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I imply - You infer?
He replies, she defers.
"I am certain there is too much certainty in the world" -Michael Crichton
OP
I imply - You infer?
He replies, she defers.
It seems that some of you are not deferring to the implications of Doctor Benzedrine's implications. Step by step, I will enumerate the obvious at the risk of being considered...uh...obvious.
(1) Human beings are dimorphic.
(2) Dimorphism in humans is a method of continuing the species by role segregation so as to accommodate a long gestation period as well as serving to accommodate the extended maturation period that is necessary to effect the developement of a speaking brain.
(3) It is important for men to proceed quietly when hunting and fishing and argriculturing.
(4) It is important for women to exchange information pertaining to the safety of the collective nest.
(5) I will assume that you women can infer the rest.
Last edited by themilum; 12/02/06 05:34 AM.
(1) Human beings are dimorphic.
(2) Dimorphism in humans is a method of continuing the species by role segregation so as to accommodate a long gestation period as well as serving to accommodate the extended maturation period that is necessary to effect the developement of a speaking brain.
(3) It is important for men to proceed quietly when hunting and fishing and argriculturing.
(4) It is important for women to exchange information pertaining to the safety of the collective nest.
(5) I will assume that you women can infer the rest.
I don't think this is as cut-and-dry as you would have us believe.
I read about sexual dimorphism and parental investment recently in The 21st-Century Brain (2006) by Steven Rose. Only he puts much less emphasis on sexual dimorphism in humans than you do.
If I understood Rose correctly, the level of parental investment by the male of any given species is inversely proportional to the degree of sexual dimorphism. (In plain English: The more similar the male and female of a species look, the more of a "mummy" the daddy is likely to be be). Homo sapiens has a VERY low level of sexual dimorphism compared with other species.
I don't have the book on hand but the same idea is found in the Wiki article on Sexual Dimorphism:Quote:
Human male and female appearances are perceived as different, although Homo sapiens has a low level of sexual dimorphism compared with other species. For instance, the relative similarity in the sizes of many male and female human beings suggests that divisions for homo sapiens are less clear than other species as the overlap of sizes between the two sexes is slightly less than 1 standard deviation. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published new American curves in 2000. [1] See also intersex.
The body masses of both male and female humans are approximately normally distributed. In the United States, the mean mass of an adult male is 78.5 kg (173.1 lb), that of the adult female mean is 62.0 kg (136.7 lb). The standard deviation of male body mass is 12.6 kg (27.8 lb), so 10% of adult males are lighter than the average female.
Some biologists theorise that a species' degree of sexual dimorphism is inversely related to the degree of paternal investment in parenting. Species with the highest sexual dimorphism, such as the pheasant, tend to be those species in which the care and raising of offspring is done only by the mother, with no involvement of the father (low degree of paternal investment). Conversely, the low level of sexual dimorphism in humans is said to correlate to the human species' high degree of paternal investment (fathers make a high investment in childrearing).
It might therefore be concluded, argues Rose, that male gender roles are more the result of enculturation than evolution.
It is interesting to note that the male mammary glands are capable of producing milk under the right conditions, and that the Viking men are said to have sometimes breast fed.
In conclusion: The fact that women are more talkative than men cannot be explained by arguments that focus single-mindedly on the social habits of early, pre-civilized man. Case in point: You might also argue—(I am not)—that modern man, as the bread winner, went out into the world in a more social, language-taxing role than his poor wife who stayed at home looking after the kids and scrubbing the floors with little adult contact.
OP
In conclusion: The fact that women are more talkative than men cannot be explained by arguments that focus single-mindedly on the social habits of early, pre-civilized man. Case in point: You might also argue—(I am not)—that modern man, as the bread winner, went out into the world in a more social, language-taxing role than his poor wife who stayed at home looking after the kids and scrubbing the floors with little adult contact.
Ah yes, Hydra, it is good that you do not argue that "modern man, as the bread winner, went out into the world in a more social, language-taxing role than his poor wife who stayed at home looking after the kids and scrubbing the floors with little adult contact."
because man is a highly social animal who for most of his divergence lived in noisy clans and tribes where the only way to raise children without lots and lots of language was to tie them to trees.
Yours and Rose's conclusion is poorly thought out and seems to be a sad manipulation of reality in order to be politically correct.
Of course, like the current disregard of factual information about impending Global Warming, facts won't change a thing. True believers believe because they need to believe and reality can go take a hike.
Ah yes, the sky is falling.
And to say that makes me feel in-vogue and smart.
The fact that women are more talkative than men cannot be explained by arguments that focus single-mindedly on the social habits of early, pre-civilized man.
Quote:
Yours and Rose's conclusion is poorly thought out and seems to be a sad manipulation of reality in order to be politically correct.
Actually, the point is a very uncontroversial, and, in fact, inevitable one. I guess you missed it.
So. How come I always have to wait for male friends chitchatting on the doorstep when we leave for half an hour AT LEAST?
Because the women are all talked out and the men finally got a chance to get a word in edgewise?
Well, what if the men, (I follow Dr.Brizendine), all during the party have been thinking. Of sex. And only on the doorstep are they able to start a decent conversation. It don't necessarily have to be so, but it might...
Last edited by BranShea; 12/02/06 05:38 PM.
OP
Quote:
The fact that women are more talkative than men cannot be explained by arguments that focus single-mindedly on the social habits of early, pre-civilized man.
Quote:
Yours and Rose's conclusion is poorly thought out and seems to be a sad manipulation of reality in order to be politically correct.
Actually, the point is a very uncontroversial, and, in fact, inevitable one. I guess you missed it.
Ok, Hydra, I'll try one last shot to free you from the socio-babble of the strange books you read...
(A) Human beings are a horse of a different color and if one seeks the truth one doesn't measure the amount of "parental time" given to little birds by their mother and dad birds and then declare that ratio a universal.
(B) Ten percent of males weigh less that the average of the females?
How interesting. The exception proves the rule, eh?
(C) In the manner that we humans are constituted it is the female who is central to the continuation of our kind. The body of the female is the portal for continuance. Men are mere appendages, nice to have around to fight wars and build stuff but the female with the small brain is the one who needs an accurate assessment of the immediate world around her in order to effect continuation for the breeding group's set of genes. So they talk. And talk. And talk.
And learn.
TEd
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