Fighting may have shaped evolution of human hand

[dipsydoodle]

Fighting may have shaped the evolution of the human hand, according to a new study by a US team.

The University of Utah researchers used instruments to measure the forces and acceleration when martial artists hit a punch bag.

They found that the structure of the fist provides support that increases the ability of the knuckles to transmit "punching" force.

Details have been published in the Journal of Experimental Biology.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-20790294

Journal of Experimental Biology link here

Protective buttressing of the human fist and the evolution of hominin hands http://jeb.biologists.org/content/216/2/236.abstract

Next up the shape of the forehead and head butting.

[aquart]

1. Trust anthropologists to believe six impossible things before breakfast.

What's the percentage of men you know who have EVER punched anyone out? WOMEN?

Now go back and watch a mother with a young child and check what goes on with her hands. Because that actually happens. And then watch a stone-flake tool craftsman and ask how much force he needed and how much protection from the constant repetition of stone tool making and use.

Also we're SOCIAL ANIMALS who obviously developed in a threatless place of peace and prosperity because we are physically less protected than shrimp who at least have a shell and don't stand upright exposing their viscera. Not to mention, our children take forever to rear which never happens to animals in danger.

Nothing as dumb as an anthropologist.

[Fumesucker]

3. I punched bullies three times in school that I can remember

Might have happened even more but bullying was a constant of most of my school life and I made a conscious effort for many years not to think about those times.

Two grades ahead and small for my age anyway, the only way I found to get bullies to leave me alone was to convince them I was nuts, didn't take much acting ability on my part.

[aquart]

6. Yah, our folklore is tales of wily cleverness, not beatdowns.

I used to ask them to repeat whatever insult they were throwing as if I just couldn't catch the meaning. Three fights in a lifetime is not enough to spark evolution. And, of course, they forgot that the female would have to find it attractive. We already know that punch-'em-out alpha males didn't produce more offspring that beta males who shared their food and helped with the babysitting.

Seriously, there is nothing too ridiculous for an anthropologist to believe.

[Fumesucker]

7. Depends on the outcome of the fight(s)

Lose badly enough and your genes don't get to the next generation so it could have an effect.

And I'm anything but an "alpha male", that's the main reason I got in so many fights when I was younger, the alpha males wanted to dominate me and all I wanted was to be left alone.

Cooperation and competition are a tightrope we all walk unfortunately, I would be fine with a cooperative world but there's a lot of people who are going to try to screw you over one way or another and you can either compete with them or let them win.

[Posteritatis]

10. Because postindustrial civilization maps so perfectly onto the paleolithic. (nt)

[aquart]

12. Why would any woman sexually select a man quick to throw a punch?

Yes, we have many battered women, and lots of men react to pregnancy by beating the girlfriend to death, which does not lead to DNA domination, but you want me to believe that's the NORM? That men were formerly under more stress than in our "postindustrial civilization"?

Here's what patriarchy is devoted to destroying: FEMALE SELECTION. In NATURE, the male struts, the female chooses.

Now, if you wanted to say, "But what about lions and macaques?" I'd have to agree with you. Our most ancient mythology argues a lion/macaque-type system in which female family structure holds the land and males wander in, kill off the stud in residence, and knock up the ladies without much regard to choice until they themselves are routed or murdered. Do you want to concede all landholding to women until the rise of patriarchy and cloistered harems?

If we fought with our hands, WHY DO BOXERS NEED GLOVES? Why do we have no sharp claws? Why, when we NEEDED victory, did we band together and grab sticks?

Try using common sense, something anthropologists strenuously avoid.

Of course, patriarchy or no, I am minded of a former friend (male) who insisted that any woman could have any man if she just walked up to him and said "Sex. Now. No strings. Follow me." I tried for exceptions due to age, weight, appearance...he dismissed them all. So it's clear that women have been acquiring DNA by their own choice for quite some time. Did you note any mention of fists in that exchange? Nor I.

[Yo_Mama]

13. Excellent observation

The need to apply force with precision may have a lot to do with the evolution of the human hand, but the primary evolutionary drive would be related to toolmaking.

[aquart]

14. "Force with precision" is how you use a hammer. Or make one.

[Yo_Mama]

15. Yes, and the first hominid to pick up a good rock and punch someone with it

Would have invented rock knuckles. Even if you want to think about fighting, it's clear that fighting with tools would confer such an advantage that the tool use would be the primary evolutionary driver.

This is one of the odder speculations in the field, surely?

[Ichingcarpenter]

2. This is just bad conjecture

Much easier to grab a club and wack your opponent on the head. The human hand is so complex in its ability to manipulate and control items. Why would it evolve to hit someone in the face. Why not evolve to paint a picture of an elk on the wall of your house, or make a necklace of beads, or apply a dressing to the wounded leg of a friend.

The author states that "we're a relatively violent group of mammals" Why assume that that violence is biological in nature as opposed to cultural??? Not all humans are violent, and not all cultures are violent.

The reality is that the hand developed to most effectively pick our noses as we come up with lame ideas.

[Fumesucker]

4. “We have reason to believe that man first walked upright to free his hands for masturbation.”

― Lily Tomlin

[Ichingcarpenter]

5. Monkeys have discovered this

after watching monkey porn and


dogs tongues and necks evolved purely for this action

[dipsydoodle]

9. Lily Tomlin

Isn't she just great.

[Posteritatis]

11. Most past cultures were unspeakably violent compared to anything wandering around today

A typical pre-agricultural society, or one just making that transition, which lost a good ten, twenty, thirty percent of each generation to violence wasn't that unusual. The death rates simply cannot map onto modern societies; we'd collapse in years.

So yes, for the overwhelming majority of the time humans have been on this planet, we've been a violent group of mammals. The decline in violence is cultural.

[eppur_se_muova]

8. Lots of knuckle walkers in our family tree -- I'm sure there's no connection.

Correlation =/= causation