Nov 24 2008
RP) Sex, Toys, and Neotenic Species
The human child takes proportionately longer than the 5 to 10 years typical of monkeys and apes to absorb all the necessary information and experiences into that little brain to allow it to cope with the social world into which it has been born.
- Robin Dunbar (8)
The Great Dane is one of the largest dog breeds, tipping the scale at 120-200 lbs. These dogs grow rapidly and achieve sexual maturity in one to two years. In terms of body mass, adult chimpanzees are in the same ballpark. And yet they don’t reach sexual maturity until 6 to 10 years of age. Why the delayed sexual development of this primate species? The answer, at least in part, is that it allows time for cognitive development. Chimpanzees are a fundamentally social species that not only learn from one another but also learn about one another: Who is dominant, who can be dominated, who makes for a good ally, who does not.
Human beings are similar in mass to both the Great Dane and the chimpanzee. Certainly “in the same ballpark.” Our physical development, however, is delayed even longer. Human beings reach sexual maturity in roughly 12 – 18 years. In a sense, our species has found great benefit in immaturity (or delayed maturity, if you will). There must be benefit to it, for the cost is great. Every year sexual maturity is delayed decreases the likelihood of reproductive activity (untimely death at 8 years old—no children for you). It also limits the potential number of offspring.
The cognitive and social developmental progress of the primate species is almost ironically provided for by a phenomenon called neoteny: the slowed/delayed development of some traits and, possibly, the full retention of juvenile traits in the adult populations. For the domestic dog, it has been argued that their playful/subservient nature has been bred into them. They grow old without growing up. Dogs never shed their inclinations to please and play and are thus better human companions.
What juvenile traits do primates display? For one, an interest in play that extends well beyond childhood.(9) The playful mind is curious and, one might argue, still plastic and unspecialized. Like humans, chimpanzees use “toys.” “The dead male flower cluster of an oil-nut palm is frequently used as a toy by young chimpanzees.” (10) As much as necessity is, perhaps playfulness is the mother of invention.
While five-year-old humans play in sandboxes, seventy-five year-olds play in sandtraps on the gold course.
Next: The similarities between human sexuality and that of other primates.
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(8) Dunbar, R. Grooming, Gossip, and the Evolution of Language, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1996. p. 129
(9) Human physiologic traits that display neoteny are our relatively hairless body and the degree to which our body size never really catches up with our brains. In contemporary culture we see many blatant signs of the human desire to retain relatively juvenile characteristics: from the widespread appeal of cosmetic surgery (better to look and be shaped like a very young person than an elder), to male shaving. Male shaving? Very few males in our culture allow their facial hair to grow. Why? We may say that the shaved person looks cleaner and better groomed. Yet the shaved male also appears more juvenile, less threatening, and hence more easier to domesticate/train/control.
(10) Goodall, J. The Chimpanzees of the Gombe: Patterns of Behavior, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1986, p.559
[This entry first posted here.]
