We see from the root of genus that the natural human tendency to form conceptual distinctions derives from our familial and cultural background. This has led Homo to be the genus of all human species during the past few million years, of which only Homo sapiens is extant.
However, if we now wish to understand humankind’s place within the overall scheme of things, we need to take genus to the utmost level of generality, similar to class and kind, which is cognate, free of our cultural conditioning.
By thus standing outside ourselves, we can answer the fundamental questions of human existence, such as Who are we?, Where have we come from?, and Where is evolution carrying us all at unprecedented exponential rates of acceleration?
1551, plural genera, ‘kind, sort, class’ of things in logic, as the science of reason, from Latin genus (genitive generis) ‘race, stock, kind; family, birth, descent, origin’, cognate with Greek genos ‘race, kind’, from suffixed form of PIE base *genə- ‘give birth, beget’.
Genus, as used to classify distinct groups of plants and animals, is first recorded in 1608.