From: spike66 (spike66@attbi.com)
Date: Tue Jul 16 2002 - 23:24:10 MDT
Vanessa Novaeris wrote:
>>We also seem to be selecting thinner mates, all the better to
>>survive in a horrifically calorie-rich environment, perhaps.
>>
>
>I find this *very interesting - I never thought of it that way before, but it
>does seem to make some sense. For the flipside see also: The Beauty Myth by
>Naomi Wolf - a little overdone but worth a look.
>
This is something I have been pondering at length, not just because
I have an oddball shape. Miller's The Mating Mind has opened my
eyes to an evolutionary mechanism that appears far more important
than differential survival for humans, especially modern humans.
Mate selection is a mechanism which can act *very quickly* to
change a population, perhaps in a few thousand years.
I had in mind a mechanism which could have led to the speciation
of humans and chimps. If early humans began to choose mates
for having bulbous heads, the brain case would quickly reach a
maximum. Above a certain point, the risk of death during childbirth
would be large enough to cause humans' head size to level out.
Now, in modern times, we suddenly have the universal option of
C-section births, so the head size of the infant is no longer constrained.
We could see a second jump in head size with respect to body.
>>I'm sick of this whole business of mate selection...
>>
>>You are? What about me? I was very nearly selected for eternal
>>bachelorhood. I ended up winning in the last round, but just before
>>that it was looking grim indeed for the old spikester DNA.
>>
>
>LOL - little spikelings! good luck with all that! heheh ;P
>
>vanessa novaeris
>
ooops doh! I worded this incorrectly. I meant: nearly deselected for
mating.
Only. I did not mean to imply I am planning to breed. Just the opposite in
fact: no little spikesters. But I am one of those for whom a long term
stable and exclusive heterosexual relationship has worked out beyond my
wildest dreams. No wonder I am so... establishment. {8^D I got lucky.
I found the one and only on the first try. spike
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Sat Nov 02 2002 - 09:15:30 MST