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ellenrr

ellenrr's Journal
ellenrr's Journal
October 1, 2018

Gender Egalitarianism Made Us Human: The 'Feminist Turn' In Human Origins

(excerpt) Most influential in the turn around from a male-only perspective on human evolution has been the grandmother hypothesis. This stemmed from observation of women’s work among the Hadza hunter-gatherers of Tanzania, particularly of older women’s regular daily contributions, in contrast to the relatively uncertain production of big-game hunters. This interdisciplinary model drew on detailed Pleistocene archaeological contexts and life history theory to present two major challenges to ‘man the hunter’ orthodoxy. First, it questioned that the earliest investment in hominin offspring by someone other than the mother came from males, proposing intergenerational alliances of related females initially. Secondly, it challenged patrilocal residence or male philopatry as a default for hominins – that is the assumption that males lived with their relatives, previously accepted as homologous with great apes. There has been a significant research effort dedicated subsequently to discovering grandmother effects in terms of child survival and maternal fitness across a wide range of societies.


https://www.3quarksdaily.com/3quarksdaily/2018/10/gender-egalitarianism-made-us-human-the-feminist-turn-in-human-origins.html

September 5, 2018

What about the Kaepernick Nike ad?

When I heard there was big controversy, I thot the controversy was from people who detest Nike for enslaving their workers, etc...
And I asked myself - would I criticize Kaepernick, is he "selling out"?
And I argued back, he needs the $, he's been blackballed, and plus, Big Plus - he is bring his resistance to oppression to a HUGE audience.
So I went back and forth, and I thot that's what the much-talked-about controversy on social media was about.

!! come to find out-- no.
In fact, right-wingers are burning their $200. Nikes to protest Kaepernick.
That's the controversy - that Nike is selling their product using Kaepernick, no controversy about Nike's plantation model tho.....

September 5, 2018

a revelation about being retired.

I have been retired almost 10 years.
I never realized until now how much I had missed:
taking on a task, being nervous about accomplishing it, and mastering the task, and being good at it, and feeling proud, and having other people acknowledge me.

(I guess that happens in retirement, too, but for me, most of the tasks I take on are fairly tedious - like buy a new bra, lol - and usually affect only me. )

I recently volunteered with my local immigrant advocacy agency to teach a class in English as a Second Language (which is one of the tings I did as a worker). Then - I volunteered to coordinate tutors and match tutors to students.
Which turned out to be more complicated and more time-consuming than I had anticipated.
There were times I regretted taking it on, and felt stressed.

But last night I sent my updated report on the tutors to the directors, and even before I received their big thanks -- they are wonderful about acknowledging people --
I felt the glow of a job accomplished and done well.
I felt/feel proud of myself - in a way I haven't since I was a worker. I know my work is important, the students are recent immigrants, and if a student falls through the cracks they might not learn English.

For me, it's new knowledge about myself.
Anyone else experience this?
Something you've done in retirement that you feel proud of?

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Member since: Sun Feb 6, 2011, 09:14 AM
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