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Pooh-Bah
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The more that research is done on "harems" within the animal world the more it is found that this is unclear at best and wishful thinking at worst. It is the dominant mare of a herd of wild horses that decides where they will graze etc. The impressive looking male of a pride of lions is dependant on the females for successful hunting and often to help him chase off encroaching males. If they withdraw their support he doesn't last long. A documentary of one type of primates (macacs???) showed that they lived in a large herd of smaller family groups consisting of related females and their young and an unrelated "dominant male". At one point the females of one family suddenly turned on their male and very aggressively drove him off even biting him. The cause seemed to be some injury to an infant, possibly accidental. Eventually he was allowed back and spent a great deal of time grooming the females and cuddling babies to regain his position. With many primates the infants are very important and a male with adultory on his mind may make friends with a baby first to gain entry to a group since no one will attack when he is holding an infant. It seems that many of the so called harems out there are actually matriarchies with a kept stud. 
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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formerly known as etaoin...
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Carpal Tunnel
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addict
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The only female figures who stand out in history are almost always presented as whores either to emotion or men (e.g. Mary Magdalena, Cleopatra).
Hatshepsut, Elizabeth I of England, Catherine the Great, Catherine de Medici, Artemesia Gentileschi, Christine de Pisan, Eleanor of Aquitaine, the dowager Empress of China, Abigail Hancock, Nellie McClung, Mrs. Pankhurst, Jane Austen, the Bronte sisters; all, all, obviously whores to emotion or men.
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It seems that many of the so called harems out there are actually matriarchies with a kept stud.
When I kept sheep, I made sure that I made a pet of my dominant ewe, because where she went, the flock followed. Both times I had wolf attacks, I lost the ram, who stood and fought while the ewes and lambs got the hell outta there. We also noted the formation of matrilineal mini-flocks within the larger flock - mother, daughters, granddaughters sticking together while the grandsons and sons (those who didn't take the tour of Northern Quality Meats) split off into a bachelor flock that stayed apart from the ewe flock - a state encouraged by the lead ram.
One year my bachelor flock consisted of two - Laughing Boy, our "pony with wool" and Fafnir, an impressively horned white Icelandic ram. Eystein, the black ram, kept them away from the ladies and lambs. The two of them busted through the fence and took up residence in a beaver meadow on our property. There was a stream running through the meadow, and a young bear lived on the other side of the stream. He never bothered the boys - too fond of his hide, I daresay.
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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Thank you for your list, Elizabeth. Other names also come to mind but I think the point is made.
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Carpal Tunnel
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The paper’s author has taken issue with Mark Liberman’s discussion of Dead Elephants: http://www.derekbickerton.com/blog/_archives/2005/7/1/989877.html Amongst other points he says this: Mark, in quoting from The Symbolic Species you seem altogether unaware of the main point of the book, which began with just what you call the biggest mystery–why lots of creatures don't have language. And Terry answered it–symbolism is very hard to achieve, and dead counter to the way other animals' minds work. There's a second good answer: they don't need it. It's all very well to point out the various advantages language confers, but evolution has no look-ahead, so no animal could know any of this.This seems to me to be logically flawed on a fundamental level. To extrapolate his argument, if evolution did have a “look-ahead” he seems to be implying that other animal forms would have developed language. Rubbish. The way we know evolution works is nothing to do with this kind of ‘motivational’ effect – it’s to do with post-facto outcomes. In other words, evolution is a constant process of variation which liberates the seeds of new possibilities, and converse pressures of environment and competition dictate which prove to be an advantage. Those animals carrying an evolutionary change that so proves to be a practical advantage will be more likely to carry those genetic characteristics into the next generation, whilst unsuccessful characteristics will tend to be extinguished. So in the case of language, I suggest his position is untenable: since he accepts language confers many benefits, the question still remains why no other species seems to have developed the same kind of conceptualising capacity we have. Of course, the aquatic ape theory does suggest some possible links with animals like dolphins which seem to have come closest…
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Carpal Tunnel
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Mayhap it would be more correct to say: no other species seems to have developed the same kind of conceptualising capacity we have. ...yet. Who's to say that dolphins' minds, for ex., won't evolve to a higher level? Perhaps where they are now is maybe the equivalent to our Homo Erectus, or something.
But then again, I don't know if any other creature will ever need to develop brains enough to follow the relationships at the wedding I went to last night. I'll have to use names; otherwise some of the descriptions are going to take a paragraph each. Okay:
The bride and groom were Jake and Jade (sorry, I feel compelled to disguise the names, just in case).
Jade is the daughter of the man who used to be married to my sister-in-law Amy, who pretty much raised her. Jade's father and Amy divorced some time ago, so does that make Jade Amy's ex-step-daughter?
Now on to the complicated stuff. Jade has two children by a previous relationship and two children, Darla and Cindy, with Jake. Jake's children from a previous relationship, Bob and Lynn, were there, as were Lynn's two children, who are Jake's grandchildren Ellen and Eileen.
So--I think--Jake's two youngest children, Darla and Cindy, are aunts to the children--Ellen and Eileen--of his grown daughter Lynn. And yes--it's as mind-boggling to try and get it all straight when you know them as it is reading about it. Just to add to the mix, Jade's biological mother was there, as well as Amy, and Jade's half-brother--the product of Amy with Jade's father (who was there), and also Jade's full sister.
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Carpal Tunnel
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> mind-boggling to try and get it all straight
LOL! Well, I tried, but as you say...
Mebbe the dolphins are already smarter than us, like Douglas Adams implies!
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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So--I think--Jake's two youngest children, Darla and Cindy, are aunts to the children--Ellen and Eileen--of his grown daughter Lynn. And yes--it's as mind-boggling to try and get it all straight when you know them as it is reading about it. Just to add to the mix, Jade's biological mother was there, as well as Amy, and Jade's half-brother--the product of Amy with Jade's father (who was there), and also Jade's full sister.Why is that I heard the persistent, distant sound of duelling banjos while I read this? 
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