(September 3, 2012 at 6:37 pm)jonb Wrote: I find this a very interesting area, there is a thing I haver noticed, which I have not found reference to in any of the literature.
In all the troupes of primates where invention has been observed that I know about, it has invariably been low status individuals within the group that have been the most inventive.
Chimpanzees making noise with found paint tins, in Jane Goodalls work were all low status males.
The Japanese monkeys on the beach sifting grain from sand, inventing and learning was all done by females low in the hierarchy.
I just might just be a coincidence, but it is also odd how many great inventions did not come from those in the know, but from low status people that life was seeming to pass by.
That doesn't surprise me. How many knuckle-dragging mouth-breather neanderthals in our society are considered to be desirable or superior just because they have big muscles/tits?
