On Thu, 8 Oct 1998, S.B. Feldman wrote:

> And  how do you judge who is 'sophisticated enough' toproperly  formulate
> auto-immune or other scientifically based theory? Should they have some
> significant understanding of allergy, immunity, auto-immunity ? ...should it
> be consistent with what scientists speak of when using the same words?

Probably not a bad idea.  Also it is a good idea not to be in
denial about areas of controversy.  We all know by now that there
is great disagreement among experts as to what paleolithic people
actually ate.  The reason for this disagreement is that the
quantity and quality of evidence is poor, so the experts have to
do a lot of guessing.

Jared Diamond's book _The Third Chimpanzee_ has been a very
illuminating read for me because he comments on the nature of the
evidence for various conclusions about ancient hominids, rather
than simply making assertions (although he does some of that,
too).

Note: Diamond claims that severe osteoarthritis is common in
skeletons of older Neanderthals (i.e., older than 40).

Todd Moody
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