Re “Ancient Bones That Tell a Story of Compassion†(Dec. 18): The small fact that someone with a critical damage or illness survived into adulthood (as a scholars featured in your essay unspoken from a 4,000-year-old skeleton found in Vietnam) does not automatically meant that he was cared for by a community.
Numerous examples have been documented of furious apes’ and monkeys’ flourishing all from polio and inborn defects to shotgun wounds and amputated limbs, all but receiving assistance from others. And even if others do yield a essentials for survival, that alone falls brief of what many would call compassion.
David DeGusta
Oakland, Calif.
To a Editor:
In a arise of a heartless events in Connecticut, it was somehow comforting to review that the antiquated ancestors could and did yield merciful caring for children or immature adults whose earthy disabilities interfered with their ability to be full participants in their society. Surely this would count as a absolute early indicator of civilization.
Stanley F. Wainapel, M.D.
New York
Source: Health Medicine Network