Re: Apology to Ms. Morgan

Stephen Barnard (steve@megafauna.com)
Fri, 04 Oct 1996 21:37:07 -0800

T&B Schmal wrote:
>
> > Stephen Barnard wrote:
> >
> I have to say that I find Elaine Morgan's posts to this newsgroup to be
> >very reasonable and civil, and I find the tone of her detractors to be
> >often obnoxious in the extreme.
>
>
>
> Would you agree that the most obnoxious posters to this group never stick
> their necks out with a theory of their own?
>
> Tom Schmal

I'm not sure about that, Tom. I don't have any theories of my own
because I don't really know enough. I hope you didn't have me in mind!

I have some hunches:

- The out-of-Africa schema is correct; the "parallel evolution" schema,
or whatever it's called, is wrong.

- Neanderthals were a distinct species, and at times lived in proximity
to H.s.s without interbreeding.

- The AAH hypothesis is all wet.

- The development of language, which I believe depends on a distinct
change (mutation) in the brain, was the crucial event that led to the
explosion of culture.

and a few more if I think about it a bit more.

I wouldn't defend these "hunches" to the death, and I respect other
opinions.

Steve Barnard


It's funny how charged up the topic of human origins is. It really gets
under people's skins in a visceral way.