The Aquatic Ape!
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Hi Guys,
I only learned about the Aquatic Ape Theory or Hypothesis, (depending on which side you are on) last week. I've been thinking about it and doing a little googling. Its quite a fascinating subject with a lot of interesting stuff written. What I like about the the theory / hypothesis is that it explains why I have a pot belly
That's my story and I sticking to it.If anyone is interesting here are a few links,
The Aquatic Ape Theory
The Aquatic Ape Theory (The Aquatic Ape Theory is mostly the work of just two people[1] – I have nothing new to add, except for a possible connection with global cataclysms) Consensus amongst…
Survive 2012 (survive2012.com)
Scuttling the Aquatic Ape Hypothesis
On our occasional trips to the New Jersey shore, my wife is always the first one in the water. While I'm cautiously wading in, dreading that final slap of cold water just below my waist, she's already frolicking in the waves, egging me on to just jump in and get it over with. Eventually I…
Laelaps (laelaps.wordpress.com)
Bonobo
This remarkable primate with the curious name is challenging established views on human evolution. The bonobo, least known of the great apes, is a female-centered, egalitarian species that has been dubbed the "make-love-not-war" primate by specialists. In bonobo society, females form alliances to intimidate males, sexual behavior (in virtually every partner combination) replaces aggression and serves many social functions, and unrelated groups mingle instead of fighting. The species's most striking achievement is not tool use or warfare but sensitivity to others. In the first book to combine and compare data from captivity and the field, Frans de Waal, a world-renowned primatologist, and Frans Lanting, an internationally acclaimed wildlife photographer, present the most up-to-date perspective available on the bonobo. Focusing on social organization, de Waal compares the bonobo with its better-known relative, the chimpanzee. The bonobo's relatively nonviolent behavior and the tendency for females to dominate males confront the evolutionary models derived from observing the chimpanzee's male power politics, cooperative hunting, and intergroup warfare. Further, the bonobo's frequent, imaginative sexual contacts, along with its low reproduction rate, belie any notion that the sole natural purpose of sex is procreation. Humans share over 98 percent of their genetic material with the bonobo and the chimpanzee. Is it possible that the peaceable bonobo has retained traits of our common ancestor that we find hard to recognize in ourselves? Eight superb full-color photo essays offer a rare view of the bonobo in its native habitat in the rain forests of Zaire as well as in zoos and research facilities. Additional photographs and highlighted interviews with leading bonobo experts complement the text. This book points the way to viable alternatives to male-based models of human evolution and will add considerably to debates on the origin of our species. Anyone interested in primates, gender issues, evolutionary psychology, and exceptional wildlife photography will find a fascinating companion in Bonobo: The Forgotten Ape.
Google Books (books.google.com)
http://johnhawks.net/weblog/hawks/hawks.html
Why anthropologists don't accept the Aquatic Ape Theory
http://johnhawks.net/weblog/topics/pseudoscience/aquatic_ape_theory.html
After reading this I remembered my Granny's advise 'Eat up your fish now and it will give you brains!' Maybe she knew more than she was telling
Mike
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Mike, thanks for the poswt. A very interesting read. A couple of items didn't show up - the Geocities/Athens.. link appears to be broken and the videos on another link showing monkeys walking on two legs have been pulled because of copyright claims by the BBC.
Aside from that, the articals explain a lot. Very plausible, but as John Hawks points out, not 100% scientific. Hawks by the way has some great pencil sketches in his blog.
Spent last week with our three grandchildren, mostly at a waterpark north of Chicago. I can see the aquatic ape in them (and me) as well as the fellow waterlogged bipeds that surrounded us for four days. I still smell of chlorine.
On a sort of down note on the human condition, here is a link to a fellow who traveled to and photographed Chernobyl, 25 years later. Very scary.
But a good lesson to not screw around with nukes.
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Sorry about the dead link Jim.
Here is a link to "Water Babies" - The Aquatic Ape Theory of Evolution, parts 1,2,3,4 & 5
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9hgN_bD9Oqc Its a good watch and offers was convincing agruments. -
Checked out some of the videos - very interesting.
I know a number of parents that get their babies in the pool. Some too conventional busy body people think it is cruel or puts the kids in danger but I think it's great. I didn't really learn to swim until college so I was in greater danger all those years before. Better to learn at that age and aparently it's a natural or instinctive thing to do.
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Strangely human babies added to water unexpected do instinctively 'swim', hold their breath etc and clearly don't drown.
Also what body hair humans do have is 'streamlined' along the body's length - to assist with aqua-dynamics or rain shedding ?
Certainly one well respected theory of human migration from out of the African-cradle is simple 'walking along the coast' - it's easier to walk along a beach [or cliff top] than it is trudging through deserts or jungles. It only takes a few generations of nomadic gathers of fish/sea-food walking a few miles along the coast each year to get from Africa to Asian etc... Perhaps they swam a lot to collect food... as they went ...
I understood that one reason for hair-loss was not survival-oriented but more to do with an arbitrary [self perpetuating] bias in our 'mate selection'... 'Man' like Jane [or Jane like 'Man'...], because Jane not hairy [not logical - just a personal preference], most of Jane's off-spring not hairy, eventually any 'hairy' sub-group considered less attractive that the 'hairless' ones, so they get to procreate and so on...
There seems some logic in why Northern Europeans and Asians have relatively pale skins - for the essential vitamin-D made from sunlight which is improved by tanning, and Tropical dwellers have darker skins - for solar-insulation: however, it falls down a bit since Amazonian natives have relatively pale skins and Arctic Eskimos have relatively darker skins ? Many Asians have sallow skin, oval eyes, black hair and relatively hair-less bodies [irrespective of the climate they live in], whilst on a geographically similar land-mass / climate range the Europeans have a wide mix of skin colours from olive, through to pale, to extra-pale freckled red-heads, and every hair colour going, and hairless to extra-hairy bodies ? Surely it's down to luck and what our ancestors found 'sexy'... Our 'back-theories' of everything are just that - we DON'T know ! -
Behold a categorical future fact, not only a supposition, about the Aquatic Ape:“I looked and saw a beast coming up from the sea. This one had ten horns and seven heads, and a crown was on each of its ten horns. On each of its heads were names that were an insult to God.” (Revelation 13:1)
[For details, read please entire chapter 13!]
Cornel
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And a beautiful, fascinating slideshow about those little, aquatic babies (sorry Mac users, I don't know how to convert MS Power Point Slideshows into something more usable for you)
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@gaieus said:
(sorry Mac users, I don't know how to convert MS Power Point Slideshows into something more usable for you)
Google Docs should do it, right?
Cute slideshow, Gaieus...
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Sure, thanks, that's also a good idea (IF someone use them). Although the music is nice, too, and that doesn't get through.
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