From: Chris Taylor (Christopher.Taylor@man.ac.uk)
Date: Thu 14 Nov 2002 - 11:00:47 GMT
Interesting stuff. If we can assume that (a) 600cc is a 'small' brain
(bigger than an average male gorilla I think), and (b) (para)humans
weren't especially social, then I'd buy it.
I can see how tribe formation might be facilitated by a challenging new
environment (especially a colder one); followed by the classic feedback
effect of modelling others' brains, to get to a big brain. Weren't we
already dwelling in shared caves by the time we were leaving Africa
though? I suppose a shared cave doesn't imply sociality... Do you have
anything to suggest we might *not* have been particularly social about
then? (I don't know what was in the Aiello and Dunbar paper you cited)
Btw I liked (f)actor :)
Cheers, Chris.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Chris Taylor (chris@bioinf.man.ac.uk)
http://bioinf.man.ac.uk/ »people»chris
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