On 5/27/2011 11:13 PM, Miles Jackson wrote:
> c b wrote:
>>
>> CB: In fact, that in humans which "simply exists" is their biological
>> or natural selves. Biological sexual intercourse and conception
>> precede existence. Then the resultant new born babies are completely
>> natural beings.
>
> This is wrong through and through. The womb is an environment, and
> what happens in this environment shapes the development of the embryo
> and fetus. Newborns are far from "completely natural"; they are a
> product of the complex interaction of the intrauterine environment and
> genetics.
>
> Miles
In addition, childbirth procedures as well as the handling of the infant in the first minutes, hours after birth, differ widely. By a day or two (at most) after birth the baby is enmeshed in an ensemble of social relations.
It is the uterine environment which causes the fingerprints on the left and right hands to differ. This is Lewontin's illustration of the point Miles makes. CB is parting from his _own_ Marxist tradition here.
Carrol
^^^^^^
CB: This is so out to lunch. Go study some _biological_ anthropology and Marx