The Origin of Man and of His SuperstitionsRead, Carveth
Philosophy
The Origin of Man and of His Superstitions
Read, Carveth
Animism; Human beings -- Origin; Magic; Superstition; Totemism
four families in company. It is said that gorillas and chimpanzees
have been seen together in a large band. I have met with no report of
these animals fighting amongst themselves, except that male gorillas
sometimes fight for a wife. Gorillas have also been said, upon very
slight evidence, to be polygamous; chimpanzees and orangs seem to be
monogamous.[30] Their family life is probably, as amongst all the other
Primates, affectionate: the long youth of their children implies much
parental care. Whilst the smaller anthropoids—siamang and gibbon—go
in troops, as also do the baboons and most monkeys of both hemispheres,
the less sociability of the great anthropoids may be understood to
result (_a_) from the limited supply of the right sort of food for
them, even in the tropical forest to which they are confined—since
animals of their bulk must consume a great deal; and (_b_) from their
having no need of combining for the purpose of defence.
From the type thus outlined the mentality of the human race has
departed so widely that some even of those who believe that our bodies
have been derived from some simian stock (_e. g._ Wallace) hesitate to
admit that our minds can have had a similar history. But as everywhere
else in the animal kingdom mind and body constitute one organism, it is
reasonable to consider whether the differentiation of the mind of man
may not be understood to have taken place under the same conditions as
those which determined the transformation of his body. What were these
conditions?
(_a_) In the foregoing chapter I have collected a number of facts and
arguments pointing to the probability that the chief cause of the
evolution of the human Family was the adoption by some anthropoid (or
allied form) of the life of the hunter in order to obtain animal food.
That the change from a frugivorous to a carnivorous diet may itself
have had some effect upon our temperament and activity is possible;
but I lay no stress upon that. Most monkeys are almost exclusively
frugivorous; the only Primate, except man, that depends a good deal
upon animal food is, I believe, the crab-eating macaque (_Macacus
cynomolgus_), of the Burmese and Malay littoral; yet monkeys are the
most alert and active of animals; some of them are amongst the most
courageous; anthropoids are amongst the most powerful. A carnivorous
diet alone would not explain any changes in the shape and proportions
of our trunk and limbs, nor the upright gait, nor the gregarious habit,
nor the development of the brain, nor the invention of weapons, nor the
use of fire, nor any of the mental and emotional characteristics that
distinguish man from the other Primates; but all these things readily
follow from our remote ancestor’s adoption of the life of the hunter.
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