Chapter 3: Hostile Forces Of Nature Flashcards
In the great battle of life…
The structure of every organic being is related, in the most essential yet often hidden manner, to that of all the other organic beings, with which it comes into competition for food and residence, or from which it has to escape, or kn which it preys
Neophobia
Literally the fear of the new
Rats and humans show neophobia for new foods and sample in small quantities
What feeling is evolved to support disease avoidance?
Disgust
What is sexual disgust?
Disgust that exists for dangerous activities like anal sex as a special adaption to avoid disease spreading
Why humans like alcohol?
Ripe fruit contains alcohol in small amounts and is used to jusge ripeness so this trait of oh theres a nice ripe fruit is hijacked by alcohol
Utilizing the odor and taste …
Of alcohol enables the animal to predict the caloric value of food (singh 1985)
What are two key evidence that humans are evolved meat eaters?
Fossil record with teeth not ground down
Small intestines in humans but not other apes
Unable to create vitamins a and b12
Meat eating evidence goes back 2 million years
What is the provisioning hypothesis?
Hunting is an effective form of investment in young, so itd be an advantage for males to hunt anf bring food back to young
How is strong male colations evidence of the hunting hypothesis?
Hunting helps explain this tendency because it would have been necessary to hunt but it could have also evolved for other reasons like defense against other groups
How does hunting hypothesis support sex labor dicisions?
Men have better upper body strength and spatial awareness and universally labor is split between hunting and gathering
What cognitive adaaptions do females have for gathering?
Incidental location memory — where things are
What cognitive adaptions would men have for hunting?
Navigation, map reading, mental rotations for hurling a spear or where you are relative to terrain — like a mental map
What is the savannah hypothesis?
The idea that humans have selected preferences to settle in savannah like environments with open views, shady canopy trees, and other features of the savannah
What are the six ways fear triggers a protective response?
Freezing hides you and helps uph assess
Fleeing
Fighting
Submission usually to ones species
Playing dead
Faint to signal a non threat
Whats the typical fear responses in order?
Freeze
Flee
Fight
Play dead
Why might fainting be unique to humans?
Thought to aid in warfare to signal a non combatant
What are the physiological reactions of fear?
Release of epinephrine which aids clotting and releases glucose, heart rate, blood diverts from stomach, rapid breathing
What is the theory of senescence?
Essentially selection is stronger the younger you are since reproductive time is ahead
There is then pleiotropic genes with an early advantage that could cause desth later
Basically we are built to reproduce early and then we fall apart because we are a shoddy machjen built to reproduce quickly!
Why do men live less time than women?
Men have more variability in young production and so selection is stronger whereas fertile women will usually still reproduce so men feel the pleiotropic effect of senescence more strongly
