From: Van oost Kenneth (kennethvanoost@belgacom.net)
Date: Thu 14 Nov 2002 - 19:57:19 GMT
----- Original Message -----
From: "Chris Taylor" <Christopher.Taylor@man.ac.uk>
> 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)
Aiello Leslie and R.I.M. Dunbar, ' Neocortex Size, Group Size, and the
evolution of Language', Current Anthropology 34 ( 1993): 184- 93
Do we have anything that we were not particularly social about,....
I suppose we can say family, (a) there were any, not atleast in the
scheme I propose, because family would indicate to be a secondary step
of a by the bias individualistic process, (b) compassion and making friends
were out of the question, there was no special need to act kindly or to
behave in a pleasant way, (c) even caring for the offspring would be
problematic, if there were children called as such.
There was no moral habitus, no will for consideration because they
are social skills, and social implies ' group ' of some kind.
In cases of children I would suggest that the ' caring ' began by the
first signs of antropogenesis, before they would be just ' little appen-
dixis '_ even " sex " would have raised quite a hell !
I think this is very difficult to comprehend. We can ask ourself the
question if anything that close to the " natural " basics of nature can or
did indeed exist or had existed !
Were we dwelling the caves together at the time of Out of Africa !?
Perhaps, I have no recollection of such a things, it is IMO hard to
understand too, if we were out there on the plains... but anyway,
yes a shared cave wouldn 't imply sociality_ an good analogy would
be the freeway on a sunny Sunday morning towards the seaside...
many cars packed together sharing the same road, but all individuals
heading to their destination, without any concern towards the other(s).
Nothing that much changed, didn 't it !?
Thanks for the comment Chris, it was welcomed...
Kenneth
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