The Selfish Ape

slowburner

An interesting film was shown on TG4 (and elsewhere, obviously) last night, entitled 'The Selfish Ape'.
Of particular interest was the theory of the 'Tribe of the Tie'.
The theory goes that there is a global convention of wearing a suit and tie which is supposed to symbolise normality, success and respectability.
This uniformity is a product of the selfish ape's tendency to reject those who are unconventional, or those who don't conform.
The theory concludes that global acceptance of this uniform produces a world which encourages the success of the mediocre.

I've picked out just one element from the film - there are many more to be discussed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6co5fNxezU

Tzar Chasm

very interesting

the author refers to the 'tribe of the suit' as Sapien Sapien, no homo involved

the Aquatic ape theory is expounded very well

some of the conclusions are rather subjective, who is the author to postulate that we have it wrong.

Wibbs

Tzar Chasm wrote: »

some of the conclusions are rather subjective, who is the author to postulate that we have it wrong.

Agreed. I wouldn't mind if the theories were more founded in evidence but many aren't. The Aquatic ape theory is really dubious. The evidence is very thin. It's a tad overly dramatic too.

slowburner

The Aquatic Ape hypothesis is a bit over emphasised alright (around 33 m in the vid).
I think our morphology is more easily attributed to walking upright. Linking subcutaneous fat to survival under water is very questionable, and suggesting that the sensitivity of our hands is a product of searching for sea animals, is total bóllóchs.
The evolutionary shedding of hair probably has nothing to do with streamlining for aquatic adventures. The other theory on our hairlessness is that it allowed us to sweat and cool down. This allowed us to move about in the midday sun when most animals (especially dangerous ones) were having their afternoon nap.
The narrator states that some apes cannot swim at all - is this true?

All the same, the concentrations of Mesolithic (and Palaeolithic?) man around coastlines could hint at some degree of aquatic dependence.

The 'documentary' tried to fit too much into a small space, and was shallow as a consequence - and true enough, there was no supporting evidence.
I just thought it might provoke a bit of thought

Torakx

Thanks for that post.
I only planned to watch a few mins but ended up all the way to 35 mins.
Was very interesting.Although at the start i was like .."wtf is this planet of the apes or what are they aiming at?" haha

The aquatic theory is indeed well put.
about 30 mins in they talk about the shape of humans noses and how water runs off of it indicating it may have evovled this way from swimming forwards..also kind of makes sense about the hair on the top of the head.
As i dont know off hand any other explanation for that.

Check this out.
Looks like the suits are at it again, hogging all the good sh1t
Even these monkeys show preferences and ranks through bloodlines.

ps. if you get a hold of the full documentary it shows these monkeys have also be trained to dive for nuts as tourists throw them into the water.
Shows them diving at the water bed picking and eating the food from the bottom for a fair amoount of time then coming up for air.
Quite interesting.