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Ishmael
In: Toronto
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THE HYPERBOREANS: HUMAN ORIGINS PART V ADDENDUM
We have talked much about adaptation to the northern interglacial pole and the traits this environment encouraged in human beings. The traits can be identified by extrapolation from existing populations: Those aspects of human nature that tend to increase in expression among existing populations with their proximity to the pole.
Some of these traits are egalitarianism, peacefulness, impulse-control, anticipation of the future, creativity, and general intelligence. I might also mention a theory of mind that generally assumes the best of others (though this may be subsumed within the category of "egalitarianism").
What are the primary characteristics of the northern environment and how might these characteristics encourage these traits?
The pole has two primary characteristics that set it apart from other environments, both are seasonal. Darkness and cold (the latter being a function of the former, via plants). Much of the animal life that lives in this environment have clear adaptations to these characteristics.
The primary adaptation is migration.
Many of the animals that live in the north live there only during summer months. In winter, most of those that can move south, do.
The secondary adaptation is hibernation.
Most of the animals that live in the north, and cannot migrate out, shut themselves down during winter months.
Now; imagine a creature in the north that, for reasons unknown, is genetically unable to develop effective hibernation and, for reasons unknown, is physically impeded from leaving.
It isn't difficult to imagine that development of the traits listed above might be the only means by which such an organism could survive. If it were the only creature so inherently handicapped, it would also account for why it, virtually alone, developed these traits.
I say virtually alone because many of these traits, in rudimentary form, are present in other creatures. Pack animals have community and some exhibit signs of egalitarianism. I would argue that, in so far as any creature exhibits such traits, it is a descendant of a beast exposed to the north.
I suspect that these traits can be detected to a higher degree in existing animal populations with routine exposure to the north. I think particularly of Wolves, which have communities so well structured and organized as to appear almost human.
Compare wolf packs with Lion prides and note the differences. They will prove stark.
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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| Ishmael wrote: | It may not be strictly necessary but it would be good to know how, after a few billion years of evolution on earth, one species could do things no other organism had even come close to doing.
Jeeze. I can't solve every mystery of the universe. I'm just concentrating on one small mystery here. The origins of modern humans. |
I thought I was concentrating on precisely that part of the mystery. You know what I'm like when people say, "And with one leap, they were free."
| That said, I believe that this final foray into the north was not the only time it happened to us. Human beings evolved through repeated exposure to the northern environment. With one caveat. The first time our genetic ancestors went into the inter-glacial north, they entered with weaknesses that made them inherently unfit for physical adaptation to the environment. They were an evolutionary dead-end that should have gone extinct during the previous glacial period. Miraculously, they survived. It was a remnant population that entered the frigid zone during the subsequent interglacial. |
They leapt, they survived. (I'm only saying these things because you chose to bring them up.)
| We emerged from those eons of exposure to the north with the capacity for speech (our most obvious physical adaptation) |
Blimey, that was quick. An entirely refashioned epiglottis had to be evolved.
| rudimentary religious belief |
A son of the manse speaks.
| and the ability to manufacture simple throwing weapons (among other things). |
Why so shy all of a sudden?
| This constituted the baseline humanity that succeeded in spreading over the globe before the most-recent inter-glacial, when those humans in the northern hemisphere would retreat to the pole once again. |
It's all go, this brave new world.
| That baseline humanity was still physically maladapted to the northern environment, but we now had a foundation for further genetic refinement: What we had gained on the previous foray. Among other things, this latest exposure would gift us with the intelligence to manufacture machines---and the instinctive desire to never be in public without our clothes on. |
Just stick to the clothes would be my advice. In my theory (admittedly of long ago) we got all the other stuff from the Neanderthals. Much easier than doing it off your own back.
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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That culture emphasized cooperation, egalitarianism, non-violence, empathy, and community.
He's gone all liberal on us again. I've had words but it doesn't seem to have had any effect.
We know the traits the northern environment encouraged because they increase in expression among modern populations with their proximity to the north pole. |
I don't mind this kind of reverse engineering as long as you can stand it up systematically. (Well, somewhat.)
We are all cousins and, though we trace part of our lineage back to this less-civilized local stock, most of what we are we owe to our other parents: The Hyperboreans. This is reflected in the rather odd fact that, regardless of how uncivilized may be any given present-day peoples, we all seem to agree on what a virtuous society should look like.
You've lost me here.
Watch the marvel superhero movie, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. It depicts a fictional black civilization in Africa that was never "oppressed" by colonialism. It's obviously a White utopia. Because, it turns out, White utopia is also Black utopia. The movie is popular among Black people the world over (to the point where some Black people in America believe Wakanda is a real place). |
An unusual source.
| Human beings revere the same systems and share the same conceptions of what makes for an ideal society. Though different human populations are oppressed by deviancy to varying degree, we all seem to understand these deviance as vices. |
And you're sure these are not common to, say, all primates?
| That suggests a common, underlying genetic instinct toward a certain kind of order: An order ideally suited to survival at the inter-glacial pole. |
It may be, as I said about the Lapps, that larger groups than normal are necessary. And with it more rules that assist cohesion. Although human beings are always described as 'group animals', this appears to mean no more than extended kinship groups, where such rules are much less necessary. Clothes would then become markers as well as cold-weather accessories.
Let's not forget that the only people we know to have lived in polar climes were a right swarthy bunch.
Orientals, including Eskimos, are basically squinting White people with a summer tan. |
I'm not sure which side will accuse you of racism.
| Incidentally; orientals aren't the only squinting peoples. There are Icelanders and some other Nordic ethnic groups that exhibit this same trait. My suspicion is that the Nordic ethnicities, in particular, are the closest living relatives of the Hyperboreans, evidenced also by their almost pure white skin and straight blond hair. |
OK
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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| THE HYPERBOREANS: HUMAN ORIGINS PART V ADDENDUM We have talked much about adaptation to the northern interglacial pole and the traits this environment encouraged in human beings. The traits can be identified by extrapolation from existing populations: Those aspects of human nature that tend to increase in expression among existing populations with their proximity to the pole. |
OK
| Some of these traits are egalitarianism, peacefulness, impulse-control, anticipation of the future, creativity, and general intelligence. I might also mention a theory of mind that generally assumes the best of others (though this may be subsumed within the category of "egalitarianism"). |
It is a natural progression. In small groups, simple pecking orders are sufficient. As groups get larger there is a need for 'creativity'. Or anyway experimentation. Or even simple Darwinian-style selection.
| What are the primary characteristics of the northern environment and how might these characteristics encourage these traits? The pole has two primary characteristics that set it apart from other environments, both are seasonal. Darkness and cold (the latter being a function of the former, via plants). Much of the animal life that lives in this environment have clear adaptations to these characteristics. |
Is is highly unusual for one organism to live in two strikingly different environments (without hibernating through one of them). Or, like polar bears, the ability to live through long months without food.
| The primary adaptation is migration. |
This of course is the solution adopted by many species though not, as far as I know, between dark and light etc.
| Many of the animals that live in the north live there only during summer months. In winter, most of those that can move south, do. |
And hence with no need to adapt.
| The secondary adaptation is hibernation. |
With no need to adapt.
| Most of the animals that live in the north, and cannot migrate out, shut themselves down during winter months. |
I suppose small mammals would not be able to. The polar bear cannot because he's got stuck with a very narrow hunting technique that requires ice.
| Now; imagine a creature in the north that, for reasons unknown, is genetically unable to develop effective hibernation and, for reasons unknown, is physically impeded from leaving. |
That's the way my thoughts were going.
| It isn't difficult to imagine that development of the traits listed above might be the only means by which such an organism could survive. If it were the only creature so inherently handicapped, it would also account for why it, virtually alone, developed these traits. |
I agree. Though in the northern hemisphere it will need ingenuity to provide the reason that is stopping migration.
| I say virtually alone because many of these traits, in rudimentary form, are present in other creatures. Pack animals have community and some exhibit signs of egalitarianism. I would argue that, in so far as any creature exhibits such traits, it is a descendant of a beast exposed to the north. |
OK
| I suspect that these traits can be detected to a higher degree in existing animal populations with routine exposure to the north. I think particularly of Wolves, which have communities so well structured and organized as to appear almost human. |
In my scheme, wolves and humans developed together.
| Compare wolf packs with Lion prides and note the differences. They will prove stark. |
I did have this in mind throughout! Though bears seemed important too, for some reason.
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Ishmael
In: Toronto
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| Mick Harper wrote: | | Compare wolf packs with Lion prides and note the differences. They will prove stark. |
I did have this in mind throughout! Though bears seemed important too, for some reason. |
There is no such thing as a hibernating pack animal.
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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That is extremely interesting. It is, I suppose, obvious when you picture the leader of the pack turning round and saying, "OK, chaps, start digging." On the other hand I do have some sort of picture of families of furry things snug in a den somewhere.
But let's widen it out a bit. You can't have pack animals in an arctic or near-Arctic habitat. There is not sufficient sustenance for herbivores gathered together, and not enough prey animals to support more than a 'lone wolf' type carnivore. On the other hand wolves themselves have a decidedly 'northern' aspect and considerable numbers of reindeer can graze on the grass beneath the snow.
But hibernation is not necessarily to do with cold anyway. Anytime there is a seasonal dearth of food, hibernating would be useful. And seasonal dearth is more the rule than the exception.
And to what extent are human beings 'pack animals'? I would think that is the rule rather than the exception. Though I suppose an element of choice is available when you've got a bit of a brain on you.
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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It occured to me you might have a look at marsupial and placental versions of the same general animal. (This popped into my head because of the Tasmanian wolf.)
Orthodoxy calls this 'parallel evolution' because, for them, the split between marsupial and placental mammals occurred long before the possibility of wolves evolving. But your version allows a little more flexibility.
The whole idea of parallel evolution has always struck me as farfetched because of the infinite fashionings available from evolution, and as evidenced from the several million 'platforms' we can observe either in the world around us or from fossils.
But then again I might be a victim of the human tendency to call unfamiliar animals by familiar names.
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