Re: Adaptability of man

Paul Crowley wrote:
<aesthete8@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:eqsprn$17c4$1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Is the following true?:

- Man is a creature adapted for life under circumstances which are
very narrowly limited. A few degrees of temperature more or less, a
slight variation in the composition of the air, the precise
suitability of food, make all the differences between health and
sickness, between life and death.

It is true -- even if the direct opposite is routinely
asserted by those who enjoy unthinking self-
praise. It is also very important from the point
of view of human evolution.

If you were naked, and had no blankets and no
shelter, where could you sleep at night? If you
had a wife, small children and a baby (naked and
without blankets and shelter) where could they
sleep at night?

The only reasonable answer is "in the tropics
within a few miles of the sea". And in the wet
season (with frequent heavy rain), you'd all need
something like a sandy beach. That is an extra-
ordinarily limited habitat. Once the hominids
could build shelters, make fabrics and exploit fire,
they could expand it substantially.

But -- until substantial technology arrived, the
statement above is true.

But substantial technology is the hallmark of our species. Take away
that, and we are bipedal chimps. Homo species have had substantial
technology for at least several hundreds of thousands of years, and have
occupied a huge range of niches for at least that long. So the above
is false, unless you are referring only to the early evolution of man

Yours,

Bill Morse

.

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