Jezebel 
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New York, 8:58 PM
Thu Nov 26
3 posts in the last 24 hours
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10/14/09
Oh, wait, it won't. Because we don't use those kinds of skills anymore.
Even a really, really sexist dude I once knew said that it didn't really matter who was bigger. Because what matters now is brainpower. We have guns, swords, other weapons, and we don't encounter violence that often anyway. Most of our day-to-day interactions are centered on brainpower, not brawnpower (oh, so funny I am!). So really, what does it matter that they were able to run like Superman? We don't really need that skill anymore.
10/14/09
Yeah, but what about a real American man? Everybody knows those sissy Europeans don't count, especially if they're French.
10/14/09
We know people in the past were tougher than us. We know as late as the American Civil War that soldiers marched 35 miles a day with no shoes.
They were tougher and stronger because they HAD to be or they wouldn't survive!
Given the choice, most of them would trade places with us in a heartbeat. After all, they'd get the added bonus of no parasites.
Nothing like worms in your gut to make one weak as a limp noodle!
10/14/09
They marched to where the food and coffee would be.
If they didn't get there, they didn't get food.
It wasn't toughness, it was "Need to get some coffee".
10/14/09
Okay, (1) we have no evidence that this wasn't the fastest person in the world (a la Usain Bolt) at the time. (2) Regarding the analysis of the footprints, from the article, "his conclusions about the speed of Australian aboriginals 20,000 years ago are based on a set of footprints, preserved in a fossilized claypan lake bed, of six men chasing prey." I wonder how clear whose footprints are whose in those marks. (3) How did he do the analysis?
In other words, in addition to my thinking "manthropology" is kind of questionable based on gender stereotypes, I am curious/questioning of the numbers he is claiming.
10/14/09
If the "manthropologist" did this analysis, I'd be shocked because I've never heard of him and I've been doing research on endurance running in early Homo for a few years now (not that that means anything, of course, I'm just saying that I don't think he is necessarily an expert on biomechanics and locomotion) I would like to see whatever source he's referencing, though. It sounds extremely fishy to me.
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ANYway, my real point is that watching Planet Earth made me realize that we basically suck as a species and would have died out a long time ago except OH WAIT we have a cerebral cortex. We don't need this dude basing manliness on mad jumping skillzzz to tell us that we never would have gotten anywhere if we tried to survive by arm wrestling dinosaurs. Maybe Neanderthals could have beaten us at foot racing but I bet you anything they never would have come up with the idea for "Rock of Love." Take that, Neanderthals.
10/14/09
Heh. I don't think Anna's analysis or any of the excerpts changes that reading, really. AuthorDude seems exceptionally grouchy.
10/14/09
And Arnold still would've won in a bodybuilding competition. He was statuesque back in the day; great form.
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Has the measure of human kind ever been our physical prowess? Have we gotten this far and made comfortable lives for ourselves based on our ability to jump and arm-wrestle?
No. We did not wrestle lions to spread humanity outside of Africa. We outsmarted them. Think about it.
Humans first came in to being in Africa, a continent filled with some of the most dangerous predators in the world. We couldn't wrestle a lion 20,000 years ago and we can't now (check out the news item on the two young men who recently broke into the Calgary zoo if you don't believe me). Our society has advanced because of our intelligence and our ability to communicate. End of story.
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Um, men and women are different AND equal. I don't know why you would say that aren't we "aren't equal."
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But I fail to see how that makes us unequal.
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Oh, wait.
10/14/09
I THINK NOT.
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10/14/09
And manthropology? No. There is no need for an "M" there. It's already inherent in the prefix of "anthropos"! You know, human. Go away.
/angry anthropologist rant
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Not even his own logic is consistent.
*Not that any species has a particular point, but the difference in physiology is kind of one of the major reasons we spend so much time studying Neanderthal in flipping UNDEGRAD.