Anthropology basics
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The most convincing theory regarding why bipedalism developed among our hominid ancestors I believe is the hypothesis that the chimpanzee family found themselves divided due to climate changes affecting the African environment some five million years ago. This theory drawn about by many anthropologists and paleontologists concluded that this division caused the chimpanzee family to emerge in the humid west and the more arid east caused for the primates to have to adapt to a new life in an open environment thus causing the evolving of the early hominids. It makes more sense to me that this would have happened because it seems that in any case these new environmental changes would cause for needed changes in responding to the environment. “Learning to live in way they have never lived before” Given the resilience of human beings today we are able to adapt to new circumstances and changes in the environment as well as other life style changes. It seems clear to me that this theory is more convincing as it developed a simple idea of the natural response to stand in order to protect and provide, resulting into an all-around biological change in order to survive thus leading to bipedal hominids. The theory that I would have to say sounds the less convincing to me would have to be that sex was a motivating force for the primate to begin to walk on two feet. While the argument is reasonable and highlights that sex would have been an incentive, focusing on the idea that females were needed to care for the young and males were needed to provide in exchange for sex. This seems to me that it wasn’t a factor of survival but rather a factor of mating. Though it is true that reproduction is essential in order to continue the population, I would suggest that the first theory makes more sense as it focuses on merely surviving first and foremost. Sex and reproduction would be an afterthought if survival was the main goal for the primates. And just as Dr. Tattersall said in the article, “it makes a nice story. But I don’t think many people are convinced. We know so little about the life styles of those early hominids.” I agree with this statement. Though I find the first theory more convincing than the others, I too still believe that scientists need always to speculate. This article was definitely an interesting read for me, as I do not know much about the ideas and theories of evolution. I practice Christianity and so I’ve never really grasped nor understood the need to dig deeper into the idea of evolution. However to my surprise, I found it very interesting to see how scientists of all kinds are eager to determine the cause and reasons behind why bipedalism came about. Reading these different theories have definitely helped me to better understand why it is evolution theories exist in the first place and how complex the ideas and findings are within the realm of the existence of human beings.
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