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Re: Dissecting the Aquatic Ape: Bipedalism
Richard Foy (rfoy@netcom.com)
Fri, 2 Aug 1996 13:47:06 GMT
In article <4tqflo$opf@portal.gmu.edu>,
HARRY R. ERWIN <herwin@mason2.gmu.edu> wrote:
>Richard Foy (rfoy@netcom.com) wrote:
>: In article <4to2ss$kj9@portal.gmu.edu>,
>: HARRY R. ERWIN <herwin@mason2.gmu.edu> wrote:
>: >: >
>: >: >Oh yes, except that we have evidence for very slow cultural change until
>: >: >about 110 KYr BP.
>: >
>: >: Isn't this evidence related to stone tools?
>: >
>: >They've gone quite a bit beyond that. Leslie Aiello (and colleagues) have a
>: >paper coming out soon.
>
>: I would be interested in hearing more about this.
>
>I'll try to post something tonight. Something popped up today that
>indicates at least some paleoanthropologists now believe they have
>evidence that A. ramidus was specificially adapted to the gallery
>forest/rivershore/lakeshore biome.
Very good.
>
>: >Yes, but fitness is relative, and if there are other groups in the area
>: >that don't lose as many prime males, you're history.
>
>: Your logic escapes me. The number of people in the next generation is
>: not determined by how many prime males there are in a population, but
>: rather how many females there are who can have adaquete resouces for
>: themselves and their children.
>
>If a father's contribution helps maximize the fitness of a child (by
>increasing the child's status relative to the status of children in other
>groups, improving the child's health, and deferring a daughter's first
>pregnancy so that more grandchildren survive), loss of too many males from
>a group reduces the average fitness of the group.
>
Yes that is true. I think the actual situation is more complex than
either of our discussions imply. But I do believe the existance of
the Yanamomo, who have apparently been very violent for as long as
anthopologists have been visting the Amazon basin, demonstarte that
violent gourps of humans can be fit at lest until a more vilent group
of humans with guns comes along.
--
Western Kundali; Chakra 1 awakening,
"Greed is good." -- Michael Douglas in Wall Street
URL http://www.he.tdl.com/~hfanoe/index.html
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