“The most common form of social organization for group-living monkeys is the multigenerational matrilineal group (Silk, 1987). In this type of system, males, and females have very different life histories. Females stay in the natal group and their mothers and female kin for life, while males leave at adolescence and transfer to neighboring groups for breeding.” (Lynn Fairbanks, “Influences on Aggression in Group-Living Monkeys,” in Endocrinology of Social Relationships, eds. Ellison and Gray, pp. 160-161.)

“In spite of abundant evidence documenting intergroup conflict over the past 10,000 to 15,000 years, there is no evidence of warfare in the Pleistocene. Such absence of evidence is not evidence of absence, but it helps to explain why many of those who actually study hunter-gatherers are skeptical about projecting the bellicose behavior of post-Neolithic peoples back onto roaming kin-based bands of hunter-gatherers, and why anthropologists refer to the Pleistocene as the ‘period of Paleolithic warlessness.’” (Hrdy, Mothers and Others, pp. 19-20.)

For the last few years, I’ve reveled in the indulgence of reading several books at the same time, and often they were books seemingly unrelated. Sometimes synergies result. Exploring details regarding the endocrinology of relationship in primates in one book and the power of social structures that encourage alloparenting, resulting in cooperative evolution, in another book leaves me feeling like I’m reading about the same process from two different perspectives.

Central to understanding Hrdy’s work focusing on humans evolving in response to females raising children cooperatively, and the evidence that supports these conjectures, is the understanding that males, not females, are often moving to where they can procreate. Females are relatively stationary, with sisters and mothers working cooperatively to raise the children. This is in stark contrast to post-Neolithic developments that encouraged males to form alliances with other males that would result in land and resources staying within the control of a male and his male progeny. Females moved away from mothers and sisters to the location of their husband.

I’ve been exploring the endocrinological implications of matrifocal evolution for 12 years. When I started these explorations, Marija Gimbutas’ work was often derided. Gimbutas hypothesized that humans evolved in matrilineal societies. It seems Hrdy and her colleagues are finding support from colleagues as they make connections between matrilineality and our aboriginal forebears.

From my perspective, central to the realization that humans evolved in a matrifocal context is the understanding that natural selection was not the primary selective process that was in play. Though it is fairly easy to intuit that hormones adjust as social structure adjusts, it is when it can be understood that it is larger patterns of maturation rates and timing that are guiding both hormone levels and social structures, with hormone levels and social structures influencing maturation rates and timing, that we achieve insight into how evolution actually unfolds.

Reading Hrdy, I’m feeling stirred that humans evolving in matrifocal societies is a concept now receiving respect. If this shift in our origin story continues to gain followers, there will be impacts on other disciplines and popular culture.

“In addition to extramarital sex, premarital promiscuity and trial marriage may also alter the paternity probability.  Indeed, at least one cross-cultural study suggests that in matrilineal-matrilocal societies sanctions against premarital sex, when they exist, are quite mild, whereas such sanctions are severe in patrilineal-patrilocal societies.  (Goethals 1971).  Although premarital sex is especially tolerated in matrilineal societies (e.g., Malinowski 1929), unwed mothers and illegitimacy leading to lower probabilities of paternity are not tolerated…In most matrilineal societies divorce is reported to be quite frequent, and can be initiated by either party without social stigma.”  (Kurland, J. A., “Paternity, Mother’s Brother, and Human Sociality,” in Evolutionary Biology and Human Social Behavior:  An Anthropological Perspective, N. Chagnon and W. Irons (eds.) (North Scituate:  Duxbury Press, 1979), pp. 160-1.)

A fair amount gets written on changes in the nuclear family, increased divorce, marrying later, few kids, abortion, contraception, women becoming more fully employed outside the home, and now women often retaining jobs because they are often paid less, with their male colleagues getting let go.  Not so much gets written about how this influences general social frames of reference.  I hypothesize we are experiencing a dramatic shift from a patrifocal to a matrifocal foundation.  Intuitions…

Running some more riffs off of yesterday’s conjectures regarding the particular hypothetical dynamics that I’ve been exploring in human evolution, are there species that tend to cluster (1) sexual selection with females picking males for particular qualities (dance, song, plumage, etc.) and (2) females assigning relatively large amounts of attention to the young?  If so, males can be chosen for their neotenous features, features females would be attracted to in their young, which might result in relatively larger brains, more cooperative behavior, more tendencies to play, more creativity.

This could veer off in two directions.  If the female is picking males for those features that demand higher testosterone levels (bright red plumage), the male will not likely be displaying neotenous tendencies and would not likely be helping in the raising of the kids (though this would depend on seasonal variations in hormone levels).  Yet, if the female is picking males that are challenged to behave with some creativity, or at least species-related novel behavior, to get the females’ attention, the male may end up evolving in ways that suggest how the human species has evolved.

I’m thinking that those predators that hunt in cooperative packs might as a trend display…

A professor recently wrote me that she introduced the ideas described in my blog to her class on Neanderthals and Human Evolutionary Theory.  Her email asked or suggested several questions or expressed her class’s confusion in the following areas:

Are you proposing that testosterone levels are driving evolution of mammals in general or primates specifically?

The evidence that testosterone is driving evolution mostly comes from anomalies emerging in neuropsychology around progeny maturation changes that result from environmental influences upon a pregnant mother and other studies in the neuropsychological literature.

An interesting primate study was as follows…

“In a 5-year longitudinal study, we examined the effect of disrupting the neonatal activity of the pituitary–testicular axis on the sexual development of male rhesus monkeys.  Animals in a social group under natural lighting conditions were treated with a GnRH antagonist (antide), antide and androgen, or both vehicles, from birth until 4 months of age.  In antide-treated neonates, serum LH and testosterone were near or below the limits of detection throughout the neonatal period.  Antide + androgen-treated neonates had subnormal serum LH, but above normal testosterone concentrations during the treatment period.  From 6 to 36 months of age, serum LH and testosterone were

…

That I might have featured Asperger’s when I was young never crossed my mind until this year.  I’d been studying autism for 12 years.  Working for 12 years with the thesis that testosterone informed the rate of maturation, it never struck me that estrogen might manage the timing until last winter when I discovered I’d been causally considering it for a couple of weeks.  My creative process is an artistic process that often features a conscious mind just along for the ride.  There are similarities between those of us living lives deeply informed by the creative process and those that this society calls autistic.

Understanding autism is at the heart of this orchestral theory of evolution.  If this theory does explain how autism emerges and offers interventions that can improve the lives of those that feel inhibited by the condition, then there is the chance that several dozen conditions and diseases may be addressed by using the principles outlined in this work.  My premise is that autism is a condition that features male maturational delay and, in females, acceleration.  Social structure, neurological anomalies and endocrinological differences are all integral to autism and Asperger’s etiology.   By adjusting our theory of evolution…

A foundation of this work is the power of sexual selection and social structure to inform biological and social evolution.  Integrating sexual selection and social structure with heterochronic theory, neuropsychology and endocrinology makes it possible for these components to comprise a synthesis I’m calling “The Orchestral Theory of Evolution.”  One way to explain how these seemingly different disciplines integrate is to explore them in enough detail, one at a time, so that depicting how different languages are describing the same process makes sense intuitively.

In the case of sexual selection, I have the work of Geoffrey Miller (2000) to detail what I am thinking.  Miller doesn’t believe neoteny influences human evolution in an important way.  Miller is an evolutionary psychologist.  He believes that the simpler explanation is likely more useful.  Nevertheless, Miller adroitly describes human evolution impacted by sexual selection.  My variation of Miller’s thesis is as follows:

1) Natural selection
2) Sexual selection (selecting for pattern when seeking a mate)
3) Human sexual selection (selection for novel pattern when seeking a mate)
4) Art (selecting for novel pattern outside of mate selection)
5) Awareness of the selection, or creative, process

I believe that a familiarity…

“Before Agassiz, recapitulation had been defined as a correspondence between two series: embryonic stages and adults of living species.  Agassiz introduced a third series: the geologic record of fossils.  An embryo repeats both a graded series of living, lower forms and the history of its type as recorded by fossils.  There is a “threefold parallelism” of embryonic growth, structural gradation, and geologic succession.  ‘It may therefore be considered as a general fact, very likely to be more fully illustrated as investigations cover a wider ground, that the phases of development of all living animals correspond to the order to succession of their extinct representatives in past geological times.  As far as this goes, the oldest representatives of every class may then be considered as embryonic types of their respective orders of familiar among the living.’”  (1857, 1962 ed., p. 114)  (Stephen J. Gould, Ontogeny and Phylogeny (Cambridge:  Belknap Press, 1977), pp. 65-66.)

Stephen J. Gould’s Ontogeny and Phylogeny lies at the heart of many of the interconnecting concepts of this thesis.  Ontogeny and Phylogeny made sense of many of the disciplines I’d been studying for many years, showing how evolutionary theory informs many levels of experience.  Central to Gould’s thesis…

Explorations of societies displaying matriarchal, or matrifocal, tendencies often struggle with a definition that will adjust to very different examples of the paradigm.  Often, a woman’s exercise of authority within a culture can be profound but not obvious, as if there were an agreement that men look like they are in control.  There are different areas where authority manifests such as home, work, market, social situations.  Female authority may vary depending on the context.  Shared authority can look very different in different societies.

What I am calling “The Orchestral Theory of Evolution” is a feminine theory of evolution insofar as both sexes share the ability to inform change and both foundation hormones have profound impact.  “Feminine” suggests sharing and cooperation.  In the context of evolutionary theory, a feminine paradigm is a cooperative paradigm with both a male and female command of process.

Nevertheless, from our Western perspective, provide a woman any control in a hierarchical context where men have traditionally called the shots, and the female anomaly often receives negative attention.  Evolutionary theory traditionally focuses on the male.  Some exceptions with a focus on the female have emerged over the last 40 years, mostly from female theorists, but so long…

Several themes run through this blog.  Several related melodies play off each other as I explore how they are connected and the way that the melodies seem to transform when approached from different directions.  Perhaps this work’s most influential theme is the power of play to inform understanding.  I am not an academic.  I have no affiliations with an established institution or connections with groups that compel me to defend specific beliefs or conjectures.  I feel like a grown-up surrounded by toys, ideas that represent patterns in our experience, and I’m reveling in the process of letting myself be led to what feels like unique ways for the ideas or patterns to interact.

Like a child, I presuppose that what I am exploring, I can understand.  Engaging, I intuit and experience connection, and I estimate that my participation will be rewarded with my having learned something I didn’t know before.  Many themes carry through this work, but perhaps the core idea is that everything is connected and that those connections can be understood, or at least intuited, by a nonacademic.

I maintain a deep reverence for what might be called “fun.”  When I feel attracted to something, I take that…

“Again, masculine characters generally lie dormant in male animals until they arrive at the proper age for procreation.  The curious case formerly given of a Hen which assumed the masculine characters, not of her own breed but of a remote progenitor, illustrates the close connection between latent sexual characters and ordinary reversion.”  (The Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication, Charles Darwin, 1868, V2, p. 394)

Freud was inspired by his contemporary evolutionary biological theorists to take the emerging paradigm equating the fossil record displaying species transformation with embryology and cultural variation.  Biology, ontogeny and society were thought to be allied.  Western prejudices assumed aboriginals were less “evolved.”  They were looking at evolution as a process displaying “progress.”  Nevertheless, this threefold parallelism was embraced by many a hundred years ago.  Freud added a fourth layer by theorizing that individual human development could follow pathways, influenced by incidents over the course of a lifetime, that would align themselves with paths at the biological, social and ontological scales.  Central to Freud’s thesis was the power of adult reversion to early developmental stages to then have early childhood (and earlier human-society) features manifest in the lives of adults, informing their behavior and experience.…

“In a 5-year longitudinal study, we examined the effect of disrupting the neonatal activity of the pituitary–testicular axis on the sexual development of male rhesus monkeys.  Animals in a social group under natural lighting conditions were treated with a GnRH antagonist (antide), antide and androgen, or both vehicles, from birth until 4 months of age.  In antide-treated neonates, serum LH and testosterone were near or below the limits of detection throughout the neonatal period.  Antide + androgen-treated neonates had subnormal serum LH, but above normal testosterone concentrations during the treatment period.  From 6 to 36 months of age, serum LH and testosterone were near or below the limits of detection.  Ten of 12 control animals reached puberty during the breeding season of their 4th year, compared with five of 10 antide- and three of eight antide + androgen-treated animals.  Although matriline rank was balanced across treatment groups at birth, a disruption within the social group during year 2 resulted in a marginally lower social ranking of the two treated groups compared with the controls.  More high (78%) than low (22%) ranking animals reached puberty during year 4.  During the breeding season of that year, serum LH, testosterone and testicular volume…

It seems too elegant to be true, but I’ve become enamored of the possibility.

Heterochronic theory, the study of the effects of rate and timing on maturation and development, takes the work of several late nineteenth century and early twentieth century theorists and packages that work into a sort of seamless whole. Stephen J. Gould in his Ontogeny and Phylogeny went far, codifying the various theorists’ predilections so that they made an overriding sense. I say “sort of” seamless whole because the actual endocrinological underpinnings of the dynamics were never explored.

Neoteny is the best known of the six heterochronic processes. Neoteny is the process whereby features of infants, embryos or the very young are, over the course of generations, prolonged to emerge in the adults of descendants. Acceleration is the opposite, whereby features of adult ancestors appear in the infants of descendants. For example, let’s say great great grandfather had a baritone voice, emerging at puberty. His son’s deeper voice may emerge just before puberty and his great grandson might have an unusually hoarse voice as a child. That would be an acceleration of a feature. These things normally take hundreds and thousands of generations, though they can be…

Hegel and Lyell and others made philosophical and physical science contributions that led to the idea that such a thing as progress could exist.  With Darwin, progress was not a variable; contingency was king.  Species evolved according to the dictates of what was required to procreate.  Marx believed society was evolving toward a specific end in a particular way.  Pierre Teilhard de Chardin believed the particular end was profoundly positive.  Others have run with variations on that theme.  At this time we have Social Darwinists, what we now call free market proponents, suggesting that economic survival of the fittest and societal progress are both true.  The wealthy have to be allowed to do what they want to make it possible for society to advance.  This is the entrepreneurial imperative.

In the West, we have been seeking to integrate these two seemingly incompatible beliefs:  evolution has no goal and society is evolving toward something specific that is good.  It would not be the first time that humans believed two opposite things to be true if it seemed there was a benefit in doing so.

What if both things could be true?  What if understanding how both contingency and progress could both…

“We do have data from Japan that are highly suggestive.  Here, for many centuries, fair skins have been under parental control and, other things being equal, parents seek attractive brides for their sons.  As elsewhere, members of the upper classes tend to be the luckiest.  This might be expected to lead to selection as the generations have gone by.  Research which I conducted a few years ago (Hulse 1967) indicated that this has taken place, for upper-class high school students have the fairest skins and those of the lower class the darkest, while middle-class students are intermediate in pigmentation.  Furthermore, data from Greece (Friedl 1962) indicate that girls who are considered good-looking marry earlier than, and need not be supplied with as large a dowry as, their less-attractive sisters.  Throughout southern Europe, the upper classes contain a disproportionate number of blondes and near-blondes.  Sexual preferences, though they may be based on social snobbery rather than aesthetic interest, are capable of shifting allele frequencies in human population.”  (Hulse, F. S. (1978) Group selection and sexual selection in human evolution.  In Evolutionary Models and Studies in Human Diversity (Hague) Meier, R., Otten, C. M., Abdel-Hameed, F. (eds.), Moulton Publisher, Paris, p. 33.)…

There have been studies conducted that note the testosterone levels in males at different levels of a primate hierarchy.  Conclusions correlated hierarchical positions with testosterone levels.  Higher thresholds congregate at higher hierarchical positions, lower thresholds at lower positions.

I don’t know of studies conducted that match up testosterone levels with maturation speed, delayed maturation being associated with lower testosterone levels.  Bouncing around the web, I find that there are sites that suggest it.  For example, males denied testosterone mature more slowly and live several years longer.

What interests me at this moment are studies that would observe changes in estrogen being accompanied by changes in mate-selective intensity.  Perhaps this would be easier to observe in humans.  With certain fish, male tails were artificially elongated, with the females becoming attracted to those longer-tailed fish.  What if the amount of estrogen or estrogen-related hormones were modified to increase or decrease with the female?  Would she show more or less compulsion to exercise choice?  Would she become more discriminating with higher estrogen?

Estrogen seems associated with at least two powerful female features, attention to the young and attraction to nuance.  They seem related in that attention to the young often revolves around attention…

“We do have data from Japan that are highly suggestive.  Here, for many centuries, fair skins have been under parental control and, other things being equal, parents seek attractive brides for their sons.  As elsewhere, members of the upper classes tend to be the luckiest.  This might be expected to lead to selection as the generations have gone by.  Research which I conducted a few years ago (Hulse 1967) indicated that this has taken place, for upper-class high school students have the fairest skins and those of the lower class the darkest, while middle-class students are intermediate in pigmentation.  Furthermore, data from Greece (Friedl 1962) indicate that girls who are considered good-looking marry earlier than, and need not be supplied with as large a dowry as, their less-attractive sisters.  Throughout southern Europe, the upper classes contain a disproportionate number of blondes and near-blondes.  Sexual preferences, though they may be based on social snobbery rather than aesthetic interest, are capable of shifting allele frequencies in human population.”  (Hulse, F.S. (1978) Group selection and sexual selection in human evolution.  In Evolutionary Models and Studies in Human Diversity (Hague) Meier, R., Otten, C. M., Abdel-Hameed, F. (eds.), Moulton Publisher, Paris, p. 33)

There…

Consider the exhibition of partnership society or matrifocal features in Scandinavian societies and evidence of these qualities in the Canadian, New England, Minnesota and Wisconsin populations.  In earlier pieces, we’ve noted the possible relationships between the need for Vitamins A and D in Scandinavian populations and the exhibition of neotenous features in both sexes of the populations, such as blond hair, blue eyes, lanky builds and lactate tolerance.  Observing the egalitarian social and political aspects of Scandinavian nations, I’ve hypothesized that there might be a direct connection between the neotenous features of individuals within a population and the partnership or matrifocal features exhibited by the society as a whole.

I’m seeing similar patterns in other regions of the world.  Of course, individuals from Finland, Norway, Sweden and Denmark have immigrated to Canada, New England, Minnesota and Wisconsin, carrying their biological and social proclivities with them.  Would this explain why North Dakota and Montana are so conservative by comparison?  Do North Dakota and Montana have different ethnic makeups?

I’m seeking evidence that simply living in a northern latitude influences populations to exhibit neotenous features.  One place to look for information is by exploring differences between indigenous American Indian populations.

…

“Thus…

During the several years I created comic panels and strips, I would lie down on my couch, sketchbook in hand, and run comparisons or associations between not obviously related categories or themes, seeking incongruous connections.  If I found the kind of matching-up that I was seeking, humor with some insight would result.  Disappointment and bitterness often accompanied these comic strip and panel productions.  Humor often serves to reveal and share hidden feelings.  Talented humorists tease out the universalities in situations, allowing us to feel disappointed, frustrated and sometimes relieved and appreciative all at once.

I did most of my comic production at the end of a marriage, during the divorce, dating, and then remarriage.  A lot of the comics revolved around relationship, the nature of relationship and the brutal challenges of connecting with another human being.  This comic creating period lasted about five years.

At about the same time I was producing comics, I rediscovered music.  As a teenager and as an adult before my first marriage, I listened to and created music.  That faded as I grew older, disappearing from my life during the twelve years of that relationship.  Music re-entered my life as I turned toward dating a…

Just had a rather odd thought that may or may not be relevant to the principles I’ve been exploring.  I’m wondering if estrogen levels in procreating males and females influence the number of children in families.

There are r and K strategies for guiding progeny to maturity.  In an r strategy, you have as many children as possible to compensate for an inability to control an environment often hostile to progeny achieving maturity.  In the K strategy, parents conclude that by paying close attention to fewer progeny, adulthood for the offspring can be more predictably achieved.

A high-estrogen male would likely be more inclined to pay close attention to his children than a low-estrogen male.  That attention would more likely translate into a K strategy whereby the child is ushered into adulthood with much attention.  Plummeting birth rates in Europe and developed countries might be directly related to changing male hormone levels, elevating estrogen.  Twentieth century high fat diets may be partly responsible for drops in birth rates.

High fat diets granted to emerging middle classes in developing countries may be leading to a diminution in population explosion as males become more solicitous of their children.

Studies with animal populations…

Estimating that there are the four prototypical couples…

Female te/Male TE
Female tE/Male Te
Female Te/Male tE
Female TE/Male te

…we might conclude that dating services would concentrate on matching up people with their complementary opposites.  Still, many people pair off with a partner that is not complementary in the ways that I am describing in this thesis.  For example, an artist couple, both high estrogen, might marry.

Consider that there may be a difference in procreation percentages among couples that are not complementary opposites as predicted by the theory vs. those that are.  For example, place two high-testosterone people together and it may become less likely they will have children.

The same would go for our artist couple.  Two high-estrogen mates, according to this thesis, would have children a smaller percentage of the time than if their estrogen levels were complementary opposites.

Second marriages that don’t have children might be marriages where the dynamic of complementary opposites are less engaged.  People might be more compelled to relax with someone that is similar rather than battle with their opposite.

If this hypothesis holds water, I’m not sure what the repercussions are.  If the coupling instinct compels us…

It seems for now that this Theory of Waves, broken down or reduced to eight prototype human beings, offers some purchase to grip the theory that has been difficult up to now. Time will tell whether this is really the case. I just know that the three disciplines, Anthropology, Evolutionary Biology and Neuropsychology, and their doorway concepts of social structure, heterochrony and balanced polymorphism, haven’t felt particularly friendly to most folks introduced to these concepts.

To review, there are eight prototype human beings.

Female
High testosterone, high estrogen (F TE)
High testosterone, low estrogen (F Te)
Low testosterone, high estrogen (F tE)
Low testosterone, low estrogen (F te)

Male
High testosterone, high estrogen (M TE)
High testosterone, low estrogen (M Te)
Low testosterone, high estrogen (M tE)
Low testosterone, low estrogen (M te)

There are natural complementary pairings. Opposite sexes are drawn to their opposite hormonal complements, not just to the opposite sex.

Female te/Male TE
Female tE/Male Te
Female Te/Male tE
Female TE/Male te

The complements naturally ally themselves into social structures, patrifocal and matrifocal, with two variations within each.

F te/M TE Conventional Patrifocal
F tE/M Te Warrior…

Ten years ago, I was exploring the possible origin of human culture in tribal societies driven by rhythmic dance and music. Tribal societies are on rare occasions characterized by paternal anonymity, or children who are unaware of the identity of their biological father. Observing that human brain size began to diminish about 25,000 years ago, I hypothesized that this reflected an emerging patrifocal emphasis on speech instead of gesture and a movement away from a selection for big-brained males. If this was the case, I suspected that there might be remnants of the old matrifocal paradigm that still exist within contemporary society. In the neurological literature, I sought humans with unusually large brains, difficulty with language, but who were also ambidextrous or left-handed. I came to find that autistic individuals commonly display these features; in addition, I discovered that individuals with autism are often obsessed with pattern replication and have perfect pitch (Brenton, Devries, Barton, Minnich & Sokol, 2008).

It appeared that hidden beneath the just-so story was a theory, which, if brought to light, could help make useful predictions and illuminate unrecognized relationships. From the beginning, the theory drew information from three different disciplines: anthropology, evolutionary biology…

Imagine social structure, matrifocal and patrifocal, as representing left and right or past and future in a distribution of humans inclined toward egalitarian or hierarchical organization, our matrifocal past leading to our patrifocal present.

Consider human males exhibiting neoteny or maturational delay contrasted to females showing acceleration or maturational acceleration as pairing together neotenous, cooperative males with maturational-accelerated, commanding females.  We would hypothesize this to be a matrifocal society.  Now, consider the reverse, with neotenous females mating with accelerated, dominating males in a patrifocal society.  Heterochrony is the evolutionary biological principle that explores the influence of neoteny and acceleration on the evolution of species.

Last, note in neuropsychological studies of handedness and cerebral dominance in humans that there is a seamless arc of handedness tendencies beginning at the left end with strong left-handers bridging over to the right side with strong right-handers.  Most people are toward the center, many being right-handed but displaying some left-handed aspects.

An overlapping of all three of these academic traditions suggests a single process manifesting in three seemingly different areas.  Anthropological social structure exploring matristic vs. patristic frames, evolutionary biological neoteny/acceleration studies following the influence of changing maturation rates on physiologies and neurologies over time…

Some of the least complex toys are the most powerful.  In the 1950s, my parents seemed amused that Slinkys and Hula Hoops had captured my sisters’ and my attention.  These toys were so simple.  Nevertheless, they were compelling.  Some of the simplest metaphors or processes can suggest or reproduce seemingly complex relationships.

Seeking to understand human evolution by focusing on individual adaptability to circumstance offers some unique and useful perspectives.  Exploring human evolution by examining humans in society can in ways simplify the play of transformation.  Raising the scale, shifting to society from individual, can simplify our understanding of the process.

Marian Annett’s explorations of the brain changes that compelled a shift to speech revealed a “balanced polymorphism,” or seamless arch of human features from those humans with little speech facility to others cerebrally lateralized so intensely for speech that they are handicapped in communication.  Those in the middle, she suggested, had a heterozygote advantage by retaining some of the useful pre-speech strengths in combination with speech proclivities.  Speech facility demands that the right hemisphere be pruned of some of its potential growth and subtlety in combination with a brain bridge reduced in size.  Odd that a reduction in hemispheric…

I am a web developer by profession, trained in fine arts.  My specialty in web design is creating websites and website features that enhance communication, eliminate barriers to cooperation, empowering individuals to accomplish social and political-change goals.  I work with more than 1,000 organizations across the United States, teaching leaders of organizations how to use these new tools to break down barriers to change.

I also run a firm that serves over 400 businesses by building, maintaining and marketing their websites.  Trained in the art of online organizing by Moveon, I advanced to the position of volunteer national coordinator.  There I learned firsthand how to combine a focused, goal-based business frame of reference with a deep desire to encourage societal transformation.

My background is fine arts.  As an artist, I specialize in brush and ink.  The way that I have exercised my art also involves the breaking down of barriers.  First, I seek to let go of conscious control of subject and process and allow my unconscious to determine the path and content of my productions.  Second, the content itself, when successful, creates bridges between separated concepts, connections between not-obviously-related ideas.

I am not suggesting this qualifies me to be…