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Those men within the tribe whose genetic endowment has left
them with awkward hands and poor coordination (you can include me
among them), are left out of the new fashion.  Since women shun them,
the number of their babies are few.  The natural hurlers, on the other
hand, are idolized by women and deferred to by other men.  Theirs are
the new children of the tribe.
Appallingly, the stick-tossers' ability to bring home protein
would not be their only source of appeal to women.  Their ability to kill
their fellow humans with a well-aimed lob would also help them
accumulate mates.  Among the Yanomamo Indians of southern
Venezuela and northern Brazil, killers acquire the greatest number of
wives and father the biggest flocks of children.  One skilled Yanomamo
slayer had 43 children by eleven different women.45  Through genes
and learning, the practice of pitching would make swift progress.
So  far,  this  picture  is  less  fanciful  than  it  seems.    The  trick  of
using a thrown object to kill was almost certainly introduced by a male.
Among chimps, males are the only ones to kill for meat, though the
females are quite anxious to sup on the results.  What's more, there is a
hierarchy of males even among our relatives the baboons, chimpanzees
and langurs.  In the animal world, some become leaders, others mere
followers.  The dominant males not only attract the most females, they
keep other males away from their women.  As a consequence, the vast
majority of a group's offspring are theirs.  Thus any genetic trait that
brings a creature to the top of the heap is certain to snap through the
crowd in a few short generations.46
The notion of the primitive hurler tossing stones on the
primordial plain is not a mere whimsy either.   Neurophysiologist
William H. Calvin actually hypothesizes that the art of throwing was
responsible for the rapid increase in size and complexity of the early
human brain.47  But all this only explains how the knack for tossing
might have raced through one isolated human group.  How could it
have spread to the other clusters of humanity dotting the prehistoric
landscape?
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