Pascal Picq's quotes (sethmessenger.fr - Some short news to get away from it all).

#37771
Without too generalizing, and with a touch of subjectivity, one would like to think that the beauty of the males of tolerant societies expresses the influence of the choice of females...

Pascal Picq
(And evolution created the woman (OJ. Sc. HUMANS))

#37772
One of the great surprises of bird studies was the high percentage of infidelity: on average, one third of pups are not the result of sexual relations between their parents.

Pascal Picq
(And evolution created the woman (OJ. Sc. HUMANS))

#37773
The titis form stable couples accustomed, to mark their presence on their territory, to sing in chorus, every morning, duets to which their neighbors respond. Immediately after birth, the cub is carried by the male. Douroucoulis or night monkeys, very intolerant to strangers, stand out as the most strictly monogamous. They do not sing with each other, but rest entwined day and night. Sitting side by side on a branch, they wrap their tails. The male constantly carries the young, who only joins his mother for breastfeeding. Sexual dimorphism is very low and there is no sexual coercion or infanticide.

Pascal Picq
(And evolution created the woman (OJ. Sc. HUMANS))

#37774
Gibbons and siamangs form the hylobatid family. Their "families" consist of a female, a male and several young. A "complete family" includes both parents, a very young unanerved child, another weaned child, a teenager and a subadult: from 2 - childless family - to 6 individuals - with all possible children. When the eldest approaches maturity, he is strongly encouraged to leave by the parent of the same sex. The gibbons fiercely defend their territory, unceremoniously hunting down any intruders. Infidelities are rare (partner surveillance). Each morning, the two adults sing powerful songs to which their neighbors respond. All these elements mean that gibbons have few social and emotional relationships. Dusting sessions remain limited between adults and children. They don't sleep in the same nest. Children do not play, and for good reason, with young people their own age. The role of the adult male is limited to the defence of the territory. There is no parental investment of the male, except in the Siamangs where fathers carry their children and dust them. Dominance relationships are balanced, with the female able to move her companion or vice versa. It seems that it depends more on the character of each other. There is no sexual dimorphism for body size or canines. However, in some species the color of the fleece differs, white for the female, black for the male. So goes life, peaceful, in gibbons and siamangs. This lineage of hominoids, separated from that of the great homoinoid apes for 19 million years in Asia, was once more diverse. But much uncertainty remains about its origins and evolution. We will note, however, that strong phylogenetic constraints are exerted on the social systems of hylobatids, whether they are frugivores such as gibbons or folivores such as siamangs.

Pascal Picq
(And evolution created the woman (OJ. Sc. HUMANS))

#37775
Empirical sociosexual rules in primates - The asymmetry of parental investment is increasing, from early mammals to humans, to monkeys (to use an anthropocentric perspective) at the expense of females and women. The more asymmetry in parental investment, the more sexual coercion there is. The more complex structures and organizations species have, the more sexual coercion there is. The difference in body size between females and males, sexual dimorphism, is not correlated with the level of sexual coercion. There are phylogenetic constraints on structures (solitary, monogamous, polygynous or polyandrous, polygynandres) and social organizations (exogamie of males or females). Notwithstanding the phylogenetic constraints specific to each lineage, there is always a great diversity of organization, more rarely of structure, between the species of these lineages, with the exception of gibbons and siamangs (hylobatids). Land species tend to be more coercive than arboreal species (socio-ecology). Two major evolutionary trends differ in monkeys and great apes: one towards more sexual coercion in polygynous and polygynandre species, the other towards monogamy, sometimes polyandry, and the absence of sexual coercion. Once monogamy is acquired, there is no evolution towards other forms of sexuality and reproduction (which would explain the uniformity of monogamy in hylobatids).

Pascal Picq
(And evolution created the woman (OJ. Sc. HUMANS))

#37776
It is thanks to this approach that we were able to establish our African origins around 6 million years ago, with a common ancestor shared with chimpanzees and bonobos, which is corroborated by the discoveries of fossils such as Toumaï or Orrorin. We start from what evolution has produced to reconstruct it.

Pascal Picq
(And evolution created the woman (OJ. Sc. HUMANS))

#37777
Here are the characteristics of community reproduction at Homo. An important feature is the propensity to entrust very young children to others. This means that there is little risk of abuse or infanticide. This is done within the framework of social rules within the group. Apart from the Western fathers of the Victorian era at the end of the 20th century and like too many of those of the great agricultural or industrial civilizations in general, cluttered with their macho image under the pressure of their peers, men like to hold a baby, or even take it as in the different traditions known as the "couvade". The father walks with the newborn and, according to the customs that existed in the West only a few centuries ago, can go so far as to substitute for the mother in the bed or diaper where she gave birth to the little one. Fathers who carry children experience hormonal changes with the production of prolactin and cortisol and a decrease in testosterone levels. To say the least, the model of the "civilized" father, the paterfamilias, distant from the newborn, is far from a universal rule. Not holding a baby or keeping a distance are forms of virility in the framework of codes of male domination that govern both the relationship between men and attitudes towards women. (We will see how these behaviours, especially violence against women, are political messages inscribed in the games of domination between men and males.) Among the many societies in which fathers care for newborns are the most warlike, such as the Maasai and many others. Just because men take part in fights does not mean that they cannot have emotional relationships with other men (Greek Hoplites), their wives (the courteous knight) or their children. The image of the manly soldier indifferent to any form of empathy or affection remains an extreme and rare form of machismo.

Pascal Picq
(And evolution created the woman (OJ. Sc. HUMANS))

#37778
The Obstetric Dilemma The classic hypothesis of conflict between the size of a woman's small pelvis and that of the newborn's head is called the obstetric dilemma. One of the questions that arises in this regard is the mechanisms by which childbirth is triggered at nine months of pregnancy. Many factors are involved, including metabolic17. The development of a fetus as large with exponential growth and all the transformations of the mother's body double its metabolic needs. The investment of the sapiens pregnant is significantly higher than that of a female great ape of the same body size. The initiation of childbirth would be a response to the hormonal signals emitted by the mother's body when it reaches its metabolic limits. It must therefore be assumed that the mother must have a social environment to ensure her metabolic needs, that she must benefit from various assistances around her during and after childbirth, and benefit from alloparental care. This has been a lot of genetic, epigenetic, anatomical, physiological, behavioural, social and cognitive transformations that have certainly not been able to occur on an ad hoc basis. The long evolution of the Erectus in the broadest sense spans at least 1 million years; it was not done gradually but in mosaic, with a lot of trial and error.

Pascal Picq
(And evolution created the woman (OJ. Sc. HUMANS))

#37779
If the human baby acquires a very large brain at birth, it is more because of genetic mutations acting very early in the course of ontogenesis than because of an extension of gestation time. Brain volume remains moderate in utero, but increases again after birth until the age of 10-20 months; it is secondary altriciality.

Pascal Picq
(And evolution created the woman (OJ. Sc. HUMANS))

#37780
More than the hunting and the contribution of meat, it is the invention of fire, cooking and habitat that engage the nascent humanity in the current of biocultural evolution: it is the "home" in all its meanings. Cooking, it has been said, detoxifies vegetable and meat foods, tenderizes them, reduces chewing load and promotes digestion. The biological and physiological consequences are considerable, including the reduction in the size of the teeth and face and that of the large intestine. Cooking and more regular access to good quality proteins provide available calories for brain development and cognitive functions. We know the complex interactions between the brain, the intestine, sometimes called the "second brain," and the microbiota. All these changes with Erectus have two consequences: on the one hand, the increase in brain size and the obstetric dilemma, mentioned above- not to mention the thermoregulation factors associated with intense physical activities - and, on the other hand, the social response to these phenomena - community reproduction. We see that, contrary to what the classic reconstructions of the man-hunter, manufacturer of tools and culture that relieve us of our natural condition, suggest, technical and cultural innovations are actually the causes of our biological transformations. Since Erectus, behavioural and cultural factors have become themselves engines of evolutionary transformation: biology and culture weave increasingly complex interactions, even in the most fundamental aspects of what humans are, starting with reproduction.

Pascal Picq
(And evolution created the woman (OJ. Sc. HUMANS))

#37781
As for human matriarchal societies, in an exciting ethnographic survey of all continents, Goettner-Abendroth provides the following table: All current matriarchal societies are agricultural. They are matrilocal and matrilineal. Social status is transmitted from mother to daughter, often the youngest. The opposite is true in patriarchal societies with the transmission of parentage to the eldest son. Women hold the sacred power, a legacy passed down from mothers to daughters from the mother goddess of origins. There is no private property, but collective ownership. However, there is often confusion between community, economic and political aspects of the status of collective property. Clan-to-clan marriages avoid the division of land and/or collective herds, often with systematic cross-marriages between two or more clans according to very complex rules. Men can either move into the wife's family home or alternate with their clan's residence. - There is no genetic paternity but social paternity. It was because of confusion between the two types of fatherhood, already distinguished by Morgan and Darwin, that after Bronislaw Malinovski's work in the Trobriand Islands Western societies believed that these men had no idea of genetic paternity, which is not true. We have seen that monkeys and great apes in general have a good perception of fatherhood or lack of fatherhood, and we see the consequences in their behaviour towards young people. By creating a situation where men are not certain of paternity or non-paternity, the practice of social fatherhood reduces sexual coercion. Women do not practice sexual exclusivity (sexual polyandry) and there is no jealousy. On this point, one can be dubious, as Darwin was, knowing the universality of the behaviors of the males of other species. But we have seen that in monkeys and great apes, polyandry helps to limit the risk of infanticide because of the uncertainty of kinship. These societies, all agricultural, live in balance with their environment. Nice idea, again, but probably quite naïve, even if it is very common in ecology. The populations of different species in the same ecological community are changing their environment, and so are all human societies, including traditional peoples, to a lesser degree than agricultural societies. It is, of course, quite different with industrial companies. Beliefs refer to a mother goddess or similar deities. Cultural practices involve sacrifices of surplus male animals. A s e l e c tion reminiscent of that of the breeders and, according to myths, the one that the Amazons would have practiced between men. If women who hold sacred power decide which animal to sacrifice, it is nevertheless a man who takes care of the sacrifice. - There are no forces of social coercion such as the police, the army, the judiciary. Women are at the origin of agricultural technical innovations, textiles and the design and manufacture of houses. Men represent the interests of the community in external relations, mandated by the assembly or the authority of women.

Pascal Picq
(And evolution created the woman (OJ. Sc. HUMANS))

#37782
His book (The Parentage of Man, Charles Darwin) deals with the importance of sexual s e l e c tion in relation to natural s e l e c tion (in men). He concludes that the former has certainly played a more important role in the morphological and cognitive differentiations between women and men and, unlike the majority of species where males are more beautiful, it is women who are in our species.

Pascal Picq
(And evolution created the woman (OJ. Sc. HUMANS))

#37783
(According to UN and Unicef data, one-third of women in the world are forced into marriage, with the majority still in their teens or having just left.)

Pascal Picq
(And evolution created the woman (OJ. Sc. HUMANS))

#37784
While working on the march, I discovered the coercion suffered, in terms of displacement, by women, accused of all bad intentions. During Darwin's time, a woman walking alone in the city, especially in the evening, was suspected of soliciting and was at risk of arrest. These situations persist today in a majority of cultures. Darwin anticipates what is well understood today: one of the major challenges for humanity of tomorrow rests primarily on the education and freedom of young girls and women. This is not surprising in his mind since he belongs to a family whose grandfather, Erasmus, campaigned against slavery and for freedom. Among his relationships were the philosopher William Godwin and his wife, Mary Wollstonecraft, a flamboyant pioneer of feminist struggles.

Pascal Picq
(And evolution created the woman (OJ. Sc. HUMANS))

#37785
Another example of task division is the use of tools. Also in chimpanzees, it is the females who make and use tools, passing on their know-how to young people, with cultural traditions from one community to another - in the sense that practices are not innate, therefore transmitted by genes, but are the result of learning in a social setting. These skills are diffused as females migrate in adolescence to breed in another community. This is a shadow of man, master of tools and machines...

Pascal Picq
(And evolution created the woman (OJ. Sc. HUMANS))

#37786
Among Australian Aborigines, as well as in various populations of nomadic hunter-gatherers, there are very coercive societies deeply marked by sexual antagonism. Without going into detail, everything contributes to completely separating the world of women from the world of men. Women and men live in different homes. Men fear being infected by sex and defy everything that affects women. Boys live the first years in women's homes and then go through a series of often trying rituals, starting with circumcision, in order to erase all that is perceived as feminine. Once in the men's house, they are "breastfed" by men through oral sex, with sperm replacing women's milk. Men must never have the slightest emotional attitude towards their wives, nor show respect for any other woman; they are warriors valued by their exploits... Women undergo clitorectomy. Their initiation rituals are less numerous and less important. They must isolate themselves in menstrual huts during their periods, men having an aversion to this unclean blood. They take care of the gardens they cultivate with very rudimentary tools made by men. Humans therefore ensure total control over the means of production and reproduction. Women must take different paths or below those of men as in New Guinea. If, inadvertently, a woman crosses a man, she throws herself into the bushes and covers her head as she can. All these coercions are part of an ideology of the inferiorization of women as an absolute and dangerous antagonist of what man is. These are B- type horticultural companies. Maurice Godelier paints an accurate, documented and beautifully analyzed picture of this type of society among the Baruyas of New Guinea, so-called chiefdom or big-man societies.

Pascal Picq
(And evolution created the woman (OJ. Sc. HUMANS))

#37787
In Australia, a century ago, the Arandas gave a young woman a terrible rite of passage about to get married. A group of men took him into the thicket, inflicted an introcision (incision of the entrance to the vagina), and then a gang rape. After that, the young woman joined the man who would become her husband, who had not participated in the ceremony and, from there, no other man than her husband could have sex with her.

Pascal Picq
(And evolution created the woman (OJ. Sc. HUMANS))

#37801
The status of women, already unenviable in the Mesolithic, continues to deteriorate. These are patrilocal societies, with women coming from exchanges between sometimes distant groups or kidnappings: all factors promoting coercion. Osteological studies reveal, among other things, the robustness of leg bones in men, suggesting significant physical activity. These bones are relatively less robust in women, which implies more sedentary activities. On the other hand, the arm bones are robust comparable to that of current female rowing athletes.

Pascal Picq
(And evolution created the woman)

#37802
In Italy, in the south of France, in the Iberian Peninsula, the traces of violence and worsening of the condition of women go hand in hand with the fact that they are increasingly represented by their sexual characters, while men are increasingly shown in prestigious activities such as hunting and war.

Pascal Picq
(And evolution created the woman)

#37803
According to a recent study, the longer a history of agriculture, the greater the gender inequality. Although such studies are not available for the peoples of breeders, especially horses, in Central Europe it can be admitted that their more egalitarian manners continue to prevail, taking as an argument the status of women among the Scythians, Sarmatians and other peoples of the Bronze and Iron Ages who astonished both Greek and Latin commentators. This time we agree with Gimbutas.

Pascal Picq
(And evolution created the woman)

#37804
There is no doubt that agricultural societies are characterized by a strong division of tasks, sexual coercion, often a strong sexual antagonism, control over fertility, natalist pressures, etc. But not all of them do. In fact, it seems that this is the case for all those who have evolved into cities, states and so-called great civilizations, whose power is based on expansionism, colonialism and weapons: in other words, those that have passed through the axial age.

Pascal Picq
(And evolution created the woman)

#37805
In chimpanzees, not to mention task division, it can be said that it is the females who appropriate the techniques concerning tools and food. Males are less interested and prefer power games, hunting and intergroup aggression. While male chimpanzees do not exert coercion on technical objects and their use, men invent forms of coercion on tasks, tools, modes of production, etc. When did the sexual division of tasks in human populations take place: the first men? Homo erectus? The human species of the Middle Paleolithic - Neanderthals, Denisovans, Sapiens? Man is not limited to the tool, but men have invented coercion through techniques and their uses. Whether it was the first tools of cut stone or all the art forms of prehistory and protohistory, it is not known who made them, women, men or both, not to mention distinctions by age groups. It is not known whether there was a separation of all or part of these craft and/or artistic activities. Archaeological and osteological data do not identify differences in activity, other than from the Upper Paleolithic, for example, with the bone trauma of the elbow associated with the throw. (The anatomy of the Neanderthals' shoulder and arm gave them great strength for throwing. This may not have caused any trauma to the elbow.)

Pascal Picq
(And evolution created the woman)

#37806
As in chimpanzees and bonobos and in contemporary societies, prehistoric societies were mainly patrilocal with various forms of residence and parentage for women and men. The closer women resided to their families, the less likely they were to be violent and vice versa. The more people in society admit private spaces, the more likely women are to experience domestic violence. In living conditions with high seasonal variations in resources and periods of stress, women are more likely to experience violence.

Pascal Picq
(And evolution created the woman)

#37807
From the Upper Paleolithic, it is not known for the previous period when several human species coexisted, there were significantly more sedentary hunter-gatherer-fisher societies accumulating resources and some ostentatious wealth. Such societies are generally more unequal, sometimes slave-owning, and do not hesitate to conduct recurrent expeditions to plunder the resources of their neighbors and capture women. Expansionist societies tend to be dominated by males, who are more inclined to engage in external, warlike or commercial relations. The prestige of warriors as well as the resources derived from exchanges are all factors that promote male domination and inequality.

Pascal Picq
(And evolution created the woman)

#37808
Evolution has never been more Darwinian in its most caricatured meaning, both elimination and proceeding in terms of reproductive success, than in human history. Women represent the ecological, reproductive and producing sex well. In other words, as Marx and Engels wrote, the condition of women is at the root of all inequalities in human societies and their evolution.

Pascal Picq
(And evolution created the woman)

#37809
Comparative ethology highlights the recurrence of a fact that, at first glance, may surprise. Precopulation coercion promotes privileged access for males who practice them to a female when, some time later, she becomes sexually receptive. Harassment operates on a regime of fear conditioning the female who, in view of what she has suffered, protects herself from other possibly more violent assaults. This mechanism, which seems very archaic from a behavioral and psychological point of view, is observed in several species of monkeys, great apes... and in men.

Pascal Picq
(And evolution created the woman)

#37810
At the end of October 2015, McKinsey's Global Institute published a study that concludes with this dizzying observation: if, worldwide, women were considered equal to men in business, global wealth would increase by more than $1,200 billion! This work confirms hundreds of surveys and studies that, especially since the 2008 financial and economic crisis, claim that countries and companies that ensure the integration of women at all levels of responsibility have better economic results. In a way that is both relevant and not devoid of impertinence, one might ask whether there is a correlation between the countries of the north and those of southern Europe linking, on the one hand, the level of debt and, on the other, the level of inequality of tasks between the sexes, the quality of education and well-being. All of this is well known. So why doesn't economic reason prevail? From nomadic Type A companies to digital companies, once again, it is not a question of means of production but of the ideology of male domination. The crisis of the Covid-19 reveals how the division of trades, whose anthropological foundations go back to prehistory, as Alain Testart has very well demonstrated, has weakened our societies. All the professions of personal assistance, increasingly feminized and not relocated, have been hard hit, while occupations based on external or distant relations, the most valued, more invested by men and responsible for the virulence of the spread of coronavirus, have been much less so. This anthropological tendency is found that confines women and their activities within the group while men are more engaged in relations outside the social group. However, it is thanks to these trades with people that the crisis has not taken on a catastrophic scale.

Pascal Picq
(And evolution created the woman)

#37811
Germaine Tillion described with precision the mechanisms of male domination in Mediterranean societies, their ideologies, their frustrations, for both women and men. The conclusion of his observations, as well as those of other anthropologists such as Maurice Godelier for the Baruyas, is that the sexual antagonism of male domination makes oppressed women and aggressive men because they find themselves culturally unable to be loving. It is high time to rediscover the evolution that created women.

Pascal Picq
(And evolution created the woman)

Seth Messenger : Pascal Picq's quotes

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