Comments on: Chimpanzees and Neoteny

By: Angeliki

Angeliki — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 23:09:49 +0000

Except Gould I will propose you Ashley Montagu’s “Growing Young” 1981, which is one step further than Gould in the behavioral aspect of Neoteny, and has an extended history of Neoteny! the only one I have found up to now.

By: anti_supernaturalist

anti_supernaturalist — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 19:18:22 +0000

dying and reviving hypotheses

Sure . . . you can turn to Aldous Huxley, After Many a Summer Dies the Swan (1939) for the idea that neoteny was caused by alterations to “glandular secretions.” When the ‘secretions’ hypothesis failed, so did neoteny.

But, this really was a case of baby and bath water — as Gould points out in 1977. Retention of juvenile characteristics happens frequently enough to consider it a fact for several animals. Gould who in 1977 was writing just before the explosion in biotechnology treated it as a then unexplained phenomenon.

anti_supernaturalist

By: Bruce Robbins

Bruce Robbins — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 05:08:35 +0000

Even before Stephen J., Desmond Morris, in “The Naked Ape”, spends quite a bit of time talking about neoteny and its possible place in human evoluation. There was probably someone before him…

By: anti-supernaturalist

anti-supernaturalist — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 21:09:40 +0000

Starting in the late ’70s Steve Gould dealt with neoteny as key to understanding human evolution leading to upright posture, retention of juvenile traits, and long life spans.

Just check under Gould, Steven Jay. He left us too soon.

anti-supernaturalist