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Steven Pinker -- How the Mind Works - Hampshire High Italian ...

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Revenge of <strong>the</strong> Nerds 197that most animals that provision <strong>the</strong>ir young do so with prey, <strong>the</strong> onlyfood that repays <strong>the</strong> effort to obtain it and transport it.Meat also figures into sexual politics. In all foraging societies, presumablyincluding our ancestors', hunting is overwhelmingly a maleactivity. Women are encumbered with children, which makes huntinginconvenient, and men are bigger and more adept at killing because of<strong>the</strong>ir evolutionary history of killing each o<strong>the</strong>r. As a result, males caninvest surplus meat in <strong>the</strong>ir children by provisioning <strong>the</strong> children's pregnantor nursing mo<strong>the</strong>rs. They also can trade meat with females for plantfoods or for sex. Brazen bartering of <strong>the</strong> carnal for <strong>the</strong> carnal has beenobserved in baboons and chimpanzees and is common in foraging peoples.Though people in modern societies are ever-so-more discreet, anexchange of resources for sexual access is still an important part of <strong>the</strong>interactions between men and women all over <strong>the</strong> world. (Chapter 7explores <strong>the</strong>se dynamics and how <strong>the</strong>y originated in differences in reproductiveanatomy, though of course anatomy is not destiny in modernways of life.) In any case, we have not lost <strong>the</strong> association completely.Miss Manners' Guide to Excruciatingly Correct Behavior advises:There are three possible parts to a date, of which at least two must be "offered: entertainment, food, and affection. It is customary to begin aseries of dates with a great deal of entertainment, a moderate amount offood, and <strong>the</strong> merest suggestion of affection. As <strong>the</strong> amount of affectionincreases, <strong>the</strong> entertainment can be reduced proportionately. When <strong>the</strong>affection is <strong>the</strong> entertainment, we no longer call it dating. Under no circumstancescan <strong>the</strong> food be omitted.Of course no one really knows whe<strong>the</strong>r <strong>the</strong>se four habits formed <strong>the</strong>base camp for <strong>the</strong> ascent of human intelligence. And no one knowswhe<strong>the</strong>r <strong>the</strong>re are o<strong>the</strong>r, untried gradients to intelligence in biologicaldesign space. But if <strong>the</strong>se traits do explain why our ancestors were <strong>the</strong>only species out of fifty million to follow that route, it would have soberingimplications for <strong>the</strong> search for extraterrestrial intelligence. A planetwith life may not be enough of a launching pad. Its history might have toinclude a nocturnal predator (to get stereo vision), with descendants thatswitched to a diurnal lifestyle (for color) in which <strong>the</strong>y depended on fruit

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