you think you're human?

"You think you're human. But what does that mean? How can humanity be defined? If our concept of humanity breaks down altogether, what will this mean for human values and human rights?" "Felipe Fernandez-Armesto confronts these problems from a historical perspective, showing that our present definition of humankind is a recent contrivance. Who is, and is not, included has been a long-running debate over issues of race, ethnicity, the origin of the human race, and the insistence of a clear distinction between humans and non-humans. Chimps and humans share 95% of their genes and are objectively so alike that an anthropologist from Mars might classify them together - so why are chimps not human?" "This story of the gradual expansion of our definition of humankind explores many such questions to argue that these limits are neither fixed nor scientifically verifiable. Controversially, it is proposed that we have further to go in developing our concept of humankind, and that we need to rethink it as a matter of urgency."--BOOK JACKET.