My Primary Blog
Categories
- Introduction
- Ch.1) Homo Narcissus – Just an Animal?
- Ch.2) God: Uber-Pater or El Presidente?
- Ch.3) Nurture and the Swiss-Army Knife of Human Nature
- Ch.4) Bumpkins in the Night
- Ch.5) Comparing Adams and Orangutans
- Ch.6) Power/Size
- Ch.7) Eye Contact
- Ch.8) Threat Displays
- Ch.9) Sexual Primacy Sexual Jealousy
- Ch.10) First Fruits
- Uncategorized
- Ch.11) A Throne of Grooming
- Ch.12) Will the Real Proto-Human Please Stand Up
- Ch.13) The Egalitarian Ape
- Ch.14) The Pacts Within a Pack
- Ch.15) Benefits to Subordinates
- Ch.16) Protection from Them
- Ch.17) Proximity to Bounty
-
Recent Posts
Author Archives: Andrew
17.4) Bounty and the Birth of Leaders
The threshing floors will be filled with grain; the vats will overflow with new wine and oil. (Joel 2:24) To promise an abundance of food, there must either be a preexisting surplus to command, or a power capable of generating … Continue reading
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17.3) Take This Bread
“Eventually Mike [a chimpanzee] calmed down and became a benign alpha. He was exceptionally generous in sharing meat.” (4) Whenever the day came for Elkanah to sacrifice, he would give portions of the meat to his wife Peninnah and to … Continue reading
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17.2) Keeper of the Garden
Why do alpha males tend to be keepers of the garden? Before answering that question, let me explain what I mean by ‘keepers of the garden.’ No primate species but one will cultivate and tend a garden. Yet many if … Continue reading
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17.1) Spiritual Hunger, Real Hunger
If you delve into specifics, people today ‘hunger’ for a god for reasons that poorly overlap with more ancient reasons. At least in areas of the world with amply stocked supermarkets and respected borders. Today we enjoy relative peace and … Continue reading
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16.5) A Conduit to Social Power
Despite the claims that religions promote universal love, what they best promote is love-for and loyalty-to the ‘brothers’ in one’s own group.(21) Why? If we look at the nature of social groups, it is highly likely that from the family … Continue reading
Posted in Ch.16) Protection from Them
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16.4) A Supernatural Leader in War
With God we will gain the victory, and he will trample down our enemies. (Psalms 60:12) Human concerns and needs are reflected in the characteristics of the god they worship. We can chalk up the many faces and changing nature … Continue reading
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16.3) Xenophobia and the Ethnocentric God
Xenophobia. Fear of foreigners. In a sense, to fear the foreign, the strange-to-you, is wise. For what we don’t know can hurt us. And the foreign is less known, more unpredictable. So we prefer the familiar, at least when it … Continue reading
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16.2) The Protection of Powerful Agents
The great ape alpha is a threatening individual. Not only does he threaten his own groups members to get them to defer to him, this master of threat will turn his imposing nature outside the group and protect it from … Continue reading
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16.1) Protection from Them
“Having a protector clearly reduces stress.” – Dorothy Cheney and Robert Seyfarth, Baboon Metaphysics (1) He is a shield for all who take refuge in him. (Psalms 18:30) Just as there are costs and benefits to being a group alpha, … Continue reading
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15.11) He Knows When You are Sleeping
He sees you when you’re sleeping He knows when you’re awake He knows if you’ve been bad or good So be good for goodness sake. (64) Although the above words are about a supernatural being, that being is not considered … Continue reading