Date: Mon, 27 May 1996 09:02:08 -0500
Subject: Re: extreme positions


>Okay, Rahul, what's wrong with the Panda's thumb?  Or eating 19 hours a
>day?  There are many very strange looking things in the living world.
>Anyway, it's not like there is sure to be a known "explanation of
>everything", is there?

The panda's "thumb" is actually an opportunistic appropriation of an
outgrowth of the radial sesamoid bone (ordinarily a small component of the
wrist). It is not a finger at all. This is evidence of nature making do
with what was provided it rather than engineering optimal adaptation (it's
clumsier than a true opposable thumb would be.) The need to eat for 19
hours a day obviously points to a certain precariousness of its ecological
niche, wouldn't you say? The point of adaptationism is that, known or
unknown, there is an adaptive explanation of all features, and, in a strong
version, adaptation to the environment is perfect. If you can't come up
with an explanation, try harder. In this scheme, you have to argue that for
some reason the panda benefits from having to spend so long eating, instead
of simply noting that it used to be an omnivore (I think -- can't remember
exactly now) that switched to a herbivorous diet because of environmental
change, but its digestive system lagged behind. Of course, I know you don't
subscribe to such an ahistorical view of evolution.

>If you want see a lot of despicable pan-glossians, you ought to take a
>look at a lot of social/anthropology stuff - well it must serve the
>survival of the culture and the rule of the powerful, or it wouldn't be
>there.

Yes, that stuff annoys me too. Marvin Harris hit my last nerve with his
idea that the brutality and sexual exploitation of Yanomamo culture is
adaptive behavior which stems from a hunger for meat.

>BTW, do you still want that book on the ancient origin of macrame?  I
>found a second copy, used.

You mean the one that theorized that it was a ritualized substitute for war
in Sumerian city-states circa 2400 B.C.? No thanks, I'm no longer
interested. If you can find anything on quilting and the solidarity of
American pioneer women, though...

Rahul




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