Re: Waking up covered in dew
Paul Crowley (Paul@crowleyp.demon.co.uk)
Thu, 15 Aug 96 20:50:15 GMT
In article <4uv6bc$k04@hecate.umd.edu>
th81@umail.umd.edu "Thomas R. Holtz, Jr." writes:
> By "vegetation blanket", I meant simply a layer of leaves over the body.
> No sort of weaving or permanence was intended.
The only thing that would keep the cold and the moisture away from
you would be a layer of impermeable material, trapping a warm layer
of air. Branches of leaves are not much use. (I've tried, and
failed, to sleep in haystacks in this country.)
> Also, with all the discussions about hairlessness, bipedality, and
> subcutaneous fat, I did not notice a single mention of neoteny (granted,
> I didn't read all the postings: shame on me). Neoteny is one of the
> main aspects to 'standard' models of hominid evolution
Neotony is a mechanism, not a solution. In any case, juvenile
apes are not less hairy, nor more bipedal (allowing for size);
nor do they possess more sub-cutaneous fat. There certainly
much more arboreal. So even if, say, the australos had reasons
for becoming more neotonous, the mechanism could not have helped
them in these respects, at least.
> and yet all
> the discussions I've seen here have tried to find adaptationist reasons
> for all the important human characteristics.
I've never understood how "adaptionist" can be an acceptable term
of abuse. What else is there? - Lamarkism? Teleology? God?
Paul.
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