more about evolution
Mar. 14th, 2004 02:48 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
psocopteraHovind's research got me curious - does it work the other way? No word on the effects on aptitude tests, but...
It's a... Man? Proud dads and monkey uncles
Hold on Kansas - school isn't the only place for teaching the theory of evolution. If these scientists have their way, zoos across the country will hold classes on the evolution basics. Their students? Chimpanzees, gorillas, and even lesser monkey species.
"We're seeing great results with all of the higher primates," reports this innovative team. "We have a very simple graphic [shown at left], showing the evolution of the hominid line from an ape-like ancestor. We introduce it to the chimps, give them a chance to inspect it. Then a couple of the grad students put on a little skit acting out gradual change from the characteristic behavior of the apes, knuckle-walking and hooting, you know, to walking and talking, and eventual modern human behavior... we have them read newspapers and open pop cans," he laughs. "We thought about cell phones but that's a pretty expensive prop."
The "class" is then observed to look for changes in behavior. The changes are remarkable: up to 215% increases in upright posture, 388% increases in tool use, and 147% increased interest in newspapers. But there were more surprises on the way: keepers started reporting drops in violent incidents and greater cooperation from their charges.
"It really is like they've gotten more civilized," one keeper exclaimed. "There's less, uh, throwing, if you know what I mean." While the theory of evolution may stir up controversy among humans, it would appear that for our ape ancestors it is a source of inspiration, and even a sort of parental pride. When a special evolution class was held for Koko, the sign language-using gorilla celebrity spokesperson, here's what she had to say: "Good Koko mother. Good baby good [her trainer]. Gorilla mother good good."
And a more scholarly report:
Reciprocal influence: effects of evolution theory among primates
Hovind et al. have proposed a model in which exposure to the theory of evolution encourages certain patterns of social action in humans, particularly in the realms of sexual relations. This study reverses the paradigm to explore whether presentation of diagrams and pictures depicting the descendence of Hominidae and Panidae from a common ancestor to a captive colony of Pan paniscus would result in decreases in promiscuity mimicking human sexual behavior as modelled by routine exposure to zoo attendees, who except for one incidence in July 1998 have never engaged in sexual congress within view of the habitat.
Full citation: Just me ::grin::.
It's a... Man? Proud dads and monkey uncles
Hold on Kansas - school isn't the only place for teaching the theory of evolution. If these scientists have their way, zoos across the country will hold classes on the evolution basics. Their students? Chimpanzees, gorillas, and even lesser monkey species.
"We're seeing great results with all of the higher primates," reports this innovative team. "We have a very simple graphic [shown at left], showing the evolution of the hominid line from an ape-like ancestor. We introduce it to the chimps, give them a chance to inspect it. Then a couple of the grad students put on a little skit acting out gradual change from the characteristic behavior of the apes, knuckle-walking and hooting, you know, to walking and talking, and eventual modern human behavior... we have them read newspapers and open pop cans," he laughs. "We thought about cell phones but that's a pretty expensive prop."
The "class" is then observed to look for changes in behavior. The changes are remarkable: up to 215% increases in upright posture, 388% increases in tool use, and 147% increased interest in newspapers. But there were more surprises on the way: keepers started reporting drops in violent incidents and greater cooperation from their charges.
"It really is like they've gotten more civilized," one keeper exclaimed. "There's less, uh, throwing, if you know what I mean." While the theory of evolution may stir up controversy among humans, it would appear that for our ape ancestors it is a source of inspiration, and even a sort of parental pride. When a special evolution class was held for Koko, the sign language-using gorilla celebrity spokesperson, here's what she had to say: "Good Koko mother. Good baby good [her trainer]. Gorilla mother good good."
And a more scholarly report:
Reciprocal influence: effects of evolution theory among primates
Hovind et al. have proposed a model in which exposure to the theory of evolution encourages certain patterns of social action in humans, particularly in the realms of sexual relations. This study reverses the paradigm to explore whether presentation of diagrams and pictures depicting the descendence of Hominidae and Panidae from a common ancestor to a captive colony of Pan paniscus would result in decreases in promiscuity mimicking human sexual behavior as modelled by routine exposure to zoo attendees, who except for one incidence in July 1998 have never engaged in sexual congress within view of the habitat.
Full citation: Just me ::grin::.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2004-03-14 06:52 am (UTC)Indeed. The icon gives it away. :>)
no subject
Date: 2004-03-14 08:19 am (UTC)Musings not directly related to your post:
...I wasn't sure who Hovind was at first, so I went and Googled, and found this analysis of Hovind; in particular, I read the bit about his $250,000 challenge, offering to pay anyone who can provide empirical scientific proof of evolution. I find it interesting that the debunkers don't seem to get what Hovind is asking for: it looks to me like his definition of "evolution" is "fish changed to amphibians, amphibians changed to reptiles, and reptiles changed to birds or mammals." Evidence that (as one person tried to explain) polar bears are substantially different from brown bears yet can interbreed and produce viable offspring (add "different species can't reproduce viably" to the list of oversimplifications taught in science classes) while nifty, isn't really relevant to Hovind's challenge; much more relevant is the cool Transitional Vertebrate Fossils FAQ, which even takes a stab at defining what various kinds of creationism would predict (if taken as a scientific theory) about the fossil record.
The rest of what I saw on that anti-Hovind site is similar to the $250K argument: it spends a great deal of time gleefully attacking minutiae, much like a line-by-line Usenet rebuttal, and often seems to reach the main point only as an afterthought, if at all. The page objecting to his thesis, for example, spends several paragraphs saying that a real thesis could never have that many spelling and formatting errors before it gets around to talking about content.
So I guess what I'm really saying is "Brava for taking a high-level approach!" :)
no subject
Date: 2004-03-14 01:14 pm (UTC)