Men were evolved to fight according to these eggheads. Think you'll enjoy this one.

Good luck with your fiction projects.

Be safe out there,

Nero the Pict

This art of manliness podcast was not easy to listen too but did offer a new perspective on human-versus-human aggression. These guys are positing that the fist evolved as the fist, not as a byproduct of being able to handle weapons. The two counts I do not trust these guys on are:

1. The surgeon is martial arts black belt, which means he has an inflated idea of the value of the fist as a weapon.

2. That they come from a disarmed society.

Yes, the effect of the fist is better than a slap, or pummel for target impact. However, it never equals the effect of a blade or stone.

I really like the emergency room data, showing that the fist damages more often than it is damaged. Their work on the force impulse is what they think matters, what damage is done to the specific target, which is an Asian-based martial arts prejudice that does not attack the central nervous system like boxer’s punch, so does not address the head-shot KO, which is a matter of shocking the neck and easily done with the open hand which, as their experiment showed, could be thrown with equal force.

Note, while researching The Broken Dance in 2000, I did find a reference to a chimp punching a baboon in the stomach.

My thought has been that the first punch was thrown was because some ape man grabbed for a rock and got dust in his hand instead and said, oh hyena den, and hit with the hand that closed around the rock that was not there. I do like their theory that the human hand may have evolved as an in group aggression tool. However, the primary threat was animals that would not be affected by a human punch.

In defense of their theory, throwing a punch is similar to throwing a stone. It is question that cannot be answered, but I suspect that early hominids were picking up unaltered stones and using them as weapons, before evidence of knapping technology.

Where the study shines is in facial design and gender differences, particularly in the discussion of shoulder and face between males and females. This is the first discussion I have heard that describes the difference between the male and female face.

My opinion is these two offer more new material to the study of this subject than I have seen in my lifetime. Their entire theory may not hold up in the end, but cannot be discarded.

I really like the discussion by the E.R. surgeon of the facial injuries in what was certainly a Dindu park attack. In the end, these fellows are against the “noble savage” bullshit that their colleagues are wedded to—and just as I wrote that this geek says “…we don’t have to fight for our mate anymore.” Well, I guess that may be true for him, that he would let his woman be dragged off by the hominids that swarm in our cities, but I’m using that fist they began the discussion with rather than watch my woman be taken.

Please, some Dindus mob attack these guys when their headed to their lab so that they can do some real research.