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Hominization, also called anthropogenesis, refers to the process of becoming human, and is used in somewhat different contexts in the fields of paleontology and paleoanthropology, archaeology, philosophy, theology, and mythography. In the latter three fields, the alternative term anthropogony has also been used. Both anthropogenesis and anthropogony sometimes instead refer to the related subject of human evolution.
Many thinkers have attempted to explain hominization – from Classical times through Hobbes, Rousseau, Hegel, and Engels, who wrote an essay on The Part Played by Labour in the Transition from Ape to Man. The contemporary study of hominization in archeology often looks for signs that mark out human habitations from pre-human forms: for example, the use of grave goods. The Part played by Labour in the Transition from Ape to Man Karl Marx, Dialectics of nature, Ch. 09
In the context of modern theistic evolution, "hominization" refers to the theory that there was a point at which a population of who had (or may have) evolved by a process of evolution acquired souls and thus (with their descendants) became fully human in theological terms. This group might be restricted to Adam and Eve, or indeed to Mitochondrial Eve, although versions of the theory allow for larger populations. The point at which this occurred should essentially be the same as in paleoanthropology and archeology, but theological discussion of the matter tends to concentrate on the theoretical. The term "special transformism" refers to theories of a Miracle of some sort, achieving hominization.Karl Rahner, Encyclopedia of Theology: A Concise Sacramentum Mundi, section "Hominization" by Karl Rahner in entry on "Evolution", pp. 484-488, 1975, Continuum International Publishing Group, , 9780860120063, google books
The process and means by which hominization occurs is a key problem in theistic evolutionary thought, at least for the Abrahamic religions, for which the belief that animals do not have souls but humans do is a core teaching. Scientific accounts of the origin of the universe, origin of life, and subsequent evolution of pre-human life forms may not cause any difficulty (helped by the reluctance of science itself to say anything about what preceded the Big Bang) but the need to reconcile religious and scientific views of hominization and account for the addition of a soul to humans remains a problem. Several 19th-century theologians attempted specific solutions, including the Catholics John Augustine Zahm and St. George Jackson Mivart, but tended to come under attack from both the theological and biological camps.The six leading examples are the subject of Artigas's book. Each of these has a chapter in Artigas: Léroy, Zahm, Bonomelli, Mivart, the English Bishop John Hedley, and Raffaello Caverni. All are also covered by Brundell. 20th-century thinking has tended to avoid proposing precise mechanisms.Kung, 94–95
of humanity and of particular peoples are a frequent hominization-related subject of study within mythography, folkloristics, and comparative religion.
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