Post by dickslagter on Feb 26, 2014 8:40:47 GMT -5
Dear mr Alexander,
I just read Human Social Evolution-the foundational works of Richard D. Alexander. I would like to thank you for your work, for I have never read anything that comes nearer to the subject than the prose you wrote. I greatly admire your strong and logical vision on intra-group cooperation and inter-group competition, humor, moral, religion and the arts. But there is one thing in this book that strikes me as lightening.
It happened on page 165.
On that page you write the following: Upright locomotion has been associated with the evolution of hunting and tool use. Washburn and De Vore (1961b) suggest that parental care may be implicated in the evolution of bipedalism, as well. They argue that, as the infant became more and more helpless, and the human mother more hairless, the baby was no longer able to cling unassisted, .. . Upright posture may, in fact, have tended to evolve first in females in the context of carrying infants.
I really was astonished and I will tell you why.
About 6 years ago, in 2008, I was puzzled by the question why till then nobody came up with a reasonable explanation for bipedalism in humans. While I was wondering about this topic I had a classic Eureka-experience. I saw all of a sudden a very clear picture in my mind of a chimpanzee-like mother without body-hair who carried her new born baby in her arms, just in the way humans do. The nakedness of the mother made classic primate clinging on her fur coat impossible.
“Off course” I cryed out, “that is the way it all could have started” . When I calmed down I started wondering why nobody ever came up with this (bio)logical explanation before, but is seemed to me at the time that I was pretty lonely here. Although I was no professional biologist, evolutionist, palaeontologist or whatsoever, I decided a half year later that writing a book on the subject was worth a try. I had nothing to lose being an amateur and the idea was good enough, I reasoned. From the first moment I decided to write a book it was my ambition to give a full explanation on human evolution. That is to say, not just on bipedalism, but also on the loss of body hair, monogamous mating system in big groups (odd combination for mammals), language, big brains. For a long time I was afraid not to succeed, especially on language en big brains, but to my own surprise I was really able to come up with a scientific, complete and consistent explanation of the human evolution. With assistance of a friendly and curious leading palaeontologist in my country I finished my book in the spring of 2012 and found a publisher. It was printed in December 2012 and is called Homo nudus-de naakte mens (translation: Homo nudus-the naked human).
Working out the details of becoming naked and bipedal I can summarize as follows:
1. Nakedness first evolved in females. Female chimpanzees and bonobo’s lose a lot of body hair throughout their reproductive lives, because the children pull them out during the clinging period, especially when they grow and become heavy. So, mature females of the great apes become on average more and more hairless. Chimpanzee males are attracted by mature women, so I reasoned that nakedness and maturation could be linked in the sexual preferences of our ancestors. This freed the way for sexual selection on the trait.
2. This was the ultimate cause of speciation for our species
3. The nakedness caused troubles in the classical transportation of new born child’s and forced the mother to spend more time on the ground instead of the trees. Here she made the first stept on the way to bipedalism.
4. This caused troubles in the supply of food and safety for herself and her baby, and she badly needed assistance.
5. The assistance was given by subordinate males (! On page 141 you mention subordinate males as ideal candidates for parenting, off course I was thrilled there too!). They had enough body hair and were able to carry the child in the old fashioned way for her. Female, infant and male had enough food and safety this way and this prevented an evolutionary dead-end.
6. She “paid” for this service with sex. This way there was a win-win situation for male and female. The monogamous bond was set and concealed ovulation could evolve.
7. Carrying the infant the male also lost lots of body hair. Being more naked on his body he advertised his caring capacity’s and became attractive.
8. This all happened around 7 million years ago, in the dense woods of northern Africa in a period no longer than about 50.000 years because of the runaway effect of sexual selection.
9. Nakedness was 7 million years ago in north Africa not maladaptive because of the warm climate en dense shady woods at that time en place.
10. The 7 million year old fossils of Sahelanthropus tchadensis (found in Chad) together with geological, ecological and climatological reconstructions available, are consistent with this reconstruction.
I will stop here, though there is much more to tell about it, not only regarding human evolution in particular but also on evolutionary theory in a broad sense. It would have been easy to refer to my book for further information, and of course I would like to send you a copy. That wouldn’t help I am afraid because Homo nudus is written in Dutch, my native language. I have a Dutch website for my book ( www.homonudus.nl ) and if you look there, you will at least have some pictures that illustratie what I am trying to tell here. If you are interested in more details of whatever kind, feel free to ask. If you do so I will truly feel deeply honoured.
I hope you can imagine why I read your book with a more than average interest. Moreover I hope you understand why I felt the urge to write you. Your kind invitation on your personal site, took away all my doubts to do so.
I thank you again for your priceless insights and look forward to a reply.
I greet you with kind regards,
Dick Slagter, the Netherlands.
I just read Human Social Evolution-the foundational works of Richard D. Alexander. I would like to thank you for your work, for I have never read anything that comes nearer to the subject than the prose you wrote. I greatly admire your strong and logical vision on intra-group cooperation and inter-group competition, humor, moral, religion and the arts. But there is one thing in this book that strikes me as lightening.
It happened on page 165.
On that page you write the following: Upright locomotion has been associated with the evolution of hunting and tool use. Washburn and De Vore (1961b) suggest that parental care may be implicated in the evolution of bipedalism, as well. They argue that, as the infant became more and more helpless, and the human mother more hairless, the baby was no longer able to cling unassisted, .. . Upright posture may, in fact, have tended to evolve first in females in the context of carrying infants.
I really was astonished and I will tell you why.
About 6 years ago, in 2008, I was puzzled by the question why till then nobody came up with a reasonable explanation for bipedalism in humans. While I was wondering about this topic I had a classic Eureka-experience. I saw all of a sudden a very clear picture in my mind of a chimpanzee-like mother without body-hair who carried her new born baby in her arms, just in the way humans do. The nakedness of the mother made classic primate clinging on her fur coat impossible.
“Off course” I cryed out, “that is the way it all could have started” . When I calmed down I started wondering why nobody ever came up with this (bio)logical explanation before, but is seemed to me at the time that I was pretty lonely here. Although I was no professional biologist, evolutionist, palaeontologist or whatsoever, I decided a half year later that writing a book on the subject was worth a try. I had nothing to lose being an amateur and the idea was good enough, I reasoned. From the first moment I decided to write a book it was my ambition to give a full explanation on human evolution. That is to say, not just on bipedalism, but also on the loss of body hair, monogamous mating system in big groups (odd combination for mammals), language, big brains. For a long time I was afraid not to succeed, especially on language en big brains, but to my own surprise I was really able to come up with a scientific, complete and consistent explanation of the human evolution. With assistance of a friendly and curious leading palaeontologist in my country I finished my book in the spring of 2012 and found a publisher. It was printed in December 2012 and is called Homo nudus-de naakte mens (translation: Homo nudus-the naked human).
Working out the details of becoming naked and bipedal I can summarize as follows:
1. Nakedness first evolved in females. Female chimpanzees and bonobo’s lose a lot of body hair throughout their reproductive lives, because the children pull them out during the clinging period, especially when they grow and become heavy. So, mature females of the great apes become on average more and more hairless. Chimpanzee males are attracted by mature women, so I reasoned that nakedness and maturation could be linked in the sexual preferences of our ancestors. This freed the way for sexual selection on the trait.
2. This was the ultimate cause of speciation for our species
3. The nakedness caused troubles in the classical transportation of new born child’s and forced the mother to spend more time on the ground instead of the trees. Here she made the first stept on the way to bipedalism.
4. This caused troubles in the supply of food and safety for herself and her baby, and she badly needed assistance.
5. The assistance was given by subordinate males (! On page 141 you mention subordinate males as ideal candidates for parenting, off course I was thrilled there too!). They had enough body hair and were able to carry the child in the old fashioned way for her. Female, infant and male had enough food and safety this way and this prevented an evolutionary dead-end.
6. She “paid” for this service with sex. This way there was a win-win situation for male and female. The monogamous bond was set and concealed ovulation could evolve.
7. Carrying the infant the male also lost lots of body hair. Being more naked on his body he advertised his caring capacity’s and became attractive.
8. This all happened around 7 million years ago, in the dense woods of northern Africa in a period no longer than about 50.000 years because of the runaway effect of sexual selection.
9. Nakedness was 7 million years ago in north Africa not maladaptive because of the warm climate en dense shady woods at that time en place.
10. The 7 million year old fossils of Sahelanthropus tchadensis (found in Chad) together with geological, ecological and climatological reconstructions available, are consistent with this reconstruction.
I will stop here, though there is much more to tell about it, not only regarding human evolution in particular but also on evolutionary theory in a broad sense. It would have been easy to refer to my book for further information, and of course I would like to send you a copy. That wouldn’t help I am afraid because Homo nudus is written in Dutch, my native language. I have a Dutch website for my book ( www.homonudus.nl ) and if you look there, you will at least have some pictures that illustratie what I am trying to tell here. If you are interested in more details of whatever kind, feel free to ask. If you do so I will truly feel deeply honoured.
I hope you can imagine why I read your book with a more than average interest. Moreover I hope you understand why I felt the urge to write you. Your kind invitation on your personal site, took away all my doubts to do so.
I thank you again for your priceless insights and look forward to a reply.
I greet you with kind regards,
Dick Slagter, the Netherlands.