TOM WILKIE: > HUMAN BEINGS are animals. We evolved, according to the traditional formula, > from a common ancestor with the apes. As Jared Diamond points out in this > book, we differ only marginally from chimpanzees [in terms of genetics, if I > remember correctly]. Yet by inventing a culture whereby the experience gained > by individuals in one generation can be handed on to the next, we have, to > some extent, escaped the constraints of Darwinian evolution. If you seek the > source of the success of Homo sapiens, behold the schoolteacher.<
well put! However, the part of the review sent to pen-l seems to assume rather than prove that Diamond is a sociobiologist of the E.O. Wilson ilk. I could check to see if the book (which is at home) really has the silly stuff in it that the reviewer finds, but that gets us totally off the track of separating Diamond as a person from the GGS hypothesis and criticizing or praising the latter. (Besides, most books have _something_ silly in them and there's no reason to doubt Tom Wilkie's veracity.) I can hardly remember all of the book under review, but there's one article in it that goes utterly against the sociobiologists' creed. Diamond argues that "racial" differences in appearance (black vs. pink skin, etc.) arise not from the usual suspects but from Darwin's sexual selection. In his view, men and women tend to seek out sexual partners who look like the people they know and trust. Thus, black men & women seek each other out, passing down genes for black skin, while pink men & women seek each other out, passing down the genes for pink skin, etc. Whether this theory is true or not, it is total anathema to the sociobiologists, who want to explain absolutely everything by reference to adaptation to an environment which is assumed not to be changed by people. Usually, said adaptation is presumed to be perfect, which is perfectly silly. Doug writes: >As Stephen Jay Gould said somewhere, the problem with using examples from nature is that you can always find something to support any claim. You could find support for competition or cooperation, leading you nowhere.< absolutely right. I miss Gould a lot, even though his ability to write readable essays declined after awhile. -- Jim Devine / "If heart-aches were commercials, we'd all be on TV." -- John Prine _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
