At 19:46 1999-11-27 -0700, Erik wrote:

>According to his ideas, religion
>survived and survives because it helped humans survive.  In other words, it was
>selected

Yes, and the H/G religion differ quite a lot from "modern" religions, wich
can tell us a lot of our distorted psycho-social situation.

>Furthermore, he
>claims that humans are adapted to be monagamous. Men's attraction
>to YOUNGER women (16-22 or so), which he claims is nearly universal, as
>opposed to women who are at their peak of fertility, implies that they (the
>human males) are interested in maximizing the fertile life of a woman --
marry a
>younger woman and be with her for the rest of her life (or more likely, the
>rest of their life).

There is anthropological research wich contradicts this. Among an african
pygmee people it was found that the mean number of "marriages" per life
was about 5, and it was quite usual that a man whos wife had left him, he
remarries with his former mother in law, resulting in an age difference of
up to 38 years (in the other direction, wife younger, the max was a little
above 30 years).

>If I were an alien zoologist  -  once I figure out what the damn
>things eat, now I want to know how they act, when not in captivity.

Yes this is very important, more important than diet I think, but harder to
find out, and harder to change ones life according to, as it involves not
only one self but to some extent also the people around.
But it is a bit off topic here. Instead "The Liedloff Continuum Concept" list
should be the right forum ("should be" because the parenting aspects are
what is most discussed, and there is also much off topic noise there).
We are in captivity, yes indeed!

- Hans