On Wed May 29, "The Fool" quoted an article from the 5/28/02 Sydney Morning Herald, 'Women Consistently Choose Brain Over Brawn For Mate.' The concept that both males and females select mates seems pretty self-evident, although the criteria which each gender uses is vastly different. (A big DUH-uh! there...<grin>) Female selection - at least among primates - favors not just the strong, but also the nurturing and friendly (there was a PBS program about langurs (sp?), in which the bully-boy male who took over was eventually driven out by the females, in favor of a new alpha male who "played with the infants" and "indulged in mutual grooming" with his mates rather than biting them). Dr. Brin has commented on choosing a "stork-man," who is more nurturing and family-oriented, versus an "elk-man," who's basically out to get as much as he can with no strings attached. (The article also discusses a great deal more - sexual dimorphism, neoteny, etc.) It is at
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Atlantis/6074/brin/neoteny.html An article from 'Introduction to Biological Anthropology' on the 'Evolution of Intelligence'in primates is also pretty good, at http://members.aol.com/anth201/20101s12.htm Although it is quite long, because it has excerpts from many different sources, this article on female sexual selection addresses topics from chimpanzee testicle size to gender competition to the reduction of male aggression in response to female neoteny. Lots of fun snippets! http://www.neoteny.org/a/femalesexualselection.html A more scholarly tone is taken in 'The Evolution of Primate Intelligence,' by Scott Rifkin, at http://hcs.harvard.edu/~husn/BRAIN/vol2/Primate.html Debbi (who prefers Picard to Kirk, Riker or Arnold...but has to admit that Duncan MacLeod is awfully... compelling) __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! - Official partner of 2002 FIFA World Cup http://fifaworldcup.yahoo.com
