How babywearing helped evolution

[mamabear]

This is interesting! This guy believes babywearing allowed us to evolve big brains.

CultureLab: Artificial ape man: How technology created humans

[lhastie]

This is a great read! Haven't read the whole thing, but very interesting that he is basically saying that you had to babywear to allow us to further evolve, huh.

[PurpleCat]

Interesting for sure!

[Mrs.Crunchy]

cool beans!!!!

[Cat Beard]

Interesting, but I remain skeptical.

I always thought that along with increased cranial size came increased intelligence, which allowed for a higher chance of survival, which then made the large-cranium people more likely to breed. I didn't think Darwin said it was because females found large heads attractive.

[ZooMama]

Originally Posted by Danielle

Interesting, but I remain skeptical.

I always thought that along with increased cranial size came increased intelligence, which allowed for a higher chance of survival, which then made the large-cranium people more likely to breed. I didn't think Darwin said it was because females found large heads attractive.

I'm skeptical too. Some of what he's saying doesn't quite fit together.

As Danielle said, I thought similar, but thought it was all tied together. So, increased cranial size = increased intelligence = higher chance of survival. Therefore, females preferred to breed with males with larger cranial size in order to pass that trait onto their offspring.

I think there's a gap in what he's saying in the article. That the sling allowed the cranium to develop into a larger size?? I'm with him when he's talking about how being upright limits the size of the baby's head, but I'm not sure that fashioning a sling allowed the baby's head to continue to grow.

[lhastie]

Originally Posted by ZooMama

I think there's a gap in what he's saying in the article. That the sling allowed the cranium to develop into a larger size?? I'm with him when he's talking about how being upright limits the size of the baby's head, but I'm not sure that fashioning a sling allowed the baby's head to continue to grow.

No, it allowed the babies to survive since they are born underdeveloped compared to most of the rest of the animal kingdom and have the added disadvantage that they can't hold on to be transported. It is the survival of otherwise helpless babies that is difficult, once they can survive through a very helpless infancy that is followed by a lot of development outside of the womb the other stuff can follow.

[Cat Beard]

I like this guy because he talks about space travel.