Robert Winston is well known in the UK.He is infact Lord Winston being
elevated by the Blair Labour Government.He is also a Professor of Obstetrics
with a special interest  in Infertility.Just a little background.It is a
good series but I have also found it dumbing down but remember it is aimed
at a generalist audience.The special effects are excellent but gimmicky at
times.

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There is one message totalling 51 lines in this issue.

Topics of the day:

  1. BBC's Walking with Cavemen - episode 1

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Date:    Thu, 5 Jun 2003 08:30:59 -0500
From:    Keith Thomas <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: BBC's Walking with Cavemen - episode 1

A few minutes ago I finished watching the first half-hour episode of the
BBC's 'Walking with Cavemen'.  It's a mixed bag; here are some of the
positives:

1.  excellent background to the causes of the climate change that
transformed the African jungles into savanna and how this transformation
enabled the evolutionary trajectory of Australopithecus to naturally
select phenotypes that, eventually, became Homo sapiens sapiens.  This
part of the program made it abundantly clear how the many parallel
branches of hominids arose

2.  throughout the program a convincing account of phenotypic change,
marred only by an occasional but surprising lapse into ambiguity between
Lamarckian and Darwinian evolution.

3.  it is unlikely that the program's producer, Robert Winston, has given
any thought to Evolutionary Fitness as we know it.  Yet the program showed
A. afarensis (Lucy's mob) engaged in activities that could have been
scripted by Art de Vany: close communal living, long periods of relaxation
and mutual grooming, brief periods of very intense activity

4.  the only food shown being eaten was fruit.  No fire, no meat.  This
tallies with what we know about food in this era before the widespread use
of stone tools.

5.  a convincing re-creation of the paleo environment, including a
depiction of the vulnerability of Australopithecus without Homo's
intelligence, language and tools.

And here are the main negatives

1.  some of the make-up was unconvincing; it looked like someone wearing a
cut price gorilla outfit.  On the other hand, some was exquisite.

2.  for a viewer like me - and like others on this list - the script is
occasionally dumbed down and allowed to become edu-tainment.

At lunchtime today I bought the book produced to accompany the series. Buy
the book (a) if you have children who enjoyed the program or (b) if you
want a little additional technical information about paleontology and
human evolution to complement the program - in easy doses.  Nothing so far
relating directly to Evolutionary Fitness.

Keith

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End of EVOLUTIONARY-FITNESS Digest - 6 May 2003 to 5 Jun 2003 (#2003-44)
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