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Natural Science Forum / Biology / Evolution / March 2010Mother Child Bond and Neoteny
Here are two arguments to further support the importance of the mother child bond in brain development. 1. Neoteny. We know that humans more than any apes had a retention of juvenile features and and a slower sexual maturity. Neoteny would strengthen the mother child bond. 2. Bipedalism would change the foot. There would be selection for walking. But there would be less ability for the baby to cling to the mother as apes do. The baby would have two arms, not four. This would demand that the mother 'carry the baby' more. This too would strengthen the mother child bond. > Here are two arguments to further support the importance of the mother > child bond in brain development. > > 1. Neoteny. We know that humans more than any apes had a retention of > juvenile features and and a slower sexual maturity. Neoteny would > strengthen the mother child bond. I think most scientists would agree that neotony and maternal care are related. One can cause the other. In fact, I conjecture it is more like a feed-back loop, where the development of one makes the development of the other more probable. > 2. Bipedalism would change the foot. There would be selection for > walking. But there would be less ability for the baby to cling to the > mother as apes do. The baby would have two arms, not four. This would > demand that the mother 'carry the baby' more. This too would > strengthen the mother child bond. This sounds like other scientists would agree that this happened in human beings. However, I take no model seriously unless it includes lots of invertebrates :-) > Here are two arguments to further support the importance of the mother > child bond in brain development. [quoted text clipped - 8 lines] > demand that the mother 'carry the baby' more. This too would > strengthen the mother child bond. The significant difference between the way a chimp raises it's young, and a human, is that we teach our infants to speak. THAT is what changes the way the brain develops. > > Here are two arguments to further support the importance of the mother > > child bond in brain development. [quoted text clipped - 12 lines] > young, and a human, is that we teach our infants to speak. THAT is > what changes the way the brain develops. I would think that holding the baby, and carrying the baby, came before language as did bipedalism. Holding and carrying the baby would enhance and develop language with the baby. On Jan 30, 1:31 pm, Tom Hendricks <tom-hendri...@att.net> wrote: > On Jan 29, 11:16 am, arne97 <gahada2...@yahoo.com> wrote: > [quoted text clipped - 22 lines] > enhance and develop language > with the baby. There is this too. There is really no innate desire to devise tools, or speak. But there is an innate desire to be sociable - to please a mother that you have a bond with, to support your family, and to mate. Those drives are strong in all of us then and now. I think the other milestones followed from them. That means that the social bonds of mother and child, and to a lesser extant individual and group, and male and female sex, were the real driving force that led to language, making tools, hunting, and all the rest. I can easily and completely concur with this reasoning of yours! :-) > Here are two arguments to further support the importance of the mother > child bond in brain development. [quoted text clipped - 8 lines] > demand that the mother 'carry the baby' more. This too would > strengthen the mother child bond. Here is an EPT extension of your reasoning: Neotony and bipedalism (nomadic life-style) lead to SHI-type predicaments becoming a more prevalent "pressure" (both in a Darwinian and psychophysiological sense). Further, later to arise, life-style-changing directly or indirectly need-negating adaptations (I am sure you can imagine what and how) created even greater such pressures that when logically and realistically paired with pressures of "opportunity type" (environmentally presented or offered or provided such) led to that our evolutionary lineage evolved into the by far most elaborately AEVASIVE (~= ambiadvantageously adapted/evolved....) of all species on this planet. > Here are two arguments to further support the importance of the mother > child bond in brain development. [quoted text clipped - 8 lines] > demand that the mother 'carry the baby' more. This too would > strengthen the mother child bond. > 1. Neoteny. We know that humans more than any apes had a retention of > juvenile features and and a slower sexual maturity. That is true, however is a very incomplete picture. No existing species (except for humans) has the nurturant instinct to care for slow-maturing youth past the absolute minimum for survival, and the sooner the better. Developmentally retarded or helpless individuals are abandoned to predators, you would not expect paedomorphic features to be tolerated in such a society. Indeed, any such tendencies would eventually be selected out of the gene pool. One could therefore propose that the species of primate who allowed neoteny was our direct ancestor. Only humans and their predessors have had the ability to create the safe, nurturant and resource-rich society in which paedomorphic individuals can mature. Witness the liberal tolerant society where 30 year old adults routinely live with their parents. Even as recently as 50 years ago it could not happen. Retarded, disabled and deformed persons were murdered, mutilated or at the very least, prevented from reproducing. This is the principle of neurodiversity, that in the most helpless among us lurks the future of our species. As we speak, someplace where neoteny is not a crime, the future human subspecies is already evolving. -- Gnarlie |
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