> Date:    Sun, 28 Jan 2007 11:53:08 -0500
> From:    =?windows-1252?Q?Philip?= <[log in to unmask]>
> Subject: Re: Saturated Fat

> <<[Leakey] argues that at some point our hominid line developed a =
> complex
> economic system of gathering and hunting that required cooperation =
> between
> individuals in a clan. This cooperative system, besides being =
> intrinsically
> more productive, engendered the evolution of a special intellectual
> capability on the part of our pre-historic ancestors. The brains of our
> ancestors became increasingly subtle and complex because cooperation in =
> a
> society requires that its members be able to interact with each other,
> empathize with fellow clan members, and take on specialized roles

*** And from whom did we learn this cooperation? From wolves! Or at least, 
this article makes a pretty good case for it.

http://media.anthropik.com/pdf/schleidt2003.pdf

Points out that wolves lived in dens before hominids lived in caves, wolves 
lived and hunted cooperatively before hominids did, humans are the only 
primates that form non-kinship bonds like wolves do, and the emergence of 
modern humans and modern dogs occurred at the same time, suggesting that 
wolves domesticated humans rather than the other way round. There are others 
who have drawn similar conclusions from other evidence as well.

--Carrie