Re: BIPEDALISM AND OTHER
Alex Duncan (aduncan@mail.utexas.edu)
26 Jul 1995 22:02:24 GMT
In article <9507221021.0EJG301@sstar.com> , ann.nunn@sstar.com writes:
>Yes, but are human females sexually interested in males at ALL times
>during the cycle? Are they more interested at some points of the cycle
>than at other points? (I would say that "you're really out of touch
>here," but I think that snotty comments like that don't add much to the
>search for the truth.)
I certainly wouldn't deny that human females are more interested in
sexual activity at some points in their cycle than at others. That
doesn't change the basic point that human females are far more likely
than most other primates to be active throughout the cycle.
>NE> By the way, very few mammals other than humans produce so much
>NE>blood during menstruation. This could be another fact you could
>NE>integrate into the AAT. Oh, wait, it wouldn't work -- blood attracts
>NE>sharks.
>
>Are you aware that immersion in cold water stops the flow? We had these
>big arguments during the 50's about girls going into swimming pools when
>they were menstruating (oooo-oooo contamination! said some males), so
>there's a body of knowledge on this subject of which you may not be
>aware.
Are you aware that a lot of the water available for swimming in
equatorial Africa is pretty warm? I was basically just pointing out that
here is another way that humans are nearly unique. I was expressing my
surprise that AAT proponents hadn't tried to incorporate this into their
hypothesis, as the point of the hypothesis seems to be to try and explain
all aspects of human uniqueness.
>Like you, I will remain skeptical of the aquatic ape theory until more
>verifiable evidence becomes available, and I believe that the proponents
>of that theory bear the burden of proof, just as the proponents of all
>theories do, but I am also very skeptical of any scenarios proposed so
>far by the standard savanna theorists for the bipedal adaptation, as
>they have even less evidence for their suppositions.
Less evidence than is available for the AAT? I suggest that you are
incredibly unfamiliar with the current state of knowledge in
paleoanthropology.
Alex Duncan
Dept. of Anthropology
University of Texas at Austin
Austin, TX 78712-1086
512-471-4206
aduncan@mail.utexas.edu
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