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Politics : About that Cuban boy, Elian -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: gamesmistress who wrote (7489)	6/13/2000 11:46:00 AM
From: TigerPaw	Respond to of 9127

The Descent of Woman I have read that book in digested forms in various magazines. There are lots of compelling points. Modern humans are the result of a small number of ancestors and each individual had a great influence on the outcome. When the homo-erectus began pushing back from Europe during the height of the ice age about 160,000 years ago they were met by those clever nomads which had remained. There was conflict over the now expanding grasslands of Africa. This time the confict was not via strength, but by which of the clever bipeds was more clever. The small brained grasslanders began disappearing while several varieties of larger brained hominids began to dominate the different locales of Africa. These animals were now clever enough to live in grass or forest and showed use of better tools and symbolic use of pigments. In the midst of this chaos one group left or was pushed out of Africa and into Europe, we now call this group Neandertal. Another group almost lost the battle for survival. This group was smaller than average, but had even larger brains. By 100,000 years ago their numbers had dwindled to perhaps 10,000 individuals. The group had one other mutation not found in the other hominids vieing for control. The larynx had a tendancy to move lower in the throat after age 2 (Perhaps an adaptation to a semi-aquatic habitat). It's only conjecture at this point, but a lower larynx allows for a greater number of sounds to be made. This tiny band may well have been able to begin a much more complex and discriptive language than their competitors. This enhanced communication allowed better coordinated efforts at both hunting and displacing the hominid competitors. The group expanded through Africa, out the mid east where they first encountered Neandertal, and on to Asia where they encountered and defeated the last of the homo-erectus. They expanded through Asia pushed back into Europe where they again came up against Neandertal. The ever nomadic tribes then competed with a technology race, developing spear throwers, different stone working, and art, all of which the Neandertal copied, too little too late. TP And then there was but one species of Hominid.