The American philosopher Ken Wilber attempts to take this issue head on, repackaging the 100-year-old four-fold parallelism that equates human evolution, societal evolution, individual ontogeny and an individual’s psychology.  Wilber does not frame the differences between an individual in an aboriginal society vs. an individual in modern society in negative terms, but seeks to unpack the features of various stages of growth and show how these stages manifest on a number of different scales.  Growth, transformation, evolution, all these aspects of how life manifests over time, display pattern.  Those patterns can be described.  Ken Wilber seeks to describe how those patterns manifest in human society.

My personal focus is the influence of sexual selection on social structure mediated by changes in the rates of maturation.  The patterns I focus on are very specific.  Still, I focus on biology, society, ontogeny and personal experience, the four-fold parallelism.  Wilber is more general in his approach, preferring to show THAT there is a connection rather than HOW the connection operates.  Wilber also focuses heavily on religion and spirituality.  I pretty much stick with Zen.

I’ve written a little bit on similarities between Hopi and Trobriand Islander language structures.  Both have a heavy emphasis on the present tense and both are matrifocal societies.  Two societies a pattern does not make.  So, my research assistants, Rosanna and Elia, are conducting a survey of almost one hundred matrifocal or matrilineal societies across the world, looking for patterns.  The variables we’re tracking are not often studied or noted in the societies we’re exploring.  I want to know rates of left-handedness, twinning percentages, disease and condition proclivities and languages with tense anomalies.

It would also be interesting to know their mythological motifs, myth structures, rituals, societal bans, morays and varying idiosyncrasies.  That’s how I got into this almost 14 years ago.  Fascinated by the origin of dragon myths, I ended up studying ancient serpent myths, finding myself studying ancient matrifocal societies.  Seeking to understand the nature of the transition to our contemporary patrifocal societies from our hypothetical matrifocal roots is how I ended up studying human evolution.  It was through our stories that I began that journey.

At this point in my studies, I’m thinking there IS a major difference between the humans living in our still existing, ancient matrifocal aboriginal societies and what we would call modern humans living in the industrialized world.  I suspect these differences have a neurological, physical and behavioral foundation.  I also suspect that an exploration of the relationship between primary process, which might also be called dream consciousness (one time, one place, no negatives), and autism might be useful as we seek to understand autism and conditions characterized by maturational delay.

If our matrifocal aboriginals experience waking life in some ways like we experience dream, if primary process is familiar to their waking experience or at least very accessible, then perhaps these aboriginals can offer us some wisdom and perspective regarding the surge of individuals familiar with primary process in waking life in the modern world, what we call autism.

It may not be politically correct to equate aboriginals with autistics, but consider that if there is a relationship, then the relationship suggests that a portion of modern society is drifting back to where we started mere tens of thousands of years ago.

Consider that modern times may be crossing a line whereby our future may have much in common with our past.  This might suggest our evolution may be more characterized by a spiral than a linear pathway.  We may be swooping around to a position with much in common with the last time we rounded this bend on the spiral highway.

Our aboriginal colleagues may be in a position to teach us some important things about autism, beginning with:  How do you raise an autistic child?  If a society facile with a landscape characterized by primary process might be integral to a child’s feeling at home within autism, then perhaps we should be observing tribal society closely.

Estimating which society is more advanced becomes an odd notion in our unique, transforming world where time seems in some ways to be changing its direction.

There is the possibility that matrifocal societies will have language structures characterized by an emphasis on the present tense as in the Hopi and Trobriand Islanders.  This would suggest an affinity to primary process in waking consciousness:  one time, one place, no negatives.  An implication might be a different kind of sense of humor and a possible different kind of creative imagination.

Elia and I were talking last night about the relevance of myth.  Elia suggested that the structure of the mythology of matrifocal societies may reflect the unique neurological constellation we are proposing.  We considered that the myths might show a single story line, main character almost always present (no cut away to other times or places), little exhibition of a theory of mind in gods or goddesses and few references to other myths or stories.

A position taken in the more detailed piece, “Introduction to the Theory of Waves,” is that aboriginal matrifocal societies will exhibit populations with larger percentages of people exhibiting conditions characterized by maturational delay, such as autism and Asperger’s.  I’m estimating that a caveat to that position might be necessary.  There might be such increases and increases in diseases featuring high estrogen and testosterone women, low estrogen and testosterone men, only if there have been radical changes in child rearing practices accompanied by sudden diet and environmental rhythm modifications.

I’m starting to consider that the highly ritualized environment of aboriginal matrifocal societies, along with the ways children are raised and what they are fed, are preventing the further leftward shift of infants and toddlers.  These conventions might be engaging young neurologies in ways that there is far less autism, fewer people lost in an isolated, waking, primary process.

This thesis would suggest that aboriginal children taken from their mothers at birth or shortly thereafter, adopted by a conventional, modern, patrifocal family, might show high percentages of conditions exhibiting maturational delay and diseases associated with the hormonal extremes this thesis has been tracking.

Whereas matrifocal societies embracing modern culture will more likely exhibit the kinds of disease and condition anomalies this thesis proposes, aboriginal matrifocal societies will manifest these derivations far less often.

Perhaps the most profound connotation is that moderns raising their children using aboriginal techniques (constant rhythm, ritualized behaviors, specialized diet, unique touch or kinesthetic conventions), particularly those women with high testosterone levels mating with males with low testosterone levels, could reduce the number of children unable to exit from primary process, the maturational delayed, the autistic.

This is another suggestion of the ouroboros, the snake with her tail within her mouth, a thesis that suggests that aboriginal child rearing practices may usefully inform a society with an increasing number of neotenous characteristics with matrifocal tendencies.  This feels right to me.  Just as the features of our infant forebears manifest in the contemporary features of our species, what we would call classic neoteny, there are possible signs that characteristics of our societal forebears, aboriginal matrifocal societies, are characteristics that may usefully inform the features of contemporary times.

According to this thesis, tattoos and piercings among our youth will likely lead to other aboriginal borrowings.  I would watch for an increase in ritualized behaviors.  Music has reflected aboriginal themes for decades.  If our young mothers and fathers were to start changing the way they raise their children, how might conventional ancient practices be reflected in modern practice?

Connections between the past and present seem to be growing stronger.  There may be a reason for this.  Our future may be integrally tied to our ancient past.

It seems from the work of Benjamin Whorf and other scientists and theorists that the Hopi manifest features suggesting ties to the left end of our left/right, matrifocal/patrifocal, anomalous dominant/conventional cerebral organization arc of features.  Exploring these kinds of societies, I’ve expected to see increased percentages of left-handedness along with a higher numbers of patients with diseases featuring specific hormonal constellations (see Introduction to the “Theory of Waves”).  What struck me yesterday is the possibility that those cultures have developed child rearing practices that decrease the likelihood of further drift in a matrifocal, male maturational-delayed, female maturational-accelerated direction.  Increased left-handedness and diseases and conditions we are hypothesizing are associated with matrifocal society, but they may only emerge when traditional child rearing practices are abandoned or there is an embracing of Western testosterone-influencing and estrogen-influencing societal practices such as high fat diets, alcohol consumption, drug use, lack of exercise, etc.

Two things are implied.  First, the point at which an aboriginal, pre Indo-European (such as the Basque) or traditional matrifocal society is evaluated may heavily impact the results.  It has a lot to do with whether there are child rearing practices that mitigate drift further to the left.  A left leaning society little impacted by Western contact will likely evidence far fewer of the specific diseases predicted by this model, including conditions like autism.

The second thing implied is that aboriginal societies, or perhaps societies like the Polynesians or the Basques, may offer specific ways that children are raised that Western women with high testosterone levels might utilize to prevent autistic disengagement.  I’ve suggested that constant touch, rhythmic music and a “caveman” diet might positively affect the child of a woman with high testosterone and provide the kinds of bridges that the child’s neurology demands.

While conducting our overview of ethnicities across the planet, looking for matrifocal societies that evidence the particular cluster of features that support our theory, we’ll have to take into consideration how much contact there has been with modern Western conventional societal practices.  I’m expecting that how we raise our children has a big effect on societal stability and a society’s ability to maintain its hormonal balance status quo.

“The Hopi thought-world had no imaginary space.  The corollary to this is that it may not locate thought dealing with real space anywhere but in real space, nor insulate real space from the effects of thought.  A Hopi would naturally suppose that his thought (or he himself) traffics with the actual rosebush—or more likely, corn plant—that he is thinking about.  The thought then should leave some trace of itself with the plant in the field.  If it is a good thought, one about health and growth, it is good for the plant; if a bad thought, the reverse.” (Whorf, B. L. (1956) Language, Thought & Reality.  MIT Press: Cambridge p. 150)

I wonder first if these conclusions are still true or are the close ties between imagination and reality growing in a conventional direction with newer generations. If the experience of space is this unique, I would expect time to be influenced…

“The Hopi conceive time and motion in the objective realm in a purely operational sense—a matter of the complexity and magnitude of operations connecting events—so that the element of time is not separated from whatever element of space enters into the operations.” (Whorf, B. L. (1956) Language, Thought & Reality.  MIT Press: Cambridge p. 63)

Which suggests anomalous lateralization…

“There is some very limited evidence that lateralization for language in the Native American Hopi differs more dramatically than would be expected {13}.  Using an analysis of EEG ratios, these investigators found a significant right cerebral hemisphere specialization for language processing in Hopi Indian children.” (Scott, S., Hynd, G. W., Hunt, L. & Weed, W. (1979) Cerebral speech lateralization in the American Navajo.  Neuropsychologia 17: 89)

The study below suggests that the Hopi language is itself closely tied to the unique experiences of time and space…

“Electroencephalographic (EEG) recordings were obtained from electrode placements over the left and right frontal and parietal lobes of the brain in sixteen Hopi Indian children listening to tape recorded children’s stories in the Hopi and English languages.  Spectral analysis of the EEG data revealed that, for the parietal leads, alpha desynchronization was relatively greater over the right hemisphere for listening to Hopi than for listening to English, which indicates a greater right hemisphere participation in the processing of the Hopi speech.  The results of the experiment are directionally consistent with our hypothesis, and imply that linguistic relativity may exist on a neurolinguistic level, such that languages can differ in the relative degree to which they serve as instruments of thought in a propositional, left hemisphere mode, or in an appositional, right hemisphere mode.” (Rogers, L., TenHouten, W., Kaplan, C. D., Gardiner, M. (1977) Hemispheric specialization of language: an EEG study of bilingual Hopi Indian children.  Int J. Neuroscience 8(1): 1-6

Gregory Bateson discusses primary process as the way that very small children, animals and the adult unconscious think.  This might also be the case among the autistic.  Features include one time, one space and no negatives.  In primary process, you can’t image what a thing is not, only the thing itself.

There is a suggestion in Whorf’s work above of Hopi waking consciousness featuring aspects of primary process.  The Scott study above might suggest that right hemisphere specialization for language, which is characteristic of many left-handers, might also display increased aspects of primary process.  A question emerges on whether primary process is close to an autistic experience with those embedded in primary process exhibiting low degrees of a theory of mind, having difficulty identifying with another person.

This begs the question of whether there are higher rates of autism in the Hopi community.  With what we’ve noted so far, we’d expect this to be the case.  We’d also expect that the Hopi would exhibit features of a matrifocal society…

“The Western Pueblo, including the Hano, Zuñi, Acoma, Laguna, and, the best known, the Hopi, have exogamous clans with a matrilineal emphasis and matrilocal residence, and the houses and gardens are owned by women” (http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/society/A0860577.html)

Also, Social Organization of the Western Pueblos (1950) describes in detail the matrifocal foundations of Hopi society.  So, we note unique attitudes toward time and space, a right hemisphere emphasis on language and a matrifocal society.  We’d expect to see a higher number of left-handers than is the convention and perhaps an increase in conditions characterized by maturational delay such as autism and Asperger’s.  We’d also predict females with high testosterone and estrogen, males with low testosterone and estrogen.  Information is spotty.  Studies are few and far between.  Still, I would predict that in the Hopi society there are higher rates of autism and left-handedness.

Yet, consider that if indeed in Hopi society there are no elevated rates of autism, then maybe there are unique ways that the Hopi are raising children that engage them in ways that they don’t veer off into a unconventional condition.  If there are normal rates of autism among the Hopi, perhaps diet, touch and rhythm are being applied in a fashion that we in the West could learn from.

With time I let the title drop. It seemed cultish and, in our culture, suggestive of something sinister. Visitors were sometimes confused. Confusion was not the effect I was looking for. Nevertheless, serpentfd.org is still a functional domain name of the original site, now going by the URL sexualselection.org.

Ten years later, I’ve brought in a research assistant, Rosanna Schatzki, to help me gather information and help write papers that will appear in this blog from time to time. Roger Olson continues his excellent editing as he has over the last year, having edited almost 400 pages of these essays.

Of the many conditions and diseases that lend themselves to interpretation by this thesis, I’m thinking of starting with breast cancer in males and females, prostate cancer and testicular cancer. There are a number of problems in evaluating the influence of hormone levels on these diseases. We’re hypothesizing several environmental conditions that can influence the results. I’ve noted in earlier essays how this may have compromised Norman Geschwin’s work. Geschwin and Galaburda’s Cerebral Lateralization has influenced much of what happens in this thesis. Still, this seems a reasonable place to begin since our hypothetical four social structures and associated hormonal constellations clearly suggest where specific kinds of cancers will congregate.

We make the following predictions. Unable to perform experiments or studies, we research the literature for support and contradictions to our positions. (T=high testosterone, t=low testosterone, E=high estrogen, e=low estrogen)

High female breast cancer is Classic Matrifocal Female TE/Male te.
High male breast cancer is Contemporary Matrifocal Female Te/Male tE
High prostate and testicular cancer Warrior Patrifocal Female tE/Male Te (and populations influenced by the pineal testosterone effect (see Introduction to the Theory of Waves).

We would not expect to see high levels of any of these cancers in Conventional Patrifocal Female te/Male TE or those Asian societies where sexual hormone levels are shifted downward to lower levels. (See Tentative Conclusion to the Estrogen Discussion)

There should be accompanying effects in related areas. Those with higher percentages of left-handedness, anomalous dominance and larger corpus callosums will likely exhibit higher percentages of breast cancer. There will likely be a close association with autism, Asperger’s, OCD, female borderline personality disorder and male narcissistic personality disorder.

We’d expect societies exhibiting high percentages of left-handedness to fit into Classic or Contemporary Matrifocal. These might be Nigerian Yoruba, Kwakiutl and others. We’ll look for evidence of elevated breast cancer in those societies.

I’ve hypothesized the influence of the change in light on migrating equatorial populations creating autism. This same effect will likely propel higher incidences of breast, prostate and testicular cancer as individuals in those populations are pushed to both hormonal extremes. Pretty much all the diseases and conditions we’re exploring should show elevated levels among this population. I’m also starting to wonder if these same effects might be influencing nonmigrant northern populations, having even possibly encouraged the Scandinavian paradigm with only the matrifocal prototypes preserved for their advantages in preserving vitamin A and D.

In the earlier piece, Latino Repercussions, I noted seven variables that skew the patterns that we seek clear evidence of. Variables that can influence what we are exploring include not only migration patterns and latitude issues (regarding light), but seasonal effects that include the possible influence of autumn allergies on a mother’s uterine hormonal levels, father effects revolving around how a father’s environment may influence his hormone levels, social structure changes in transitional times, social structure changes over the last few hundred years, cross-ethnicity pairings, multigenerational echo effects and the standard basket of environmental influences that influence hormone levels. Conducting this research is a little like playing basketball in a hailstorm on a slippery hillside.

This will take patience.

Information coming out today that I haven’t seen before include articles mentioning higher rates of autism in other countries among immigrants. The Huffington Post noted, “Higher than normal autism rates among children of immigrants have also been reported in Ireland, the UK and several cities in North America, especially Montreal.”

One article notes a Swedish study concluding autism is higher among Somali immigrants in Sweden.

I see no articles that mention my posted pieces on the subject, or the work of Norman Geschwind that inspired my hypothesis.

In previous pieces, I’ve noted these effects on Jewish and American Black populations, with a skewing of populations toward the extremes of maturational delay and acceleration evidenced by a number of diseases and disorders characterized by these hormonal extremes. I would predict that both these populations would evidence higher percentages of autism and left-handedness, perhaps higher in places like Milwaukee and Minnesota than Houston and Miami. In just the way the Somalis in Minneapolis and St. Paul are exhibiting higher rates of autism, I would suggest that this Somali population would exhibit higher rates of left-handedness.

Another population influenced by these processes are the Latino immigrants from South and Central America. Studies could be conducted tracing the effects of sunlight on the pineal by noting the country of origins of Latino individuals, their proximity to the equator and how far north those individuals have traveled.

There are several issues.

First, how often do these people return to their country of origin? The more frequent their returns and the longer their stays, the less influenced they will be by the testosterone pineal effect.

Second, conceiving and bearing their children in Seattle vs. San Diego will likely influence the mother’s testosterone levels in different ways. I would predict that Seattle Latinos have higher incidence of left-handedness, autism and other symptoms related to these issues, such as allergies.

Third, there may be father effects. Recent age-of-father studies suggest older males are more likely to sire autistic children. This may be related to a father’s testosterone levels dropping with age. If the father’s testosterone levels at the time of sperm creation influence the testosterone levels and maturation rates of his children, then where the children are conceived (how far north or south) may influence the children’s maturational disposition.

Fourth, not all indigenous South and Central American populations share the same social structure tendencies. Egalitarian communities such as Mayan peoples with matrifocal tendencies exhibit male maturational delay and female maturational acceleration unlike some South American tribes with the opposite disposition. Individuals from matrifocal communities are more vulnerable to testosterone pineal effects than their patrifocal counterparts.

Fifth, if an indigenous American or Latino woman or man mates with a Black, Asian or White, the progeny may reveal features or characteristics of the last common ancestor, a not uncommon effect. This, in combination with testosterone pineal influences, may in combination further thrust children toward male maturational delay, female maturational acceleration and autism.

Sixth, it is possible that there will be multigenerational echo effects. Second-generation Latinos marrying and then conceiving children at the same time of the year as they themselves were conceived may further boost the influence of seasonal testosterone-pineal effects. Whereas the first generation may not have exhibited effects of extreme maturational delay or acceleration, a second or later generation may show those influences, particularly if other environmental testosterone-influencing variables are in play, for example, if the mother smokes.

Seventh, there are many environmental effects influencing testosterone levels in males and females. A Latino mom eating an American high-fat diet, unfamiliar to her before her migration, can dramatically increase testosterone and estrogen levels, influencing her children’s uterine environment.

In the way that we observe Blacks and Jews impacted by changes in geography, we are likely to see the same variables influencing Latino populations. The fact that there is often frequent travel back to the country of origin will mitigate the testosterone-pineal effect. Other influences noted above may exaggerate them. Just as there have been dramatic increases in allergies for Blacks and Jews, watch for such symptoms appearing in Latinos. Other maladies influenced by testosterone levels are also in play, such as prostate cancer. Autism is not the only condition influenced by testosterone levels.

These are the effects that we can observe by tracing the paths of immigrants in the Americas. What of South-to-North immigrant routines in other parts of the world? We’d hypothesize immigrants from India to the U. K. To manifest these effects, there are populations of southern peoples in Scandinavia. What have those communities been experiencing?

There are three primary genetic pools in Africa. One genetic source is believed to have resulted in literally all other humans that have distributed themselves about the world since the diaspora of 50,000–80,000 years ago. The other two are far smaller, located in central and east/central Africa. All three are relatively ancient compared to the many other ethnicities across the planet.

Darwin observed, while breeding pigeons, that when two widely divergent threads or strains mate or blend, having had no genetic contact for a prolonged period of time, the progeny often reveals traits of the last common ancestor. For example, Chinese pigeons were bred in isolation from European pigeons for more than 2,000 years. When cross-bred, they revealed features of the Roc pigeon, ancestor to both derivations.

Breeders would sometimes observe a surge of archaic features that would offer robust health to strains long separated from their origins. Sometimes individuals would emerge that seemed an echo from the past, less useful for their purposes.

American Blacks in large measure are a mix of African Blacks and a variety of other European and indigenous American ethnicities. This mixture has resulted in an American population infused with the neurological and physiological repercussions of the emergence of features of ancient archetypes in the present day. At an extreme, many American Blacks have been burdened by learning disabilities as they seek to navigate written languages, while at the same time they are gifted by a facility with speech and dance.

There are negatives and plusses in this mixed genetic landscape. There may be those carrying very old prespeech genetics, carrying facility communicating in gesture and song, with neurologies demanding constant rhythm and touch. They are not born into an environment mirroring those demands. These may be some of the children that become autistic.

Profoundly complicating the implications of crossed genetics is the impact of seasons on genetics cued to equatorial light patterns. Peoples living near the equator are used to 30% testosterone fluctuations responding to diurnal (daily) light cycles. Taken from their geographic origins to a land with seasons, the pineal gland interprets winter as night, summer as day, resulting in testosterone thresholds that last months instead of hours. There are a number of implications. One area of impact is the mother’s uterine testosterone, changing according to the season, modifying the maturation rates of her children according to their season of birth. A mother’s testosterone level regulates progeny testosterone levels and maturation rates. The result is children skewing toward the maturational extremes, with higher and lower testosterone thresholds than the standard societal distribution. The result is both maturational-delayed males and maturational-accelerated females (susceptible to autism, learning disabilities and specific medical maladies) and maturational-accelerated males and maturational-delayed females (susceptible to a different variety of medical maladies and different learning disabilities).

Marian Annett hypothesized two different types of dyslexia based on two different kinds of neurologies. One set had difficulty with phonology, the other side was challenged by being able to visually represent language. I would predict that the American Black population would display both these forms of dyslexia at higher rates than other populations based upon the varying thresholds of mothers’ uterine testosterone levels. I would also predict strong opposite season-of-birth correlations.

Mixing formerly separated genetic populations and exposing equatorial populations to changing seasons are two ways to both compel challenges and offer gifts. Pushed to hormonal extremes with unconventional metabolic and maturation rates, individuals both suffer and transcend. The astonishing number of gifted black athletes and orators has much to do with impacts noted above. Barack Obama is just one example of the gifted, lanky, left-handed, brilliant communicator, the classic maturational-delayed male. Perhaps with increased funding in education, many more will be able to take advantage of the unique biological circumstances that have resulted in the Black American.

A similar effect is seen in Asia. Society has strongly encouraged that the left hand not be used. The rates of left-handedness in many parts of Asia are 2% and lower. It’s difficult to determine the true handedness percentages.

The same effect comes into play with autism. Though it seems there have been dramatic rises in autism over the last twenty years, many believe we just have more refined evaluation protocols with more attention being placed upon those individuals exhibiting unconventional behaviors.

The thesis presented in this work makes several predictions regarding handedness and autism, two issues that I believe go hand in hand.

It has been noted that there have been increases in autism in Silicone Valley. I would also look for higher percentages of left-handedness among that population. This population of highly skilled, abstract thinkers engaged in innovation suggests the presence of left-spectrum, low-testosterone male, high-testosterone female prototypes of matrifocal society. This would be an enclave of the future.

Among the Somali of Minnesota, where autism is increasing, I’d also estimate increased percentages of left-handers. Where light influences a mother’s testosterone levels though pineal gland misinterpretation of the seasons (the pineal gland still thinking light is following equatorial, daily 30% fluctuations, maintaining ongoing high or low thresholds for several months instead of several hours), more left-handed children will emerge. Also, more strongly right-handed children will be produced as the center of the balanced polymorphism (the seamless gradations from strong left-handers to strong right-handers) disappears. This will result in increased prostate cancer (high-testosterone males) in this population after the children become adults. Many additional maladies characterized by hormonal markers will also be higher in this population.

I have hypothesized that in Scandinavia, the population exhibits neotenous characteristics in both sexes as a result of prolonging ontogeny to allow adults to derive vitamins from dairy in combination with lightening the skin to absorb vitamin D. When both sexes exhibit neoteny, we are hypothesizing that the males have relatively high estrogen resulting in a determined male-aesthetic focus, where they choose females with features of the very young. We see in Scandinavia, unlike in neotenous, patrifocal Asia, a powerful matrifocal tendency exhibited by a society focused on partnership societal values. I predict higher percentages of left-handers in Scandinavia.

In matrifocal West Africa, one would expect to discover higher percentages of left-handers, and this is the case. One would also predict this to be the case in Polynesia based upon egalitarian social structures. There are indigenous American populations with egalitarian societies. Is there increased left-handedness in those populations or has there been too much sharing of genetics between contiguous matrilineal and patrilineal societies?

Consider that the direction that Scandinavia has gone is a trajectory being followed by other Western industrialized societies. Let me suggest that this is happening on several levels. The 1990s Swedish intervention to temporarily nationalize banks in exchange for equity is the action that the UK engaged in early this past October, followed by the other EU nations, followed by the U.S. This reversed a U. S. direction taken two weeks before. Scandinavian nations exhibit an intuition for the healing power of the commons. These intuitions emerge from the biological imperatives of neotenous neurologies. The values of egalitarian, partnership society have their roots in high-testosterone women mating with low-testosterone, high-estrogen men.

Watch for increases in left-handedness in American, white, urban populations mirroring the pathway taken by the Scandinavians. Observe high-testosterone, low-estrogen women pairing off with low-testosterone, high-estrogen men. These would be slimmer peoples, like the Scandinavians, but not necessarily blond and blue eyed. These changes take more than a single generation.

Observe Jewish and Black Americans experiencing the same effects as the Somalis in Minnesota but not so extreme, revealing increased numbers of left-handedness as these two formerly nearly equatorial populations continue to experience hormonal polarization to the extremes of society’s balanced polymorphism. Again watch for the emergence of the Scandinavian hormonal prototype with slim couples, commanding women, cooperative men. Classic matrifocal pairings will also be in evidence, high-testosterone, high-estrogen women marrying low-testosterone, low-estrogen men. These women will often be lefties, but will be large, not tall.

Studies exploring these issues have not been consistent. With left-handedness only recently being relieved of sinister implications and autism evaluation procedures still not universal across the world, we’ve a ways to go before we’re comparing apples to apples. Still, these predictions are based on evolutionary biological principles manifesting in society today.

Patri Female low T, low e Male high T, high e Asian
Patri Female low T, low e Male high T, low e
Hybrid Female low T, low e Male low T, high e Scandinavian?
Hybrid Female low T, low e Male low T, low e Scandinavian?

Patri Female low T, high e Male high T, high e
Patri Female low T, high e Male high T, low e
Hybrid Female low T, high e Male low T, high e Scandinavian?
Hybrid Female low T, high e Male low T, low e Scandinavian?

Hybrid Female high T, low e Male high T, high e
Hybrid Female high T, low e Male high T, low e
Matri Female high T, low e Male low T, high e
Matri Female high T, low e Male low T, low e

Hybrid Female high T, high e Male high T, high e
Hybrid Female high T, high e Male high T, low e
Matri Female high T, high e Male low T, high e
Matri Female high T, high e Male low T, low e African/ Polynesian

Let’s amend that chart to reveal what we’ve concluded might be useful in our ruminations of the last few days. Let’s delete, to see what happens, all pairings that are not complementary in that a female/male matching can’t have both high T, high E, low t, or low e. That would set up the following four tentative testosterone and estrogen matrix of relationships, with the addition of the classic patrifocal hormonal constellation, thresholds shifted down, to create the Asian archetype.

Patri Female low t, low e Male high T, high E Asian (shift down)
Patri Female low t, low e Male high T, high E Classic Patrifocal
Patri Female low t, high E Male high T, low e Warrior Patrifocal
Matri Female high T, low e Male low t, high E Scandinavian
Matri Female high T, high E Male low t, low e Classic Matrifocal

I don’t know if this is any more realistic than the 16-node breakdown. It seems reasonable to tentatively hypothesize that estrogen/testosterone across-sex pairings have to be opposites. If the mother’s estrogen and testosterone levels are setting her progeny’s levels, with girls opposite from boys, this would suggest the four-node solution.

The Female tE, male Te pairing seems to patrifocal society what the Scandinavian societies are to matrifocal society, an intensification of the paradigm. This seems to be the classic dominator warrior with no aesthetic sense, no caregiving tendencies and not choosey in the features that he looks for in a mate. The female seems docile, cooperative, caring and caregiving, with an aesthetic orientation. Perhaps over the course of hominid evolution all four of these polarities engage.

What are some of the implications of this paradigm?

Jared Diamond and Marvin Harris have explored hypothetical environmental influences on human social evolution. Juxtaposing those variables with the four-pole matrix proposed here may suggest specific evolutionary trajectories. Ethnic physical features may be predictable, particularly when seen against this hormonal hypothesis. Geoffrey Miller’s work focuses on the power of sexual selection or aesthetic compulsion to create features in physiology and society. Aesthetic choice in combination with hormonal constellation proclivities may go a long way toward informing an understanding of societal evolution since the African Diaspora.

What seems most powerful in the implications of this hypothesis is an enhanced understanding of diseases, disorders and conditions characterized by hormonal markers or tendencies. Studies suggest Asian women get breast cancer far less often than Westerners because they have unusually low estrogen levels, consonant with our hypothesis of the Asian shift down in hormonal thresholds to accommodate a neotenized, patrifocal society. If elevated and diminished hormone levels are markers for specific kinds of social structures, then we would expect to see specific diseases correlate with specific societies. For example, we might expect to see Scandinavian males get breast cancer more often than would be expected.

For another example, I hypothesized that equatorial peoples moving to northern climates will exhibit season-of-birth variations in testosterone levels, resulting in higher rates of autism. Recent news stories supported that prediction by calling attention to Somalis in Minnesota exhibiting exaggerated rates of autism. That would be low-testosterone males, high-testosterone females. I would predict you’d also get a higher percentage of prostate cancer when the exaggerated higher testosterone males reach adulthood, higher rates caused by those same light-influencing, pineal gland-impacting testosterone levels in the uterine environment. (See Minnesota Somali Autism: Geography and Light for an explanation of how radical changes in light compel the extremes of both male and female maturational delay and acceleration, high and low testosterone for both sexes.)

Taking things one step further, if indeed estrogen levels are set for life while a person is in the womb, then those diseases with high or low estrogen level markers may be directly related to impacts of the environment on the mother’s estrogen levels and environmental impacts later in ontogeny. (Chris Kuzawa explores how changes in the fetal environment influence adult disease.) Environmental impacts in combination with the natural high or low estrogen levels of that particular social structure constellation might lead directly to an etiological understanding for numerous diseases.

There is another implication. This work now hypothesizes that human evolution was driven by the female TE, male te constellation. That is a change from the high-testosterone female, low-testosterone male archetype this work has been presenting until the last few days. We now surmise, with the addition of estrogen, that the evolving male was low estrogen. If low-estrogen males were the prototype male during much of our evolution, and we hypothesize autistic males to feature a genotype from this period, then low e would be a feature of the autistic male. This would suggest that the autistic’s mother has elevated E in addition to T, and the elevated E is contributing to autism in contemporary society.

Ten years ago, I wrestled with an impact of estrogen on this theory as a possibility. Testosterone alone seemed not robust enough to form a theory to explain the origin of many cancers, though studies I read suggested hormone patterns. Exploring both testosterone and estrogen in combination with this modified theory of human biological and social evolution, modified to take into consideration estrogen as integral to the thesis, opens up the model to explaining far more than conditions characterized by maturational delay or acceleration.