# We are not cavemen
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-are-not-cavemen/499325
**Category:** The BBQ Pit
**Created:** [June 10, 2009, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-are-not-cavemen/499325 "2009-06-10T14:24:18Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@even\_sven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/even_sven)
#### Post date: [June 10, 2009, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-are-not-cavemen/499325/1 "2009-06-10T14:24:18Z")
Lately, it seems like every thread- especially anything even vaguely involving gender- ends up clogged up with biological determinism bullshit. For example:
[QUOTE=OP]
Why are cupcakes so darn good? I love pink ones! š
[/QUOTE]
[QUOTE=Biological determinism wonk]
In caveman days, women gathered fruit while men hunted. So as a woman, you are wired to gather sweets, which would show your prowess as a potential mother and attract a strong man with dominant genes. Since red fruits are have high concentrations of folic acid- essential to successful childbirth- you are naturally more attracted to red colored food. Men tend not to bake cupcakes, because they are too busy having sex to do stuff like bake.
[/QUOTE]
Now, I acknowledge that we are animals and we have evolved and men and women have differences, etc. But no, Iām not going to listen to your cockameny theories about how every tiny social phenomena can be traced to some caveman urge based on some cute convinient connection you just made up a second ago because it sounds good.
And Iām especially not going to listen when you tell me that men are nothing more than sex machines and women are nothing more than baby factories. Believe it or not, women enjoy sex and men sometimes enjoy other things. Anyway, we have thousands of years of human history behind, a complicated culture that is actually quite unique from other cultures (which you wouldnāt expect if we were all basically cavemen in suits) and at least something that resembles free will. The reasons why we do the things we do are infinitely more complex than you can lay out in one pseudo-scientific just so story.
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### Author:  [@BubbaDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BubbaDog)
#### Post date: [June 10, 2009, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-are-not-cavemen/499325/2 "2009-06-10T14:40:29Z")
I think your belief comes from the fact that early cavemen where naturally skeptical.
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### Author:  [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)
#### Post date: [June 10, 2009, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-are-not-cavemen/499325/3 "2009-06-10T14:45:06Z")
We are DEVO!
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### Author:  [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)
#### Post date: [June 10, 2009, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-are-not-cavemen/499325/4 "2009-06-10T14:50:44Z")
> [@Ludovic](#):
>
> We are DEVO!
Weāre devolved?
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### Author:  [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)
#### Post date: [June 10, 2009, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-are-not-cavemen/499325/5 "2009-06-10T14:53:30Z")
Cavemen started threads like this to attract mates.
It didnāt _work_, mind youā¦
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### Author:  [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)
#### Post date: [June 10, 2009, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-are-not-cavemen/499325/6 "2009-06-10T14:54:26Z")
This has been getting on my nerves, too. Especially the GQ threads: āWhatās the evolutionary explanation for why I like cars but my girlfriend likes motorcycles?ā Theyāve been popping up a _lot_ lately. And thereās always this small population of posters who insist on taking the questions seriously, coming up with preposterous convoluted explanations without a shred of evidenceā¦ Gah.
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### Author:  [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)
#### Post date: [June 10, 2009, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-are-not-cavemen/499325/7 "2009-06-10T15:01:45Z")
> [@even\_sven](#):
>
> Lately, it seems like every thread- especially anything even vaguely involving gender- ends up clogged up with biological determinism bullshit.
Must be because people on the SDMB have a biological determinism gene. Thatās the only explanation for the series of speculations that gay people have a gay gene, religious people have a religious gene, people who like dogs have a liking-dogs gene, Twitter users have a twit gene, sock-sock shoe-shoe people are genetically distinct from sock-shoe sock-shoe peopleā¦
Biological determinism is a fad and eventually people will look back with embarrassment at the idea that genes could explain everything. There are genetic causes for a lot of things and genetic factors involved with a great many things, but a lot of this stuff is bullshit and ignores the complexity of our environments.
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### Author:  [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)
#### Post date: [June 10, 2009, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-are-not-cavemen/499325/8 "2009-06-10T15:04:27Z")
Well, the fact is we _are_ cavemen in suits, for some values of ācavemenā. Our bodies and brains arenāt detectably different from _Homo sapiens sapiens_ that lived 70,000 years ago.
I agree that doesnāt mean every behavior has some biological source, except in the trivial sense that chimpanzees donāt bake cupcakes. Especially differences between people. But there is such a thing as human nature, and we arenāt born as blank slates. But of course, much of what we think of as human nature is really primate nature and mammal nature and animal nature. Weāre a lot more like other animals than we realize.
But to add another but, making up just-so stories isnāt exactly helpful either. So yeah.
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### Author:  [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)
#### Post date: [June 10, 2009, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-are-not-cavemen/499325/9 "2009-06-10T15:08:24Z")
I, for one, am too busy having sex to bake _or_ to contribute to this thread.
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### Author:  [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)
#### Post date: [June 10, 2009, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-are-not-cavemen/499325/10 "2009-06-10T15:11:41Z")
Thanks, **even sven**. This has irritated me for a really long time.
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### Author:  [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)
#### Post date: [June 10, 2009, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-are-not-cavemen/499325/11 "2009-06-10T15:12:42Z")
**We are not cavemen**.
Yeah, pretty much, we are. Except that weāve probably evolved less testosterone so males can hang around unrelated males and not kill each other, resulting in larger societies, which is adaptive.
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### Author:  [@eleanorigby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eleanorigby)
#### Post date: [June 10, 2009, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-are-not-cavemen/499325/12 "2009-06-10T15:18:13Z")
Cavemen evolved a complicated culture which is unique from other cultures? š
What other cultures are there that didnāt come from cavemen?
**Marley** sock-sock, shoe-shoe people RULE! We must band together and kill all the sock-shoes. That way lies madness and chaos!
Plus, I am so hot that having sex IS baking for me. š
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### Author:  [@Rand\_Rover](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rand_Rover)
#### Post date: [June 10, 2009, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-are-not-cavemen/499325/13 "2009-06-10T15:19:04Z")
Wait, there are sock-shoe sock-shoe people? I had no idea.
Next youāll tell me that some people stay seated to wipe their asses.
(Message to Contrapuntal and Duke et al: just joking about that last part.)
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### Author:  [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)
#### Post date: [June 10, 2009, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-are-not-cavemen/499325/14 "2009-06-10T15:20:42Z")
> [@eleanorigby](#):
>
> **Marley** sock-sock, shoe-shoe people RULE! We must band together and kill all the sock-shoes. That way lies madness and chaos!
I heartily endorse this plot for mass murder/determinist explanation/meme.
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### Author:  [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)
#### Post date: [June 10, 2009, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-are-not-cavemen/499325/15 "2009-06-10T15:22:03Z")
> [@eleanorigby](#):
>
> **Marley** sock-sock, shoe-shoe people RULE! We must band together and kill all the sock-shoes. That way lies madness and chaos!
Thatās it, you are so not coming over to my cave tonight. Thatās the last time I club YOU over the head.
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### Author:  [@Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malleus_Incus_Stapes)
#### Post date: [June 10, 2009, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-are-not-cavemen/499325/16 "2009-06-10T15:32:00Z")
> [@Marley23](#):
>
> Twitter users have a twit gene
I can totally believe that.
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### Author:  [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)
#### Post date: [June 10, 2009, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-are-not-cavemen/499325/17 "2009-06-10T15:57:59Z")
Good rant. I have considered starting a similar thread myself on a few occasions. The ones i notice in particular are some of the retarded āWhat is the evolutionary benefit ofā¦?ā questions in GQ. Hereās a few that appeared over the past few months and that really stood out to me as completely pointless:
[What are the evolutionary advantages to touching oneās own face?](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=515614)
[Whatās the evolutionary benefit of butterflies in my stomach?](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=507273)
[What Evolutionary Benefit Does Morning Sickness Provide?](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=507309)
The idea that there must be some directly tangible and traceable ābenefitā from something is completely bizarre.
Look further back, and there are threads asking about the evolutionary purpose or benefit of: masturbation; thin hair versus thick hair; the placebo effect (!!!); men finding womenās asses attractive; beards and mustaches; hearing octaves āthe sameā (!!!); wide noses in Hispanics; the opposable thumb; personality traits; the smell of mint (WTF!!!); leaf flutter (WTF x 10[sup]gajillion[/sup]); racism; homosexuality; nerdiness (given its ālink to behavioral sterilityā!!!); humor and laughter; and male pattern baldness.
Enough, already!
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### Author:  [@Bill\_Door](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bill_Door)
#### Post date: [June 10, 2009, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-are-not-cavemen/499325/18 "2009-06-10T16:09:13Z")
Itās like there are millions if not billions of people who donāt understand that evolution doesnāt have a purpose. If a mutation occurs and it does not interfere with reproduction there is no driving force to eliminate it. If it happens to be dominant it can take over the whole population. Sometimes I think itās creationists trying to say if thereās no evolutionary point to something evolution must be a crock, but mostly I think itās just ignorance of how DNA works.
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### Author:  [@Shot\_From\_Guns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shot_From_Guns)
#### Post date: [June 10, 2009, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-are-not-cavemen/499325/19 "2009-06-10T16:11:10Z")
Nevermind.
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### Author:  [@eleanorigby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eleanorigby)
#### Post date: [June 10, 2009, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-are-not-cavemen/499325/20 "2009-06-10T16:12:32Z")
> [@tdn](#):
>
> Thatās it, you are so not coming over to my cave tonight. Thatās the last time I club YOU over the head.
Fine by me. āCome see my cave paintingsā indeed! Typical Erectus maleā¦
**Marley** āI say we jump 'em as they lean down to get their other sock. With only one shoe on, theyāre bound to be caught off balance and unaware. Victory is in the air!
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