Re: Phenotypic quality and human social behavior
Bryant (mycol1@unm.edu)
18 Aug 1996 10:53:44 -0600
In article <4v3aqh$si7@mtinsc01-mgt.ops.worldnet.att.net>,
Robert Snower <rs222@worldnet.att.net> wrote:
>Come now. What could be more obvious than good looks are conducive to
>sexual satisfaction on the part of the partner?
Ah, but you're already aware that developmental stability correlates with
(and may even be what we recognize *as*) "good looks." The notion that
attractiveness is functional has been contra the prevailing dogma for
over a century in academia. It was very controversial when Thornhill
and Gangestad and Grammer reported evidence that good looks have to do
with developmental integrity.
Anthropological (enthnological) dogma has long held that "beauty" is
'absolutely relative,' ;) ...that it is culturally "determined."
>The first I don't follow.
Sorry. Female orgasm (depending on timing) retains sperm. Women orgasm
more with men possessing high phenotypic quality (developmental stability).
>As for infanticide, it has many mentions
>in Wilson's original 1975 work, and was written about in the years
>immediately after that ad nauseum, long before the Readers Digest
>crowd ever got around to inventing "Evolutionary Psychology."
>Always as adaptive, by the way.
Yes, by sociobiologists. Look back at the ethological lit. Hell, Konrad
Lorenz presents intraspecific violence itself as abberant. But, he was a
group selectionist.
Cheers,
Bryant
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