Re: Morgan Tears 1
Thomas Clarke (clarke@acme.ist.ucf.edu)
1 Nov 1995 22:10:09 GMT
In article <474ag4$gfg@news.global1.net> pnich@globalone.net (Phil Nicholls)
writes:
> Let's assume for the moment that <Elaine Morgan is> right. Apes don't weep.
<Why apes don't weep>
> ... is hardly a key question and once again we run into the same
> problem that we encounter with all of the other AAH "traits." There
> is reason to believe that psychogenic tears are anything but a recent
> innovation.
I assume you ment to have a "no" after "There is"
If you assume that the whole list of characteristics that Elaine Morgan
cites in her book are all of recent origin, then you start to get
what looks like an anomalous situation of a whole lot of evolution
happening in a short time. It would be more "probable" for the
various traits evolved at various times spread througout hominid
evolution.
> A lack of an answer from those who reject your hypothesis simply
> indicates an unwillingness to leap to conclusions about aspects of
> human behavior that cannot be represented in the fossil record or
> understood by means of comparative anatomy.
Aw science is full of leaps. Allegedly Newton saw the apple fall and
leaped to equating the force that pulled the apple with the force
that kept the moon going around the earth. Of course it then took
quite a while to verify the hypothesis making it a theory. I understand
the big difficulty was proving that the integrated inverse square
gravitational pull form a sphere acted as if all the mass were concentrated
at the center; this was a tough problem for his new calculus, standard
second semester stuff now.
Now to plug my early nakedness theory, leading to the evolution of
a fat layer because of hairless exposure to chill night air. I want
to point out to you anti-AAH/Elaine-Morgan people that if you adopt
early hairlessness you defuse what I think is one of the best pieces
of evidence in favor of the AAH: the skin-attached fat layer.
Thus if you adopt early nakedness as a result of bipedalism as the
forests thinned, not only do you provide a feedback mechanism driving
the evolution of bipedalism (more bipedal -> hairless is better in noon
day sun -> bipedalism is better in noon day sun ...), but you
explain the fat layer (chill night air) and you undermine the AAH.
How's that for parsimony? Just assume early nakedness and you explain
lots of stuff and undermine a nemesis.
Tom Clarke
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