Re: AAT Questions...

Alex Duncan (aduncan@mail.utexas.edu)
11 Jul 1995 21:35:02 GMT

In article <3tprq1$eei@newsbf02.news.aol.com> Pat Dooley,
patdooley@aol.com writes:
>If it could be clearly demonstrated that the gorilla's sweat mechanism
>was very similar to the human mechanism, and that they had a similar
>evolutionary origin, then a moderate sized bite would have been taken
>out of the AAT.

"Gorillas and chimpanzees also have a higher percentage of eccrine glands
as opposed to apocrine glands than other primates, about half of the
total sweat gland being of the eccrine category."

Porier FE, Stini WA, Wreden KB (1990) In Search of Ourselves, p.509. New
Jersey: Prentice Hall.

You don't really want to suggest that human eccrine glands work
in some way different from gorillas or chimps, do you?
And yes, I'm aware that we have lots more eccrine glands than
other apes. I find current models of the acquisition of human
characteristics to be a completely adequate explanation for this fact.

Alex Duncan
Dept. of Anthropology
University of Texas at Austin
Austin, TX 78712-1086
512-471-4206
aduncan@mail.utexas.edu