Re: A critique of the BBC aquatic ape programme and the transcript.


Paul Crowley wrote:
> "Algis Kuliukas" <algis@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
> news:1123322283.549355.277000@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>
> > So, for example, take Hunt's work. His basic argument, I think, is
> > absolutely right:
>
> Nope. It's nuts. And this is where you
> go wrong. It's at the place where theorists
> usually go wrong -- the very start.

Good point Paul. The correct way to theorize the emergence of a new
species is, firstly, as a result of changes in climate/environment.
Secondly is the fact that new species tend not to emerge independently
but in the context of a new fauna along with a lot of new species.
Hominids emerged as a result of the emergence of monsoon
climate/environment at about 8 mya, in east Africa, and in the context
of the Ethiopian fauna. (Sorry Paul, there is no evidence of islands
emerging and/or shifts in sea level.)


>
> > Behavioural contexts which elicit bipedalism in
> > extant apes should offer clues as to what factors might have began the
> > process of hominid bipedalism. His comprehensive study of 700 odd hours
> > of chimp behaviour found 2-3% bipedalism, 80% of which was whilst
> > postural feeding.

Did you know that chimps are bipedal 100% of the time when they are
throwing rocks or wielding sticks. 100%!

>
> If the differences between chimps and
> hominids were relatively minor (something
> like those between goats and sheep, or as
> between chimps and gorillas) he, and you,
> could be working along the right lines.
> But they are not.
>
> Sometime, take a pace back and look at
> a group of humans and then a group of
> chimps. The differences are ENORMOUS.
> No one would begin to think that the two
> species were closely related, judged on
> such a basis.

I agree. Strangely enought anthropologist prefer to minimize/ignore
this difference.


>
> You don't explain major upheavals with
> minor explanations. The atom bomb was
> not just a big bomb, made with a lot of TNT.
>
> > Now I take that and say, well what if there's another context - rarer,
> > in the actual group of apes he studied but perhaps more common
> > elsewhere that might give far greater compulsion to move bipedally and
> > to do so in a much more unsupported way.
> >
> > Wading fits the bill perfectly.
>
> It's an 'explanation' that can only come from
> an untrained mind. Hunt's theory is BAD,
> but a 'wading theory' extends its principles
> to extremes of absurdity. That's about its
> only value (i.e. to show up Hunt).

I agree. Wading theory could only be proposed by somebody that has
little or no understanding of how evolution happens in the context of
ecological realities.

Jim

.

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