Word: behaviorisms
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...knows what that reason was, but a theory about Ardi's social behavior may hold a clue. Lovejoy thinks Ar. ramidus had a social system found in no other primates except humans. Among gorillas and chimps, males viciously fight other males for the attention of females. But among Ardipithecus, says Lovejoy, males may have abandoned such competition, opting instead to pair-bond with females and stay together in order to rear their offspring (though not necessarily monogamously or for life). The evidence of this harmonious existence comes from, of all things, Ardipithecus' teeth: its canine teeth are relatively stubby compared...
...preferentially with smaller-fanged males. In order for females to have had so much power, Lovejoy argues, Ar. ramidus must have developed a social system in which males were cooperative. Males probably helped females, and their own offspring, by foraging for and sharing food, for example - a change in behavior that could help explain why bipedality arose. Carrying food is difficult in the woods, after all, if you can't free up your forelimbs by walking erect. (Read "Ida: Humankind's Earliest Ancestor! [Not Really...
Deducing such details of social behavior is, admittedly, speculative - and several researchers are quick to note that some of the authors' other major conclusions need further discussion as well. One problem is that some portions of Ardi's skeleton were found crushed nearly to smithereens and needed extensive digital reconstruction. "Tim [White] showed me pictures of the pelvis in the ground, and it looked like an Irish stew," says Walker. Indeed, looking at the evidence, different paleoanthropologists may have different interpretations of how Ardi moved or what she reveals about the last common ancestor of humans and chimps...
...necessarily satisfactory results - and it may force Western powers to accept more limited goals than persuading Iran to forgo enrichment altogether. But Tehran's agreement to inspections at Qum and other signs of cooperation are a positive start. And given the limited potential for sanctions to change Iran's behavior, it's not as if the Western powers have much of an alternative to pursuing diplomacy, with all its pitfalls...
According to The Tufts Daily, the new policy was triggered by a "significant number of complaints last year from residents bothered by their roommates' social behavior," and the Tufts Office of Residential Life and Learning's assistant director told the newspaper that the incidents "happened more often than we'd like." But the Office emphasized that the new policy was aimed more at "facilitat[ing] conversation and compromise between roommates" than hindering "personal or private activity...