A primatologist argues that:
...human babies are so outrageously dependent on their elders for such a long time that humanity would never have made it without a break from the great ape model of child-rearing. Chimpanzee and gorilla mothers are capable of rearing their offspring pretty much through their own powers, but human mothers are not.The difference this makes, she argues, is that humans developed a comparatively good temperament. Sounds vaguely plausible, but the main reason I wanted to do a post about this is because of the odd hypothetical example she gives:
...our status as cooperative breeders, rather than our exceptionally complex brains, helps explain many aspects of our temperament. Our relative pacifism, for example, or the expectation that we can fly from New York to Los Angeles without fear of personal dismemberment. Chimpanzees are pretty smart, but were you to board an airplane filled with chimpanzees, you “would be lucky to disembark with all 10 fingers and toes still attached,” Dr. Hrdy writes.So be warned: never fly Chimp Air, no matter how cheap the fare.
3 comments:
So be warned: never fly Chimp Air, no matter how cheap the fare
Good Advice
I thought the piece offered quite a bit of food for thought (not the finger lickin' good variety).
For example human fecundity, we can afford to churn them out pretty quickly because we don't have to protect the first one 24x7 for years on end.
For example human trust.
For example, what it suggests about women who are not "good mothers", perhaps they don't have the ready support of trusted family or friends to whom they can pass-the-parcel.
And so on.
All the same, as Esq says: good advice about Chimp Air.
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