When we think of someone with autism, we often think of someone with a unique talent or abilities, such as an innate artistic ability or an impressive memory. We can also think of a person with a good head for engineering and mathematics or who pays more attention to detail.
This is because, despite all the negative stories about a possible "autism epidemic," most of us are able to recognize that people with autistic conditions usually have a range of valuable skills and talents, both technically and socially.
Science has also shown that a high number of people who have not been diagnosed with autism have autistic traits. Although many of these people have not been officially diagnosed, they could prove positive if they performed the relevant tests and the fact that they are not aware of these traits and lead a normal life makes many of their peculiarities often an advantage.
The origins of autism
When we talk about the autistic spectrum we mean that we are all "a little autistic" and we fit in some way with some of the features of autism.
Thanks to genetic research, we already know that autism and autistic traits have been part of what makes us human for a long time.
Research has shown that some key autism genes are part of an inheritance shared with the monkey, before the "division" that ended up assuming the slow evolution to the human being and that happened when our ape ancestors differed from other apes that still exist today. Other autism genes are more recent in evolutionary terms, although they are still more than 100,000 years old.
Science has also shown that autism, for the most part, is highly hereditary. Although a third of autism cases can be attributed to the random appearance of "genetic errors" or spontaneous mutations, in some families high autism rates are concentrated and for many of these families that bit of autism may have some advantages.
Although many people have not been officially diagnosed, they could prove positive if they performed the relevant tests and the fact that they are not aware of these traits and lead a normal life makes many of their peculiarities often an advantage.All this suggests that autism exists for a reason and, as we demonstrated in our recent book and in our specialized article, our ancestors with autism played an important role in their social groups through human evolution due to their exceptional abilities and talents.
Ancient genes
If we go back thousands of years ago, people who show autistic traits were not only socially accepted, but could have been well respected.
Many people with autism have an exceptional memory capacity, greater perception of vision, taste and smell, and, in some cases, a better understanding of natural systems, such as animal behavior. The incorporation of some of these skills into a community would have played a vital role in the development of specialists and it is very likely that these specialists in turn were of vital importance for the survival of the group.
An anthropological study of reindeer herders claimed that:
The extraordinary grandfather had detailed knowledge about the kinship, medical history and moods of each of the 2,600 animals in the herd.
He was more comfortable in the company of reindeer than human beings and used to distance himself from others, even cooking on his own. His son worked as a pastor and in the summer he was accompanied by his own children, the teenagers Zhenya and Sergei.
Autistic features in art
More evidence can be found on the common features that exist between some cave art paintings and the most talented autistic artists. The cave of Chauvet, in the south of France, contains some of the best preserved figurative cave paintings in the world.
Frieze of the lions in the cave of Chauvet, painted about 30,000 years ago. The paintings show exceptional realism, great memory capacity, attention to detail and a focus on the parts rather than the total set.
Is about autistic traits which can also be found in talented artists who do not have to have autism but are much more common in autistic artists.
Rewriting history
But unfortunately, despite the facts and archaeological evidence, stories about the origins of mankind have been slow to catch up. Rarely has diversity been taken into account in the reconstructions of human origins and it has taken researchers a long time to go beyond the image of a man who evolves from a simian form that is what we usually associate with the evolution.
"All human evolution was driven by Asperger's syndrome with autism traits and by autistic people. Human beings would still be sitting in caverns chattering among themselves if it weren't for autism."Only recently has the key role of women in our evolutionary past been recognized and the narrative until then tended to focus on the role of men. So It is not surprising that including autism (something that for many is still a "disorder") is somewhat controversial.
This is the main reason why the arguments about the inclusion of autism and the way in which it must have influenced evolution have become ridiculous.
But given what we know, it's time to review the role of autism in human evolution. Michael Fitzgerald, the first doctor in child and adolescent psychiatry in Ireland specializing in autism spectrum disorder, said unscrupulously in an interview in 2006 that:
All human evolution was driven by Asperger's syndrome with autism traits and by autistic people. Humans would still be sitting in caverns chattering among themselves if it weren't for autism.
Although I would not go so far, I agree that without that “direction marked by autism” in our human communities we probably would not be where we are today.
Author: Penny Spikins, Professor of archeology of Human Origins at the University of York.
This article has originally been published in The Conversation. You can read the original article here.
