Abstract
In 1966, Charles Whitman, a former Boy Scout and Eagle Scout, a model husband and overall “great guy,” climbed a tower at the University of Texas and began to indiscriminately kill people with a high-powered rifle. Earlier in the day, he had brutally murdered his wife, whom he claimed, even after her death, to have “loved dearly.”
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Notes
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Joseph, 1985; W. Wickler, The Sexual Code (Garden City, NY: Anchor Books, 1973); A. Jolly, The Evolution of Primate Behavior (New York: Macmillan, 1972 ) Among other primates, males attempt to maintain their status through similar sexual posturing. However, rather than make sexual comments, they actually mount other males so as to establish and demonstrate their dominance. In fact, lesser ranking males sometimes assume the female position and present themselves to higher status males for the purposes of being mounted, and so as to show respect and lessen tension.
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Differences in visual-spatial capabilities exist not only among humans, but in animals as well. Although current environmental pressures no doubt contribute to these differences, it has been shown experimentally by my colleagues and me that, when animals are exposed to similar environments, these gender-based differences continue to be demonstrated. Roberta Gallagher and I have shown that, when animals are reared in an enriched as opposed to an impoverished environment, males continue to outperform females across tasks of visual-spatial ability. However, although males reared in an enriched environment are superior on such tasks to females, females reared in an enriched environment are superior on such tasks to males raised in a deprived environment. Hence, environment influences cognitive capabilities. Moreover, my colleagues and I have also demonstrated that these differences are affected by one’s hormonal environment. For example, if male and female animals are exposed to testosterone (a male hormone) before the brain and the genitals become sexually differentiated (i.e., during the early stages of development), on reaching adulthood they perform similarly on tests of visual-spatial ability. If during this same critical period males are castrated or are administered a drug that blocks the reception of testosterone in the brain, they perform similarly to females. Eliminating or administering testosterone in adults has minimal effects on these abilities, however. These results indicate that males are biologically predisposed to outperform females on tests of visual-spatial capability and that environmental pressures play a significant role only when females are provided opportunities that males are denied, in which case, the sex-based differences are reversed.
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Ibid. Homo erectus was a purported evolutionary ancestor who lived from approximately 1.9 million years ago to about 300,000 years ago. This species of humans were also the first individuals who appear to have developed crude shelters and home bases, and who perhaps used various earth pigments (ocher) for cosmetic or artistic purposes. During the time of Homo erectus the human brain appears to have become significantly enlarged, big-game hunting began, and the females’ pelvis enlarged.
A. L. Zilman, “Women as Shapers of the Human Adaptation.” In Woman the Gatherer, F. Dahlberg, Ed. (pp. 75–120 ) ( New Haven: Yale University Press, 1981 ).
G. P. Murdock, “Comparative Data on the Division of Labor by Sex,” Social Forces 16 (1937), 551–553; Goodale, 1971; Martin and Voorhies, 1975; Slocum, 1975.
Murdock; Martin and Voorhies, 1975.
H. G. Bandi, Art of the Stone Age (New York: Crown, 1961 ); T. Prideaux, Cro- Magnon Man ( New York: Time-Life, 1973 ).
Martin and Voorhies, 1975.
C. W. M. Hart and A. Pilling, The Tizvi of North Australia (New York: Holt, 1960); Kaplan and Hill, 1985.
Binsford, 1982, 1983; Prideaux, 1973.
A. Jolly, The Evolution of Primate Behavior (New York: Macmillan, 1972 ); J. Goodall, In the Shadow of Man ( New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1971 ).
V. Geist, “Comment: Characteristics of an Early Hominid Scavenging Niche,” Current Anthropology 28 (1987), 396–387.
Goodall, 1971; Jolly, 1972.
T. Gibson, “Meat Sharing as a Political Ritual.” In Hunters and Gatherers, T. Ingold et al, Eds. (pp. 165–180) (New York: Berg, 1988); Kaplan and Hill, 1985.
Zilman, 1981; Kaplan and Hill, 1985.
Kaplan and Hill, 1985.
Zilman, 1981; Kaplan and Hill, 1985.
Jolly, 1972; Wickler, 1973.
D. Falk, “Brain Lateralization in Primates and Its Evolution in Hominids,” Yearbook of Physical Anthropology 30 (1987a), 107–125; D. Falk, “Hominid Paleoneurology,” Annual Review of Anthropology 30 (1987b), 107–125.
W. H. Oswalt, An Anthropological Analysis of Food Getting Technology ( New York: Wiley, 1976 ).
F. Dahlberg (Ed.), Woman the Gatherer ( New Haven: Yale University Press, 1981 ).
Prideaux, 1973; Bandi, 1961.
For those who are bothered by discussions of evolution and who are firm believers in the biblical notion of God as Creator, it is noteworthy that a careful reading of Genesis indicates that God created man and woman on the seventh day and stated (Chapter 1): Let us make man in our image and after our likeness: and let them have dominion... and... male and female created he them.“ However, what was the length of a day in the mind of God? In any case, it was only after creating man and woman and after a great mist inundated the earth that God then created Adam and Eve (in Chapter 2). Moreover, if we consider the complaint of Cain after God banished him for killing Abel, it is also clear that a considerable number of people were alive and thriving at the time, people who were not related to Cain or Adam or Eve. That is, either God had pulled off another act of creation in the next county, or these people were the descendants of those whom he first fashioned.
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Joseph, R. (1992). The Limbic System and the Most Primitive Regions of the Unconscious. In: The Right Brain and the Unconscious. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-5996-6_7
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