Life Strategies, Human Evolution, Environmental Design: Toward a Biological Theory of Health

ISBN-13: 9781461263272 / Angielski / Miękka / 2011 / 495 str.

Valerius Geist

Opis

Consider that you were asked how to ensure human survival. Where would you begin? Conservation of resources jumps to mind. We need to conserve resources in order that economic activities may continue. Alas, this is a false start. Resources are always defined by a given economic system, and only it determines what is and what is not a resource. Therefore, conserving resources implies only the perpetua tion of the appropriate economic system. Conservation of resources as we know them has nothing to do with the survival of mankind, but it has very much to do with the survival of the industrial system and society we live in today. We have to start, therefore, at a more basic level. This level, some may argue, is addressed by ensuring for human beings "clean genes. " Again, this is a mistaken beginning. It is thoroughly mistaken-for reasons of science. It is a false start because malfunctioning organs and morphological structures are not only due to deleterious hereditary factors but particularly due to unfavorable environments during early growth and development. Moreover, eugenics is not acceptable to any but a small fraction of society. Eugenics may not be irrelevant to our future, but is premature and should be of little concern until we understand how human genes and environment interact."

Spis treści

1 / Organism Theory: The Dictates of Genes, the Meanings of Environment.- Primary Rules of Reproductive Fitness.- Grand Strategies of Maintenance and Spread.- Rules of Conduct Dictated by the Mechanisms of Gene Transmission and Expression.- The Environment.- 2 / Cognition—Predictability.- A Predictable Environment.- Relation Between Pattern Matching and the Reafference Principle.- Pattern Matching.- Theory of Emotionality.- Intelligence, Creativity, Memory.- Structuring and Ontogeny of Cognitive Patterns.- Prediction With the Theory of Emotionality and Pattern Matching: From Sheep in Pastures to Conventional Wisdom.- 3 / Communication.- Origin, Components, and Definitions.- Some Principles of Communication: The Law of Least Effort.- Some Rules Governing Semantic and Pragmatic Structure of Signals: Novelty.- Antithesis or the Law of the Opposite.- Stimulus Contrast.- Redundancy.- Intention Movements—Iconic Signals.- Levels of Communication.- 4 / Aggression.- Competition.- Agonistic Adaptations.- Definition of Aggression.- The Phylogeny Fallacy.- Misadventures in Aggression.- Weapons and Defenses.- Retaliation as a Control on the Evolution of Aggression.- Armament and Ecological Strategy.- Circumstances and Aggression: Some Rules.- 5 / Dominance Displays: The Biology of Art, Pride—and Materialism.- Dominance Displays: Their Raison d’ Etre.- Characteristics of Dominance Displays.- Attention-Guiding Organs: The Biology of Art.- Quantitative Rules in Dominance Displays.- Ontogeny of Dominance Displays.- Evolutionary Directions in Dominance Displays.- Human Dominance Displays: Biological Basis of Displays and Their Cultural Enhancement.- Humor, Laughter, Courtesy.- Cultural Dominance Displays and Their Rules.- 6 / How Genes Communicate With the Environment—The Biology of Inequality.- Phenotype Syndromes in Vertebrates.- Social and Psychological Factors Affecting Population Quality.- Two Explanatory Hypotheses Based on Cortical Dominance, Growth Priority, and Blood Flow.- Evolution and Adaptive Significance of Growth Priorities in Tissues: The Dispersal and Maintenance Phenotypes.- Phenotype Plasticity and Man.- 7 / Mammalian Systems.- Prelude to Mammalhood.- A New Ecological Profession or Ecological Niche.- From Reptile to Mammal: Locomotion, Tonus, Heat Production and Control.- From Bolting to Chewing.- Alterations of Digestive Glands and Ureotelism.- Bigger Kidney and Control Glands.- Larger Lungs, Bigger Heart, Simpler Circulation.- Adjusting Surface-to-Mass Ratio.- A Consequence of Tail Reduction: New Weapons and Defenses.- Toward Homeothermy.- Evolution of Hair.- A New Breathing System.- More Erythrocytes.- Olfaction, Scent Glands, Touch, and Hearing.- “Mnemotaxis”.- The Nest for the Young and for Digestion, Energy Stores, and Digging Paws.- Evolution of Parental Care and Lactation.- Diphyodonty.- New Bone Microstructure.- Sleep and Its Early Evolution.- Mammalian Liabilities: High-Cost, Short Life, High Aggression, Poor Performance in Heat and Desert.- 8 / Life Forms and Extinction.- Dynasties of the Past.- Extinction.- Life Forms.- 9 / The Ice Ages.- Tertiary and Pleistocene Giants and the Dispersal Theory.- The Tundra Ecosystem.- The Periglacial Ecosystem: The St. Elias Range.- The Elements of the Periglacial Ecosystem.- Habitat Mosaics as a Function of Periglacial Climatic and Edaphic Factors.- Biomass of Large Mammals.- Large Mammal Habitats in the Periglacial Zone.- Climatic Factors and Megafaunal Extinctions.- 10 / Prehumans.- The Early Hominids.- Adaptations to the Wet Savannah.- Adaptive Syndrome of the Gracile Hominids.- Meat Diet: For and Against.- Social System.- Territoriality.- Significance of Tools.- Evolution of Conscience, Imitation and Faith.- 11 / The Homo erectus Stage.- Adaptive Successions: From Savannah to Steppe.- Australopithecine versus early Homo Characteristics.- Characteristics of the Steppe.- From Opportunistic to Systematic Hunting.- Roots of Language.- Geographic Dispersal and the Evolution of Homo erectus: Applying the Dispersal Theory.- An Overview of Homo erectus.- 12 / The First Advance to the Glaciers.- Late Acheulean Man and Temperate Climates.- Cooperative Hunting.- Evolution of Hairlessness.- Dictates of Cold Environments.- Neanderthal Man’s Characteristics.- On the Adaptive Syndrome of Neanderthal Man.- The Extinction of Neanderthal Man.- 13 / On the Evolution of Modern Man.- Early Environmental Settings.- Meat Conservation and its Consequences.- Chronologie Time and Big-Game Migrations.- Distance Confrontation Hunting and Complex Cooperative Hunting.- Before Cro-Magnon.- Some Attributes of Cro-Magnon.- The Early Anxieties.- Megafauna and Late Paleolithic Hunters.- On the Ecology of Bonding Male and Female.- Effects of Monogamy on the Dominance Displays and Courtship of Homo.- The Social Feedback System.- Prerequisites of Cooperation: Music, Dancing, Laughter, Language, Games.- Music: Its Functions and Possible Origins.- Extended Family.- Relict Behaviors.- Sexual Displays.- Neoteny.- 14 / From Periglacial to Artificial Environments.- Hunting Economics.- The Vitamin C Problem.- The Vitamin D Problem.- Parasites, Diseases, and Periglacial Hygiene.- How to Maximize Intellectual Development, Speed of Pattern Matching, and Creativity.- Magic Numbers.- The Social Environment.- The Mesolithic.- Geographic Dispersal of Modern Man..- On the Origin of Medical and Pharmaceutical Knowledge.- The Beginning of Artificial Environments and Some of Their Biological Effects.- 15 / Health, Professionals, and Creature Comforts.- Professionals and Intervention.- On Health and a Healthful Environment.- Evolutionary Model of a Healthful Environment: Its Rationale.- Normative Environmental Criteria.- Quality of Life.- Creature Comforts.- Testing the Evolutionary Model.- The Evolutionary Model in Decision Making: Examples.- What are the Costs of Maximizing Individual Development?.- References.