“The problem with Vinicius is not that we are a racist species, we are exclusive”

2023-05-24 09:31:57

The paleontologist and co-director of Atapuerca presents his latest book on the human body at the Prado Museum

The one that should perhaps be considered the most popular Spanish scientist today He has just published his latest work. A volume that he, he assures, wanted. In Our body. Seven million years of evolution (Image of the world), the prominent paleontologist, co-director of the Atapuerca research team, Princess of Asturias Award and scientific director of the Museum of Human Evolution, among many other distinctions, takes an intense, intimate and profound journey through the human body. Art and knowledge hand in hand and that the author collects with a popular language in which he does not avoid proscribed words of so-called good speech, such as ass and cock.

For his presentation, he chose the circular room of classical sculptures of the Prado Museum. A place that, he assures, for him is the best in the world, because it meets the ideal of the beauty of our body. Here, under the Diadúmeno, a two-meter sculpture carved by Polykleitos in the fifth century before the current era, which expresses what was for classical Greece the canon of beauty, the scientist declares his intentions.

What counts in this book?

When I decided to write it, it seemed to me that nothing like it had ever been done. The book flees from the concept of the anatomical atlas, it wants to be literature. In fact, it could have been a novel. With characters such as Queen Cristina, the philosopher Descartes, Emperor Hadrian, the 16th century doctor from Palencia Juan Valverde de Amusco, the Aragonese Miguel Servet and Rick Deckard, the protagonist of Blade runner, name that by the way is a wink from Philip K. Dick, the author of the novel, to René Descartes. All their stories are intermingled with the human body in my pages.

It does not seem that at this point there is much to tell about the human body.

My experience as a teacher tells me that we do not know our body. Yes, it is true that certain sectors know it well. I’m talking about those who go to the gym or runners, they know a lot about anatomy. Also those who get sick and, of course, fans of certain sports. Today it is common for the general sports press to speak quite naturally about the hamstrings or psoas, without further explanation, assuming that their readers know what they are talking about and, indeed, they do. In these groups the human body is in fashion and they know about it, but beyond that we have very little knowledge of our body. My aim with this book is for people to explore their own bodies.

It is true that throughout its pages it encourages the reader to do so. He invites you to explore yourself, to recognize the parts of your anatomy, although to follow his instructions you have to be naked. And in front of a mirror.

I propose to the reader a game in which the book is his own body. With his complicity I want you to read this book. For this, the reader has to undress, as I have done, to identify himself. This is how we should explore ourselves, although it is better to do it with his or her partner, because we cannot see each other, we cannot feel certain areas such as our backs.

His book describes our body. It also talks about the skin. I ask you about an unfortunate current issue these days in Spain: Has our species always been racist?

We are not a racist species, we are exclusive. Our species has evolved to be cooperative within its group, but very exclusive with outside groups. This is universal in the human being since prehistory. We are a territorial species. The territory is the resources and the group defends it. Skin color is not a problem for our species. We are made to accept anyone in our group, be they white or black, fat or skinny, ugly or beautiful, but not those of other groups. Vinicius’ problem is therefore not an evolutionary issue. In my opinion it is a problem of respect and authority. We come from a dictatorship and many times it is difficult to apply that necessary authority. We have a deficit of good authority, which this case has turned into a shame and is leading us to ridicule. It is the biggest problem that our country now has. But I want to be positive. This problem has a simple solution: expand the size of the tribe.

He assures that we do not have a very good concept of our body.

We don’t love him and this is a book to reconcile with him. Very few of whom you ask if our body is beautiful will tell you yes; most think that we are ugly, even deformed, in contrast to the body of animals like the horse or the lion, of which they will say that they are beautiful. I want to claim the human body and consider it beautiful. We must look at it and admit it, because it is the only thing we have.

Yet here we are, before the Diadumenusa canon of beauty that, in general, we all lack.

We must not be discouraged when contemplating its perfection, since it is the representation of an ideal, it is very sure that it represented the god Apollo and in him, therefore, all his bodily features are sublimated; It is unreal, but it helps us to see what we are like, what our muscles are like, our anatomy. What I propose is that we look at our body in front of a mirror, not like Narcissus, recreating ourselves in its beauty, but to see it as it is and to know and admit ourselves. We have to learn that we are body.

Do we get fat because we are a good invention of evolution, which makes us accumulate what we eat for possible future periods of famine?

We get fat because we spend fewer calories than we eat. In this we do not differ from other species. What happens is that those burn what they eat. Deer, for example, don’t have an atom of fat. We accumulate it by our way of life. We are not a species designed for sedentary lifestyle. Evolution has designed us to walk and run, our specialty is long distance running. In this exercise we optimize our energy expenditure, we spend the minimum to be able to prolong this effort for a long time.

From head to toe, his book takes a strenuous journey through our anatomy. More than 650 pages in which the most varied concepts of anatomy, paleontology, history, art, science fiction and other disciplines are collected, all related with absolute intensity. He is not afraid that people will think that this book is a piece of cake.

I don’t believe it. I know how to write to make reading enjoyable and that the reader does not lose interest. This is an epicurean book, in the sense that it advocates a return to nature, to nature, something that is positive, that is pleasing. What I’m saying is that we are missing out on many pleasures that have to do with feeling. There are few things as pleasant as rest and sleep after physical exercise. This is something I want to value. Knowledge of our body is the best tool to achieve that pleasure.

According to the criteria of

The Trust Project

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