> On Fri, 9 Feb 2001 12:04:10 -0800, Wally Day <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
>> Have you ever looked at the teeth of a gorilla? The
>> look like BIG knives, bigger than dogs. They are used
>> to TEAR course vegetable matter as well as for
>> defense. If you saw a gorilla for the first time you
>> would not guess that it was mostly vegetarian.

Actually, those teeth are used for fighting, all animals have built in
weapons for self defense.

As noted by Ardrey in The Hunting Hypothesis, humans do not have the fangs
found in other primates, and do not have teeth exactly like other
carnivores, because we have made them obsolete.

Every animal needs the ability to defend itself, but a naked human, lacking
any built-in weapons, appears poorly equipped even for self-defense, let
alone hunting.  Why?  The truth is, though it appears harmless, the human
has hidden powers exceeding by far those of  any carnivore.  Our primary
weapon is invisible--it is the mind, which can conceive, and direct the body
to manufacture and use weapons.  The human body, equipped with a large
brain, binocular vision, eye dominance and consequent handedness, hand-eye
coordination, opposable thumbs, and a shoulder with an unparalleled range of
motion, is uniquely suited to, in fact designed for, wielding weapons.  All
of these characteristics make humans uniquely capable of thrusting or
throwing an object with accuracy, and grabbing or tackling run-away prey.
In the human hand, a stout sharp stone or stick becomes a weapon--a knife or
spear--far superior any set of other carnivore's teeth, fangs or claws.

Far from suggesting that we are by nature vegetarians, the fact that we lack
fangs and claws actually indicates that we have been using weapons for
millions of years--the knife is our replacement for the fangs found in our
primate cousins.

Don