Froggy Circle

Click to enlarge.

Neanderthal Knack

We humans have suffered numerous blows to our ego in recent decades, as one of our so-called exceptional qualities after another has been recognized in other animals. First it was the realization years ago that many animals also forge tools—maybe not as complex as our robots and computers—but they are an intentional use of an object (often even constructed by the critter itself) to accomplish a deed that their paws or claws alone could not. 
 
Next it was the ability to self-recognize, such as when we look in a mirror and realize it's our own self, rather than some other being. There are several other examples of barriers being dismantled; barriers that we had come to believe distinguish us from “lower” animals. The message: we are not that far removed from the animal kingdom. 
 
Yet one more blow to the belief in human exclusivity recently landed, when Neanderthal art was discovered in caves in Spain. So why is the discovery of Neanderthal art so unexpected, or even seen as threatening to our superiority, by some people? When the fossil bones of these distant cousins were discovered in the 19^th century in Germany, anthropologists were inclined to deem them as some sort of inferior brute. Otherwise, why would they have gone extinct? 
 
It was known that our direct ancestors, the Cro-Magnon, and Neanderthals co-existed for several thousand years, before the latter died out. We won; they lost. Furthermore, their fossil skeletons showed them to be heavy-browed, stout folks. Weren't they closer to apes than humans? So how can we accept these brutes as being artists?

Let's first consider some background and how we know it was Neanderthals who had the knack to create their own style of cave art. Furthermore, is it art? These recent Spanish cave discoveries have been dated to a time some 25,000 years before our human ancestors even left Africa—during an epoch in which Neanderthals were the sole species of hominid in Europe... the sole European artists, as it now turns out. The paintings are the first example of true Neanderthal art we have found.

Exquisite examples of Cro-Magnon cave art had previously been discovered over many years, in Spain and France. They exhibit a quality that obviously emanates from the human mind—a mind that is highly conscious and reflects upon itself. When we look upon these Cro-Magnon drawings, we find that they evoke deep feelings within us. They are fellow humans.

Gazing upon the recent Spanish cave drawings by Neanderthals, one gets a similar feeling from their art. It may not be as accomplished as Cro-Magnon art, but the paintings surely evoke an intelligent, highly-conscious mind; one that obviously reflected upon itself. These feelings inevitably draw us closer to those Neanderthals who wangled their way into dark cave recesses some 30 to 40,000 years ago and created these works of art. They move us. They truly are art.

Until this recent Neanderthal discovery, we thought that only we Homo sapiens (descended from the Cro-Magnon) were capable of expressing such meaning. Neanderthals were thought to be too primitive. They were artless, because we believed that Neanderthals could not have acquired the necessary cultural self-consciousness to create art. 
 
It will take some time for us to comprehend the significance of these recent cave art discoveries. It's obvious that they demonstrate Neanderthals were capable of creating art. But what did their drawings mean to them? For that matter, we're still trying to comprehend the meaning of Cro-Magnon cave art. These Neanderthal renderings are undeniably art, but why did they do it? Why penetrate deep into caves (without modern battery-powered lights) and create their works in darkness? Had they any idea that their art would survive for so long, to inspire and puzzle future humans?

As we ponder these mysteries—and will probably discover more—the answers may come to us. In the meantime, we can benefit from an appreciation of yet one more connection to our ancient Neanderthal cousins, as well as many non-human species. It tells us there's a gradual blend of capabilities between species—not a stark barrier. Is there not an unbroken path from “primitive” cave art to the Mona Lisa?

Glass Hummingbird

A friend gave me this glass cube with a hummingbird encased. It's about 3 inches (8 cm) high. Click to enlarge.

Camel Cuties

We humans are very conscious of appearances. We focus on looks and the outward show, when we gaze upon things—whether other people, animals, or architecture. People will go to great lengths to appear attractive—by buying expensive clothes, applying gobs of makeup, getting breast enhancement operations, going on extreme diets, etc. We hold beauty contests—for us humans, for our domestic animals, for our cars, for our gardens. You might say we're obsessed with good looks.

We claim to esteem various sayings that belie our fixation about appearances, such as “Beauty is only skin deep,” or “Don't judge a book by its cover,” but we really just pay lip service to these aphorisms. We pretend that character and substance matter, but it's the façade that we really value.

We place such high priority on good looks that we often cheat in our beauty contests. Numerous scandals have occurred over the years—not unlike the doping scandals that happen in sports. But now we have the worst beauty scandal of all: Saudi camel owners cheating in the annual King Abdulaziz Camel Festival.
 
I have to admit, being an American, that I regard a camel as one of the more unsightly creatures around. But I wouldn't be surprised if a Saudi thought an American opossum or raccoon was ugly as sin. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, as they say, and Saudis behold their camels as lovely.

Saudi Arabia's King Abdulaziz Camel Festival is big business. Some 30,000 camels compete for over $30 million in prize money. That's a strong incentive to doll up your favorite dromedary to be as cute as possible—in fact, maybe even cross the moral line to try to dupe the judges by cheating.

Some of the beauty marks camel judges have traditionally looked for are tallness, a long neck, a big head and nose, dangling lips, and droopy ears. A fraudulent owner can't do much about his camel's height or neck length, but there are other devious means that some are resorting to. For example, some use Botox on their camel's face, which makes it appear more “inflated”, so it appears to have that desired bigger head, droopy lips, and an inflated nose. Some owners will tie down their camel's lips before the competition, so they dangle more, or inject their lips with anesthetic, to cause them to sag. They'll even coat the critter's ears with oil so they droop more, due to the added weight. What's next, silicon injections?

The Saudi judges are catching on to this nefarious form of misrepresentation, however. They are coming up with better monitoring schemes and penalties. Violators can be fined and banned for several years from competition. We can only hope that the Saudi authorities successfully check this pernicious behavior.
 
I find it hard to understand this phenomenon, since I find camels to be quite homely critters. But let me say no more about dromedary droopy lips or ears, lest I contribute further to the gap between Christians and Muslims.

Nepal Mountain

From a friend's photo album, from a trip to Nepal. Click to enlarge.

Bushmen Benefits

In the 1930s John Maynard Keynes, writing from the perspective of and influenced by the Great Depression, penned an essay titled “The Economic Possibilities for Our Grandchildren.” He was struggling with the financial doldrums of the times, but looked optimistically to the future. He believed in the American democratic and economic processes that he observed at the time, and thought that, due to (1) technological innovation, (2) productivity, and (3) long-term capital growth, the future looked good. America and the world would soon realize what he termed “economic bliss”.

Keynes predicted that his grandchildren would be able to satisfy their material needs by having to work only 15 hours per week. What would we do with all that extra time on our hands? He said it would free us up to pursue rewarding interests such as art, philosophy, music, religion, family, etc. He believed that soon we'd realize a life that would be four-to-eight times richer than that of the 1930s. 
 
On the one hand, Keynes predicted correctly, since our productivity has increased by a factor of four. On the other hand, he was wrong about working hours, as today Americans work longer hours each week than they did in the 1930s. The result is that, instead of turning to leisure, we've turned to accumulating things. We grasp for more.

What happened? One reason we still work long hours is that Keynes and other economists at the time (and over the next half century) assumed that economics is a rational science, which implies that people make rational economic decisions. That assumption has been discredited in the last few decades, as psychologists and sociologists have shown that most of our choices are anything but rational. Neuroscience confirms these findings and has added its own discoveries into the mix. From neuroscience, we now know that people's decisions are impulsive and often made subconsciously, without their even being aware of what factors led to them. The result: we are often slaves to our desires and are thus literally driven to accumulate. To do so, we seem to be willing to labor long hours to get what we want.

Keynes was not crazy, however, as there is a society that long ago learned to curb its cravings and achieve all its needs, with indeed about 15 hours of work each week: the Bushmen peoples of Namibia's Kalahari Desert region. Also called the San peoples, they have populated southern Africa for some 200,000 years as hunter-gatherers. The Bushmen had achieved Keynes's economic promised land long ago, and they did it without having any interest in labor productivity or capital accumulation.

Think about that. The Bushmen (still around today, although they're struggling with the interference of modernity into their lives) are the most successful, long-lasting human civilization in Earth's history! Their culture has prevailed for some 800 times the length of America's existence as a country and 20 times longer than the period of time since humans turned from hunter-gatherers to agriculturists (about 10,000 years ago). I will be looking at the astounding success of the simple-living Bushmen in future blogs.

[Based on the book Affluence without Abundance: The Disappearing World of the Bushmen, by James Suzman, 2017.]