rlp@cbosgd.UUCP (Bob Platt) (07/02/85)
========================================================================== The superfamily Hominoidea (modern and fossil apes, man, and woman) emerged 30 million years ago in parts of Africa and Asia. A notable difference separating these hopeful humanoids from their counterparts is in the female reproductive cycle. Unlike other primates, apes and woman have a basic cycle approximating one lunar month. The relationship between estrus and sexual behavior helps explain this fact. In all apes but the gibbon, estrus (the fertile period) is the only time where intercourse is allowed. So in the society of the first apes sex *itself* was regulated on a lunar cycle. The apes had found an excellent regulating mechanism. The moon can synchronize widely separated individuals. This allowed behavior to be coordinated and *predictible* over a large territory, and added a new dimension to their social/cultural extension, as far as it went (we're still talking ape). If you doubt that the moon actually plays a *causal* role in this, consider that the estrous cycles of individual troop members tend to be *in phase*! The case is solidified by experiments showing that artificial "moonlight" will regularize even woman's periods. These experiments also show that the brightness variation during the lunar cycle (and not some more metaphysical aspect of the moon) is the cue. Note also that the average human gestation lasts exactly 9 lunations, 9*29.53 days, almost to the minute. The hominids checked out of apedom 14 million years ago, when the apes were sweating it out in Africa, India, and the Malay/Borneo peninsula. With Australopithecus (4 million ybp), they achieved full bipedal status. While we are the sole survivors of the hominid family, archeology shows that a typically hominid trait was the abilility to use culture to adapt to nature. Hominids depended on learned traditions or repertories in their daily lives. Ritualized behaviors proliferated; adaptive strategies replaced actual agression. Another sexual revolution had given birth to this process: the estrous cycle per se was abandoned by the hominids! External signs of estrus faded away (due to bipedalism) and only menstruation remained as an obvious indicator of the estrous cycle. Sex now had to occur at somewhat arbitrary times to insure fertilization. To offset the cost of trashing an economical system like the estrous cycle, sex evolved other purposes besides fertilization. In hominids, therefore, we have the development of the male and female orgasm, and the pleasure of copulation itself became a strong social force. Most importantly, aspects of sexuality became the basis of a new phenomenon: religion. The picture is one where the hominids augmented the coordinated society of the ancient apes with an actual *consciousness* of the factors structuring existence. Religion was born as a symbolic system modeling the world, a system whose adaptation did not depend on genetics exclusively. The early hominid religion revolved around the moon, and by extension, woman and her menstrual cycle. Once the lunar cycle entered into the consciousness, it was creatively and intuitively applied to other non-sexual aspects of life by expanding the religious symbolic system. This religious synergy had tremendous adaptive value. It closed the feedback loop which elaborated the brain's ability to inherit and store information, to learn behavioral repertories, and to intuitively perceive the world. Brain size was pushed from the small Australopithecine noggin to that of Homo erectus, around 2 million years ago. H. erectus was a widespread hominid which constituted a single, potentially inter-breeding species. Erectus was comprised of a number of geographic races in Africa and the East/Southeast Asia. Widespread use of similar tool industries shows regular cultural and genetic exchange over this huge area. The culmination of this dynamic was the first Homo sapiens, Neandertal. In Neandertal, the unbroken traditions carried through millions of years were enfolded into a huge brain specializing in religion/magic, dreams, intuition, and memory. Yet something completely new had been synthesized: an immortal soul. In their intuitive way, Neandertal hit upon a great truth: that they had a continuity throughout space time. The *neverending* cycle of death and rebirth so pervasive in nature applied to humans as well. Neandertal cultures were the first to honor their dead (and thus make them immortal). Neandertal existed a mere 100,000 years ago, yet it is doubtful that speech was major part of their traditions (or the means by which their traditions were conveyed). The mechanics of birth put an ultimate limit on head (brain) size, which had been reached. They were at an evolutionary hiatus, although a quite successful one. Races of H. sapiens neandertalis existed in all of Africa, Europe, and Asia. Desperate and changing environmental conditions in some places modulated some of the racial differences, but the situation was more or less stable. The way out was provided by language. Language Neandertal-style did exist in a primitive form, but the evolutionary logistics of expanding this facility were difficult. Since brain size was maxed out, language adaptation required sacrificing some of the memory-related functions in favor of what we now think of as left brain functions. Once the process was started, it could proceed smoothly due to the great value of verbal communication and traditions, but there was a threshold effect resisting its initiation. In places ranging from Israel to India, the transition was finally made. We call this type of Homo sapiens Cro-Magnon. Cro-Magnon displaced the Neandertal Middle and Far Eastern cultures he sprang from. The old religion was obliterated by installing a new one with diametrically opposed principles. Sun worship replaced moon worship and the male principle superceded the female. Pair-bonding became the sexual relationship of choice, promiscuity was tabooed. As the Cro-Magnon tribes moved westward across Europe, the Neandertal tribes were annihilated or assimilated. Moon worship and its concomitant matriarchies were savagely repressed, as shown by the countless modern taboos surrounding menstruation, and the general subjugation of woman. A series of Ice Ages contrived to disrupt the integrity of both peoples enough that by 30,000 years bp both pure Cro-Magnon and pure Neandertal ceased to exist. The remaining hybridized populations were largely dominated by the Cro-Magnon idea of religion. Pagan mythologies (and societies) centered on male-dominated hierarchies. Neandertaloid types became (and still are) the various bogeymen and devils of folklore. Yet their influence remained more or less in all areas of the world, throughout history. The people of the earth benefitted from a kind of hybrid vigour (similar results occurred in all of the earth's continents). Cro-Magnon qualities of logic, numerology, and language brought an explosion of culture which made the previous 250,000 years of Neandertal evolution look silly. On the other hand, the turmoils spoken of are the root of many problems of our modern souls. Our Neandertaloid (right-brained) natures and Cro-magnon (left-brained) natures are in constant conflict on individual, sexual, and societal levels. REFERENCES: Stan Gooch, "Guardians of the Ancient Wisdom" (Wildwood House 1979) Marvin Harris "Culture, People, Nature" (Crowell 1975) F.C. Howell (Encyclopedia Americana article "Human Being" 1981) Louise Lacey "Lunaception" (Warner Books 1976) Joe Knapp (cbosgd!nscs!jmk)
mrh@cybvax0.UUCP (Mike Huybensz) (07/08/85)
Myth is right. This stuff has about as much credence among scientists as Velikovski and Von Danekin. The historical causes are fanciful at best. A quick glance at the references shows no refereed scientific sources. > REFERENCES: > Stan Gooch, "Guardians of the Ancient Wisdom" (Wildwood House 1979) > Marvin Harris "Culture, People, Nature" (Crowell 1975) > F.C. Howell (Encyclopedia Americana article "Human Being" 1981) > Louise Lacey "Lunaception" (Warner Books 1976) -- Mike Huybensz ...decvax!genrad!mit-eddie!cybvax0!mrh