Funny Things That Humans Do
September 21st, 2009 by admin
Biologically speaking, humans are a remarkable, and quirky, species. The New Scientist magazine has published a list of the odd things we do everyday that don’t make a lot of sense. With all the scientific advancement, you’d think we know why we do the funny things we do. But why do we create art, or dream, or pick our noses?
Here a list from the magazine of our quirky traits and why they think we do them:
- Blushing: some think it may help diffuse confrontation or foster intimacy by revealing weakness.
- Laughter: a 10-year study confounded our reasons for laughing, saying that more laughter is produced by banal comments than jokes.
- Kissing: not all human societies do it. Theorists say it’s associated with memories of breastfeeding and that ancient humans weaned their children by feeding them from their mouths, reinforcing a link between sharing saliva and pleasure.
- Dreaming: recognized to help us process emotions, but why we see such bizarre visions has not been properly explained.
- Superstition: it makes no evolutionary sense, and it seems beneficial not to dismiss a lion’s rustle in the grass as a gust of wind. Religion taps into this vein.
- Picking your nose: why do a quarter of teenagers pick and ingest ‘nasal detritus’ on average four times a day? Maybe it boosts the immune system. Yeah, right.
- Adolescence: no other species undergoes the dramatic, unpredictable teenage years, which John Hughes portrayed so well in his films. Some say it helps our brain reorganize before adulthood or that it allows experimentation before the responsibility of later years.
- Altruism: giving things away with no certain reward is odd in evolutionary terms. It may help with group bonding or simply give pleasure.
- Art: painting, dance, sculpture and music, none of it shows one’s mating potential. However, it could also be a tool for spreading knowledge or sharing experience.
- Body hair: fine hair on the body and thick hair on the genitals is the opposite of what occurs in primates. Explanations include its role in radiating scent, providing warmth or even protecting from chafing.
Posted in Steve
September 22nd, 2009 at 3:13 pm
Science is essentially quantitative, relying on empirical data to “prove” it’s findings (though Karl Popper wrote that a theory can never be proved, only disproved, an important epistemological point).
I think some of these behaviors (e.g. kissing, art, etc.) lie well outside the realm of quantitative analysis.
Who kisses or looks at a piece of art thinking “I am doing this because of a suckling sensation, yada, yada, yada,” you do it because it is pleasurable. Learned pleasure, perhaps.
But if you’re really thinking, “this is a learned pleasure, these lips meeting in this way, the tongue caressing the other’s tongue,” safe to say your missing the point of the kiss, with that person, at that moment, as two socially and psychologically constructed beings.
As e.e. cummings once wrote, “whoever pays attention to the syntax of things will never wholly kiss you.”
Why worry about VanGogh’s certain mania when we have such beauty: the floodgates were open between subject and object. That was enough.
What I find interesting is how pets seem to learn to kiss their human caretakers, as though they acquire some knowledge of that face to face thing as a mode of expression.
Interesting entry.