The prof just has a thing for red-haired Stone Age women...
Posted on 03/24/2007 9:12:40 AM PDT by aculeus
A prize-winning paper suggests that humans are hairless apes because Stone-Age mothers regarded furry babies as unattractive
Medical Hypotheses, an Elsevier publication, has announced the winner of the 2006 David Horrobin Prize for medical theory. Written by Judith Rich-Harris, author of The Nurture Assumption and No Two Alike, the article, "Parental selection: a third selection process in the evolution of human hairlessness and skin color" was judged to best embody the spirit of the journal. The £1,000 prize, launched in 2004, is awarded annually and named in honour of Dr. David Horrobin, the renowned researcher, biotechnology expert and founder of Medical Hypotheses, who died in 2003.
Harris' paper describes Stone Age societies in which the mother of a newborn had to decide whether she had the resources to nurture her baby. The newborn's appearance probably influenced whether the mother kept or abandoned it. An attractive baby was more likely to be kept and reared.
Harris' theory is that this kind of parental selection may have been an important force in evolution. If Stone Age people believed that hairless babies were more attractive than hairy ones, this could explain why humans are the only apes lacking a coat of fur. Harris suggests that Neanderthals must have been furry in order to survive the Ice Age. Our species would have seen them as "animals" and potential prey. Harris' hypothesis continues that Neanderthals went extinct because human ancestors ate them.
This year's prize judge was Professor Jonathan Rees FMedSci of Edinburgh University, Scotland - co-discoverer of the 'red hair gene'. Professor Rees said: "This paper is an excellent example of the kind of bold thinking and theorizing which David Horrobin intended to encourage when he began Medical Hypotheses. I hope that Judith Rich Harris' idea provokes debate and further investigation of this topic."
IBTHTP!
(In before the Helen Thomas pics!)
The prof just has a thing for red-haired Stone Age women...
I agree. I know of Indian tribes that find less hair more attractive...it's called sexual selection.
Stone age people devoted all their energy to producing offspring. It is absolutely asinine to say they killed for this reason.
Democrats are the only people on the planet that have ever killed for "aesthetics."
I theorize that anyone promoting the concept of mothers throwing away newborns because the next one might have less hair, and considering it a natural process, has deep seated maternal issues.
So, perhaps we're seeing here the start of something new: Scientists scrounging and foraging for non-global-warming grant sources. Since they are so used to easy global-warming money, it may take a few years to come up with studies that aren't total baloney. Its like they have to flex some neurons that they have not had to use for many a year.
Not bold enough. They are tiptoeing around politically incorrect subjects such as white skin, golden blond hair, and man's war making disposition. The Neanderthals were more likely killed off in war, not for food. Nature gave an intelligence test to see who was smarter, had a better culture, and was better at teamwork. The Neanderthals lost.
Bingo! We have a winner for the best post on this thread.
Do these scienterologicly folks have any theories about why men have breasts?
Winner of the "Wild and Unfounded Speculation" award.
I blame global warming for hairlessness. If I write it and send it in will I get an award?
I didn't think so.
So much evolutionary thinking is fantasy. I don't suppose they have any diaries or interviews that document what the women actually thought.
Why are people so strongly drawn to this kind of just-so story?
"Parental Selection"? People take this guy seriously? I guess since "natural selection," is an obvious crock he feels a need to come up with "parental selection." Here we have the mother (and/or father) killing their own offspring because they don't like the way they look! (I'm wondering: at what age did the mother make this sort of judgment?) It's a wonder that all girls didn't turn out to be blond!
ML/NJ
Many years ago, right after taking my family to see the first "Star Wars" movie, I took my young son into the shower with me, (yes, that was before I would be considered a child molester by some people and the authorities )
He wondered why I wasn't picked to play "Chewbacca"
How many "ifs" does it take to make a theory?
What is the number of "ifs" it takes to make a scientific theory no better than a Tarot Card reading??
To much Estrogen added to our beef and poultry.
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