Page 121 - Contribution To Phenomenology

114 MAXINE SHEETS'JOHNSTONE

positioned to show how the living hominid body, being something more
than a particular piece of anatomy or behavior, is, in its intercorporeal
semantics, strikingly similar to the bodies of other primates. Through just
such phenomenological studies of animate form, human nature would be
properly anchored in a natural history. Husserl's writings call us
consistently to the task of forging this natural understanding of human
nature. They consistently invoke our continuity with nonhuman animals
and thus our anchorage in the natural world. It is indeed ironic that
paleoanthropology as presently practiced should consistently ignore this
task and that precisely a suspension of the natural attitude should allow
us the possibihty of seeing with the clearest of eyes into the darkness of
our own natural history.