[lbo-talk] FA: Sapolsky on baboons becoming SNAGs

[KJ]

The current story of human evolution suggests that human beings almost
didn't make it -- the line that became homo sapiens was down to around
7000 individuals -- and that the 'secret' of pulling through was
learning to be cooperative, to work together, and not cut-throat
competition. The only other line that survived, it now appears, were
the Flores hobbits; all the other lines just died out.

Happy New Year everyone -- hey, 2005 turned out pretty well after all,
especially when measured against the general gloom and doom at the end
of 2004.

kj

On 12/31/05, Charles Brown <cbrown at michiganlegal.org> wrote:
>
> I'll go out on a limb and speculate that the part of the origin of human
> beings was when groups of missing link species discovered general "peace"
> like the group of non-human primates discussed here, replacing the chimp/ape
> fighting shennanigans described in the article. This gave them a leap in
> adaptive advantage over groups that still practiced the monkeyshines
> described in the article.
>
> With the rise of class exploiting society, humans have gone backwards to
> acting more like chimp/ape ancestors with their fighting and aggression
> (except for bonbons :>)). The cult of individualism which reaches its height
> with bourgeois society is actually a devolution back to the state of our
> apish/monkey ancestors.
>
> I'll say a group of living non-human primates has culture when they have
> _names_ for themselves and form living kingroups based on descent from
> common named ancestors who are dead. Full culture must be based on learning
> with symbols like names , not imitation , as seems the basis for the
> "traditions" in these primate groups. Tool style traditions can be imitated
> and passed down through generations by that imitation.
>
> Charles
>
> ^^^^^^