History Main / OriginalMan

** In Genesis 2:4-25, the first human is formed from the dirt and receives life from God's breath. After experiencing loneliness and naming the animals God creates, the human's rib is removed and from it is formed woman, who the first man praises. The first humans here know not death, labor-pains, toil, or shame before violating the law of the Garden.

** Some people hold that Australiopiths are also human beings, making OriginalMan arise about 6 million years ago.

** Well, in the case of ''Homo sapiens'', there is ''Homo sapiens idaltu'' which lived in Ethiopia about 160,000 years ago. In fact, the translated name actually means "First born/Elder Wise Man" in Afari (an Ethiopian language) and Latin.
*** However, ''Homo sapiens neanderthalensis'' and ''Homo sapiens heidelbergensis'' are also accepted terms, which would put Homo sapiens at around 600,000 years ago.
* Homo erectus was apparently able to speak, built rafts or simple boats, used fire and probably wore animal skins, and the first known fossil of Homo erectus dates to 1.8 million years ago.
* Arguably the first member in the Homo genus belongs to Homo habilis, though some would say they were Australiopiths and not human beings, and an intermediate form dates back to 2.6 million years ago. Speaking of Australiopiths, some people lump hold they're also human beings, making OriginalMan arise about 6 million years ago.

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* Thanks to syncreticism, original woman is often equated to UsefulNotes/{{Lilith}} (originally [[SadlyMythtaken an animal]] in Literature/TheBible or [[OurDemonsAreDifferent a demon]] in [[Myth/MesopotamianMythology Sumerian Mythology]]), which would make her ''very'' different from modern woman.

* Before TheReveal, the First People of ''Series/{{Fringe}}'' were believed to be this. Much was made of them being an "ancient civilization of human beings- the first humans- that supposedly predated Adam, Eve and the Dinosaurs. This was a bizarre claim even for a show where computer viruses can infect the human brain. Later, [[spoiler: it turns out the "First People" are actually the future-versions of the main characters who designed the technology attributed to this ancient civilization and sent it back in time through a wormhole to the distant past.]]

* Arguably the first member in the Homo genus belongs to Homo habilis, though some would say they were Australiopiths and not human beings, and an intermediate form dates back to 2.6 million years ago. Speaking of Australiopiths, some people lump them as human beings, making [[OriginalMan]] arise about 6 million years ago.

* In Mayan Mythology, the gods tried to destroy original man with a great flood but a few people managed to survive. For this act of defiance they were turned into the monkeys which populate the American jungles to this day.
* Aztec Mythology, told that the original human race was devoured by ocelots. Not so cute anymore is it?

* The oral history of the Hadza people of Tanzania mention their oldest ancestors as hairy giants who lived more like animals. These were replaced by a race just as tall but used fire, medicine, domesticated dogs and lived in caves. Curiosly, this seems to be [[TruthinTelevision true]] as they are one of the oldest ethnic groups still alive and previous humans that lived where they did include ''Homo erectus'', ''Archaic Homo sapiens'', and ''Homo heidelbergensis'', all of which were rather tall and were the first to use fire, medicine, clothes and lived in huts and caves.

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*** However, "Homo sapiens neanderthalensis" and "Homo sapiens heidelbergensis" are also accepted terms, which would put Homo sapiens at around 600,000 years ago.

The hominid genus is about a million years old, and modern man is just the last sliver of it, definitely not the original. The original hominid would not be recognized as any species living today. That is if anything could be called the original hominid; rather than a single such species having ever existed, today's paleotologists reconstruct a gradual transition with no clear break. But there has been much speculation, study and effort to find the original man, probably some outlandish fiction too. In fact, this is one of the oldest tropes in the book. Can overlap with AdvancedAncientHumans, depending on how complex original man's society was. Also compare with FrazettaMan and AllCavemenWereNeanderthals.

A variation of the trope is an older species of man that was wiped out before ours began or is biologically independent of the homo sapiens genus in some other way. In these cases human familiarity is a must, otherwise they belong under {{precursors}}.

* According to ''Comicbook/{{Marville}}'' Comicbook/{{Wolverine}} was the first human. He evolved from an otter. Please reread the last sentence if you didn't believe it.

** Well, in the case of ''Homo sapiens'', there is ''Homo sapiens idaltu'' which lived in Ethiopia about 16,000 years ago. In fact, the translated name actually means "First born/Elder Wise Man" in Afari (an Ethiopian language) and Latin.

A {{CharacterizationTrope|s}} distinguishing a character who is the first human being or one of the first human beings.

A CharacterizationTrope distinguishing a character who is the first human being or one of the first human beings.

For the last two hundred thousand years or so, Cro-Magnon, the modern ''Homo sapiens'', has changed very little. Any given pair of individuals in this time period would be visually indistinguishable as species so long as they were subjected to the same environmental factors. However, the hominid genus is about a million years old, and modern man is just the last sliver of it, definitely not the original. The original hominid would not be recognized as any species living today.

That is if anything could be called the original hominid; rather than a single such species having ever existed, today's paleotologists reconstruct a gradual transition with no clear break. But there has been much speculation, study and effort to find the original man, probably some outlandish fiction too. In fact, this is one of the oldest tropes in the book. Can overlap with AdvancedAncientHumans, depending on how complex original man's society was. Also compare with FrazettaMan and AllCavemenWereNeanderthals.

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* ''[[Literature/TheBible The Book of Genesis]]'' describes the creation of humans beings twice. First time man and woman are created at the same time and told to take care of the Earth and multiply across it by {{God}}. The second time woman is made from man, they were originally immortal, and reproduction is a punishment for eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, which causes them to experience mortality as a price for gaining moral judgment similar to God's. Some ways of looking at it, as relating to this trope:
** Adam, Eve, and the garden of Eden were created separately from the rest of the Earth. Adam and Eve joined original man after being forced out of the garden. (in religious that do not take Enoch as canon it might can account for the [[MixedAncestry Nephilim]]. The sons of God being original man, the daughters of men being from Adam's line and the giant Nephilim being hybrids. Those accepting Enoch see {{fallen angel}}s as responsible, suggesting [[HalfHumanHybrid a different trope]])
** Original woman abandoned Adam or was forced out of the garden by him and a new woman was created who was more similar to Adam in her makeup.
** Genesis actually describes all of creation twice, once focusing on the world and animals, and once on humans.

** Well, in the case of ''Homo sapiens'', there is ''Homo sapiens idaltu'' which lived in Ethiopia about 16,ooo years ago. In fact, the translated name actually means "First born/Elder Wise Man" in Afari (an Ethiopian language) and Latin.

For the last two hundred thousand years or so, Cro-Magnon, the modern ''homo sapiens'', has changed very little. Any given pair of individuals in this time period would be visually indistinguishable as species so long as they were subjected to the same environmental factors. However, the hominid genus is about a million years old, and modern man is just the last sliver of it, definitely not the original. The original hominid would not be recognized as any species living today.

* In the Franchise/{{Nasuverse}}, copies are always inferior to the original, and since children are considered copies of their originals, the first humans (i.e. human archetypes) have been immensely more powerful than their modern descendants.

%%* Before TheReveal, the First People of ''Series/{{Fringe}}'' were believed to be this. %% Zero Context Example

* In Marvel comics, Adam K'ad-mon is a man-thing lookalike who is believed by some to be the original human being and protects the prime matrix, which is the focal point of the "multiverse".

* One early {{Discworld}} novel reveals that the First Men of the Disc created by the gods were immensely powerful beings, which took one look at their situation including their sucky gods and lost their tempers. After the resulting mayhem, men were re-created a good deal smaller.

* ''Videogame/{{Halo}}'s'' original man used to hold one of the strongest interstellar empires in the galaxy. Then, tens of thousands of years ago, the [[{{Precursors}} Forerunners]] defeated them, erased all traces of their empire, stripped them of all their technology, forcibly [[DevolutionDevice devolved]] them into a more primitive state, and quarantined the vast majority of them on their home planet of [[InsignificantLittleBluePlanet Erde-Tyrene]].

** Adam, Eve, and the garden of Eden were created separately from the rest of the Earth. Adam and Eve joined original man after being forced out of the garden. (in religious that do not take Enoch as canon it might can account for the {{half breed}} Nephilim. The sons of God being original man, the daughters of men being from Adam's line and the giant Nephilim being hybrids. Those accepting Enoch see {{fallen angel}}s as responsible, suggesting [[HalfHumanHybrid a different trope]])

* According to ''Comicbook/{{Marville}}'' Comicbook/{{Wolverine}} was the first human. He evolved from an otter.