Shelter and Menstruation

B. Moosang (bmoosang@uoguelph.ca)
1 Jan 1997 01:07:45 GMT

Hi,

Ok, at the risk of sounding insane I was looking for some answers to some
questions in order to settle an argument.

1 - Roughly when did people start live in, well, places like (at the risk
of sounding like a Flintstone, caves and other primative shetlers? Also
roughly when were shelters first constructed rather than found?

2 - Does anybody know when women began to menstruate as opposed to (I
forget the scienctific term) going into heat?

3 - Assuming women did not menstruate before the advent of (semi)
permanent shelters would it be possible (given the time frame suggested
by the answer to question one) for such biological changes to occur
(evolve)?

The arguement (discussion) that I have been having is that menstruation
evolved as an adaptive result of shelter and food becoming more readily
availble and thus (though litters are usually one only) human woman
evoloved so that they were fertile more often.

The counter argument that has been bouncing around is that (even if such
could evolve in such a short time period) since human babies need far
more car and attention than do other critters babies in fact it would
make more sense for human reproduction to happen even less often than it
already does.

Finally, does anybody kow if other creatures (I guess the best bet would
be gorillas, menstrate?

Thanks...for not thinking me insane.

BMS