Re: Homosexuality


"g" <gillawton@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote
>> However let's say it is Yom Kippur, and one of our subjects is an
>> observant Jew. He won't eat anything. Now we've got a problem - we can
>> explain
>> the behavior in terms of his need for group membership, but he is showing
>> a
>> type of behavior that is simply unavailable to any non-human animal.
>
> I take your meaning to be that the Jew will not eat anything on that
> particular day.
>
Observant Jews fast on Yom Kippur. Therefore our prediction, that people eat
when hungry, will be falisifed under these circumstnaces.
>
> What I DO know -- and I feel sure you abundantly agree -- is that a lot of
> study and experimentation have gone into the physiopsychological realm (or
> psychophysiological realm... depending on your own working slant) that has
> resulted in valuable, enlightening, useful -- although ever-imperfect and
> tentative -- data. (Let me offer a geographical analogy in that, if you
> were had set out to go from Miami, FL to Salem, OR, and you are just
> turning
> onto Interstate 20 at Memphis, TN... neither you nor I would say,
> "You have failed to reach your destination. And, because you failed, that
> proves your destination is unreachable. And, what is worse, it is obvious
> you do not know what you are doing, and should not even be on the hopeless
> journey."
>
Most people have a fast day. However Yom Kippur only comes round once a
year. Therefore the simple adaptive prediction is right 364 days of the
year.
>
> This is a better example of something harmful -- whereas fasting can even
> be
> beneficial in some ways.
>
The first point is that no non-human can observe a fast day like Yom Kippur.
The problem for evolutionary biologists is that we can provide an adaptive
explanation for the Jew's behaviour (if he doesn't fast he will be
ostracised from his community and lose mating opportunities) but that
probably won't be the explanation given by the person himself.
>
> Yes. It certainly is hard to justify the syndrome of anorexia which goes
> beyond extreme dieting for cause -- such as to keep one's job as a fashion
> model. Neuroses and psychoses abound as pathologies, just as
> infections and substance abuse syndromes abound. Much productive and
> enlightening study on these has been done, is being done, and continues to
> be done. And, here again, if there is no light visible yet at the end of
> the tunnel. But progress? Useful data. Applications of that data to
> treatment protocols that help in some cases? Of course ! If we want to
> look at the case of a human female, 5' 9" tall, weighing 60 pounds, with
> skeletal muscles atrophied, internal organs beginning to fail... and who
> perceives the person looking back at her from that mirror as hideously
> obese... that has the earmarks of a delusional psychotic symptom.
>
It is hugely difficult. However the strength of evolutionary psychology is
that we can expalin the 364 days of the year when our subject eats when
hungry, we can have a go at the behaviour on Yom Kippur, and we only get
really stuck with the few people who starve themselves to death because they
have anorexia. This is better than a theory which can explain anorexia in
terms of a sexual hangup or something, but not the 364 days of eating when
hungry.




.

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