|
Askur
|
 |
« Reply #2 on: March 30, 2005, 04:44:01 PM » |
|
Hi. Thanks for the links.
A long thread, but now I have read it. I have to read the pdf-files either on a library or I have to donwload the pdf-program (I have little space left on the PC).
Some thoughts about the thread:
Humans, and our ancestors, are and were lousy adapted to a dry climate. We have to drink every day, our urine contains much water, we are losing water through sweat and our breath. Our ancestors had to live a place where water was available every day and not too far away eiter. When they were on the move they would be close to the water too, unless they were smart enought to make some devices making it possible for them to carry the water with them. If they knew aobut roots and tubers with a lot of water it would help too. But it is difficult to say when they became smart enough to dig wells and so on. At least our earliest origin was not clever enough.
The hierarchy should be reflected in sexual dimorphism. The bigger differnece between the sexes, the more patriarchalistic society you would expect.
Bigger males also indicates it were the males which were hunting for meat, no matter if they killed the animals themselves or not.
It is only logic the stone tools were made one place, and brought back at home when finished. Or at least if they lived a place with little stone materials. A finished tool is lighter to carry than a big stone. And if one tool became a failure, they didn't have to go all they way back to find another stone since there were plenty of fitting stones around them already.
Even the chimps today are bringing primtive tools with them when they are going to find nuts, at least if there are no stones around the trees they are heading for.
The smell of carcasses in the primitive settlement didn't matter much. The predators were not only interested in dead animals, the weak and slow hominids would be a fitting prey too (no claws, horns or sharp teeth). Alone they had no chance against a big cat or other large carnivoes.
Early hominids were making an unmistakable rhytmical sound for millions of years, a sound carried far away, when they were crushing bones or making stone tools. The big predators would be smart enoght to put two and two togheter, and knowing these sounds meant hominds doing their own business. Just like they know there is dead animals where the vultures are landing.
Small infants are everything but quiet, often they are screaming their lungs out. Older children are playing and shouting. Adults are talking and laughing pretty loudy too.
And human babies, to be honest, stinks. Every predator in the neighbourhood can smell human babies even if there is no other meat there. Thanks to the sweat glands, adult humans are smelling too.
Not to mention the light and smoke from the camp fire, attracting the attention of other animals nearby.
(If someone have seen documentaries about rain forests, everybody knows what happens when you are making a fire. In s short time, dozens of insects are attracted to it. This way insects attracted to the light could have provided some protein to the hominids around the fire.)
Exposed prey animals often smell as little as possible, and they do not make any more noise than what is necessary.
Big cats would as mentioned not only be interested in carcasses, they would be interested in our ancesters too. And I'm sure every animal miles away knew where they were living. So a carcass wouldn't tell a carnive something it didn't already knew, except that there was fresh(?) and already dead meat where the hominids lived.
The only ground dwelling animals which can allow themself to smell and scream as much as they want is the ones who can defend themselves from outside threats.
The only problem is exactly when this happened and how.
Eating the bone marrow is a sign of scavangers, but on smart animals too. How much brain and bone marrow did they eat compared to "normal" meat? Did the bones had marks of predator's teeth too?
I'm not going to mention the aquatic ape theory, but some scientists says the only way for an animal like the human to grow such a big brain, is when it has a sufficient access on fatty acids as DHA and AA. Mostly found in marine and aquatic food, and in food such as brain and eyes.
Did they practice seasonal exploitation? In the dry season many animals of formidable size becomes weak and weakened. Some of them dies without being killed by carnivores. Our ancestors would obvious suffer too if there was no water. On the other hand, if some of them were lucky enough to live near a safe supply of water at that time, all they had ot do was to wait for thirsty and weak animals, which may had been walking for many miles, to come their way. Weak, old, young, sick or wounded ones. Ot the ones already dead by thirst.
Even if baboons are mostly vegetarians in the wet season, they do catch and kill young antelopes near the waterholes in the dry season when they get the chance.
Because most animals need to drink every day, I know I would have chosed a good place for ambush near the water myself if I had been in such a situation. This is of course only speculations, but if it works for other animals, why not for hominids?
|
