Posted on 12/16/2005 11:03:02 AM PST by blam
We've had numerous 'out-of-Africa' articles recently. Here's an alternative.
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I'm surprised no one has demagogued one of the key premises of "Out Of Africa" here, because in the wrong hands, the notion that those who did migrate were of greater intelligence and more adaptable, has an ugly flip side. And, that would be that those who did not migrate would of necessity be of lesser intelligence ... modern-day Africans.
Sounds quite racist, put into these terms, doesn't it?
The GGG group have had very few threads pulled and it is primarly because we leave those things 'un-said.'
"The GGG group have had very few threads pulled and it is primarly because we leave those things 'un-said.'"
It is just surprising to me, that "Out Of Africa" has been so widely accepted, due to this implication. Beyond that, I'll leave it alone.
"This alone would be an incentive for migration."
Could be plausible, but that is not what is posited in "Out Of Africa."
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Whew. For a few minutes, I was afraid I was going to have to abandon my newfound identity as a Neanderthal.
Since mitochondrial DNA is inherited from the mother, the best explanation for the current situation would not deal with intelligence, but rather with the reproductive success of Eve, her daughters, granddaughters, great-granddaughters, etc.
This can be explained by their being more alluring and available than their female contemporaries, thus able to attract men able to father a large number of daughters by them and to provide the necessary alimony and child support.
The Bodacious African Slut Theory hypothesizes that we are all descended from a long line of the most horny and good-looking women.
Origins of Modern Humans: Multiregional or Out of Africa? By Donald Johanson
Just reading through this article and taking into account the Toba eruption, and subsequent re-establishment of humankind, I can see possibilities of such an event and the resulting reduction/isolation of small populations resulting in drastic changes to society and behaviour..
Likewise, the "opportunities" for extended periods of introspection/contemplation concerning abstract concepts like "the meaning of life".. ( seriously.. the whole world goes dark and cold for 6 years, you're sitting in a cave trying to figure out how to keep warm by making your fire pit more efficient, and why this happened to you, of all people.. )
Resulting in use of art and symbolism, personal adornment, etc..
Again, more personal time to create specialized tools that allow more efficient utilization of time spent outdoors, ( in the cold ) gathering food.. ( find food, kill it / gather it, get back inside where the fire / warmth is.. )
Then there is the problem of inbreeding within small, close communities.. ( need for "trade" among communities includes women... new blood needed.. As well as trading locally available materials, or even ideas for survival.. )
Drastic changes in food resources, and the need to move to new areas to access them.. ( fishing becomes more common.. moving to seashore areas.. )
None of this seems to indicate any actual change in intellectual capacity however.. ( at least as I understood it..)
It seems to indicate a change in behaviour, which may have been caused by any number of influences, but from what I have read, the intellectual capacity was there for tens of thousands of years, then a sudden change is observed...
That indicates, at least to me, an outside influence..
Not so much a change in intellect, but in attitude..
Evidence is, man had the capacity for thought, but until something like Toba happened, intelligence was not considered as a desirable trait..
With survival suddenly on the line, ideas became a positive ( and necessary ) tool for survival..
Creativity and imagination became more than just an amusement..
Enough rambling thought for now..
Just my two cents..
Thanks.
My thoughts are that the only survivors would have been in the warmer areas on the earth...all others probably would have died.
That's one of my complaints too.
The soil is so acidic around here that people buried in cemeteries in the mid-1800's are no longer there...there's nothing underground above their gravestones and the gravestones themselves are etched away to almost nothing. Not a good area to go looking for fossils here.
"With survival suddenly on the line, ideas became a positive ( and necessary ) tool for survival."
Famine has propelled many an exodus and diaspora, even in relatively recent history. The Irish spring to mind.
I've seen self-selection, by virtue of willingness to migrate, put forth as an explanation for a number of things over the years. Take, for instance, the supposition of a more dynamic, adventurous, inventive and productive society in the United States, in comparison to "old" Europe. But, much of this can be explained, in my opinion, by a form of (classical) liberal governance that encouraged dynamism and inventiveness, rather than anything inherent in the people themselves.
Whew. That was close. ;')
A propensity to flat feet, need for sunglasses, and especially sunburn, among other anomolies, all mitigate to us originating under a far friedlier sun, and on lower gravity planet.
Ship wrecked.
Is it?
Fathers can be influential too
Linkage disequilibrium and recombination in hominid mitochondrial DNA
Still apparently much debated, many articles online.
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