Aquatic Ape Theory, Love it!!

Just watched this video of self-taught evolutionary theorist Elaine Morgan who lays out the previously abandoned theory that humans evolved from an aquatic existence. The Aquatic Ape theory, originally proposed by Sir Alister Hardy in 1960, answers the question: Why are we naked? Sweet! I’ve always wondered that! She outlines the theory’s main points:

  1. We are naked like other mammals either currently living in water or evolved out of water, including dolphins, whales, and other pachyderms.
  2. We stand upright on two legs because we needed to get the top half of our bodies above water. She points out that the only time other apes walk on two feet for extended lengths of time is while they’re wading.
  3. We are capable of speaking where other apes are not because of breath control learned while in an aqueous environment. She points out that other primates have all the working parts to speak, but are unable to accomplish the fine breath control it requires.
  4. We have a fat layer outside of our body cavity like other aquatic mammals, and quite unlike any other primates.

Interestingly, Morgan began her pursuit of evolution because she felt that evolutionary theory was too male-centered. She began to proclaim the aquatic hypothesis after becoming irritated with the the widely-accepted savannah theory. According to the savannah theory, humans became naked because men needed to cool down while hunting. From Wikipedia, “she thought that if humans lost their hair because they needed to sweat while chasing game on the savannah that did not explain why women should also lose their hair as, according to the savannah hypothesis, they would be looking after the children.”

I love two things about Elaine Morgan: she was a television writer, and clearly isn’t afraid of allowing imagination to influence vision, unlike so many rigid-thinking scientists. (So much evidence is only “discovered” if one assumes it exists and proceeds to look for it.) Secondly, she technically is not a scientist, and proves this by looking at the theory of evolution through a new lens, a feminine lens. Other women scientists, and any scientists from ethnic backgrounds other than Anglo/Euro, must struggle with hypotheses that fail to exalt Caucasian males as the inheritors of the earth. Elaine Morgan may well go down in history as the visionary who saw truth where others did not. I don’t know if her theory is right, but I’m super glad to see her get some recognition.

Enjoy the video!


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August 5, 2009 | Filed Under Future Freak 

Comments

4 Responses to “Aquatic Ape Theory, Love it!!”

  1. Nat on August 7th, 2009 12:33 am

    Er…um….yeah….no.
    I’m all for her expressing her views and yes, scientists are too white and way too male but..um…no.

    She isn’t a scientist. She doesn’t follow the scientific method and she’s the one who’s picking her facts first and looking to prove them second.

    There is an amazing site that takes her books apart chapter by chapter and leaves her nothing left to stand on.

    http://www.aquaticape.org/index.html

    really…nothing left to stand on.

  2. Bobbie Wood on August 7th, 2009 8:51 am

    Hi Nat,

    I’ve read Jim Moore site and found that it was his word against Elaine Morgan’s. His objections, for the most part, sounded no more valid than Morgan’s claims, therefore, not in any way a definitive rebuttal. After all, in Jim Moore’s words:
    “I don’t have any formal credentials in evolutionary science, so how can I expect you to believe what I tell you instead of what AAT/H proponents say?”

    He reminds me of many Republicans, willing to sound very convincing with sparse facts himself. Like this: “For anyone familiar with Morgan’s published and online writing, it is also evident from this particular reference that her standard of evidence for her own theory is far less stringent than what she expects from all others.” This sounds like a personal attack, not a refutation of a claim.

    And my biggest problem with Moore, he speaks as if all of his refutations are set in stone. Many aspects of human evolution are very clearly mysterious and have no set explanation to date. It’s easy to tear someone down and much harder to put forth a theory that addresses some of those mysteries. Where’s Moore’s theory? He seems to make a lot of noise for the status quo. Which explains why his site is so well loved.

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