Re: Homo floresiensis

From: Tedd Jacobs (Jacobs_at_mail.boisestate.edu)
Date: 10/29/04 

Date: Thu, 28 Oct 2004 19:44:48 -0600

"Tom McDonald" <tmcdonald2672@nohormelcharter.net> wrote in message
news:10o364ifdr77l74@corp.supernews.com...
> I.E. Johansson wrote:
>> "Per Rønne" <spam@husumtoften.invalid> skrev i meddelandet
>> news:1gmdteo.3q5e6n1qs0biaN%spam@husumtoften.invalid...
>>
>>>Martyn Harrison <nospam@spammers.of.the.world.unite> wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>>>Two items of significance, for me, the fact that there could still be
>>
>> another
>>
>>>>intelligent species sharing the planet, obviously.
>>>
>>>Well, it is said that they descend from Homo erectus, a species without
>>>the ability to speak and without the ability to think in any abstract
>>>manner - burials of the dead is only found in species H.
>>>neanderthalensis and H. sapiens.
>>>
>>>Furthermore, these newly found H. floresiensis specimens [the word
>>>"hobbit" seem to be the every-day name given to the species] had a brain
>>>at only 1/3 of H. sapiens. I wouldn't call such a species sentient or
>>>intelligent.
>>>--
>>>Per Erik Rønne
>>
>>
>> Your assumption can be correct. No doubts about that. But I guess we have
>> to
>> realise that we H. sapiens aren't believed to use 1/3 of our brain's
>> capacity.... thus it's difficult to say which size of brain is needed for
>> intelligence to be possible to exist....
>>
>
> Inger,
>
> That business about our using only some fraction of our brain capacity is
> not true or useful. It's an urban myth, and is debunked here:
>
> http://www.csicop.org/si/9903/ten-percent-myth.html
>
> In modern humans, brain size among geniuses varies between about 1000cc
> and 1800cc. The same applies among the other end of the intelligence
> curve. Brain size is not all that diagnostic of intelligence among us.
> It may not be among H.f. either. Let's wait to see what their material
> culture (you know, archaeology, like what we're supposed to be discussing
> on this ng, not that you could tell) looks like.

we had some discussion around the department today about this. the item of
interest to our paleo/geoarch guy is how they arrived at their dates; the
chair wants to see more about the assemblage; and our cultural guy is just
happy to have something else to discuss besides the AAA meeting move.

i for one am happy to see a topic arise here that has nothing to do with...
well, lets just say i'm happy to have a new topic. ;-)

tedd. 

-- 
A man said to the universe:
"Sir, I exist!"
"However," replied the universe,
"The fact has not created in me
A sense of obligation."

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