IN THIS year鈥檚 Feedback Christmas Competition, we asked readers to think of a human trait or behaviour and then provide their own evolutionary explanation for it.
The quantity and quality of the response was heart-warming, making the judging very difficult. Certain themes, such as short sight, bald hair and snoring, were particularly popular 鈥� we are now totally convinced that snoring evolved as a way of frightening off animals when our ancestors were asleep in their caves.
Here, after much debate, are five of the winning entries. We will be publishing five more in our next issue (4 January 2003).
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Why do men grumble for half an hour before leaving the house about the length of time it takes their wife to get ready, and then decide to either clean some shoes, cut their nails or water the lawn the moment the wife in question gets to the front door?
This behaviour evolved in the earliest period of human cooperative hunting. Competing with big animals such as bears and lions, and hunting dangerous prey like mammoths, took a terrible toll on human life. This taken together with a lower average birth weight for baby boys led to a higher level of infant mortality among males, creating a serious gender imbalance that threatened the species.
It was vital to preserve the lives of adult breeding males, so they took to leaving the cave behind the females, so that anything nasty outside the cave would get the females first. However, males needed to get out there early in the morning 鈥� after all, it鈥檚 the early hunter that catches the mammoth 鈥� so they would nag at the females to get going and then hang about looking busy until the females had safely defused any lurking danger, before setting off themselves.
Bonnie Ralph, London, UK
WHY do fashion models look so unhappy when performing at fashion shows?
For millennia, primitive tribes made human sacrifices to their gods and it became common practice to select a beautiful virgin for this purpose. Everyday attire in those days was very simple, consisting of some grasses or scraps of fur if you were lucky. However, it was considered propitious to dress the sacrifice more suitably to meet the god, so each village would gather together the most elaborate, even outrageous and expensive material to assemble into a complicated adornment for the maiden.
The ceremony was a source of great joy to all concerned 鈥� except the sacrificial virgin who would understandably appear somewhat morose. Evolution has decreed that young women, even today, appear miserable when exotically dressed.
P. Webster, Harpenden, Hertfordshire, UK
WHY do men often spit into a urinal before urinating?
In the pre-plumbing past, men would urinate into weedy areas near trees. There was always a danger that venomous snakes might be lurking in these areas and could attack the urinator, possibly in a very sensitive spot. The pre-urination spit evolved to allow the urinator to flush out any snakes while his sensitive areas are still protected by his clothing.
Tim Laplaca, Boca Raton, Florida, US
Why don鈥檛 men ask for directions?
The male trait of never asking for directions is a natural consequence of hunting. Revealing one鈥檚 position by shouting 鈥淓xcuse me, I seem to be lost鈥� would ensure that the hunter was the next victim of the hunting party, as he would have scared away the game. It can therefore be assumed that modern-day men are the survivors of those hunters who never asked for directions.
Eamonn O鈥橰iordan, Lucan, County Dublin, Ireland
WHY do magazines run Christmas competitions?
In the distant past, humans lived in small clans which were led by the alpha male. In order to maintain his position of dominance, the alpha male would set conundrums for the lesser males to solve. This distracted them from plotting to usurp him.
The better the alpha male was at setting puzzles, the more chance he had of holding on to the advantages of his status. Conversely, the more easily a lesser male could solve a puzzle, the greater chance he had of mounting a successful challenge. Those who solved the puzzle were frequently rewarded by the alpha male, to ensure their loyalty.
This activity eventually became ritualised, and was performed with great ceremony at tribal festivals. This defused tensions between individuals and helped to unite the group.
In the modern age, information is power and those who control the dissemination of information 鈥� such as magazine publishers 鈥� are in the position of the alpha male. At festivals such as Christmas, they revert to their ancestral behaviour and set competitions for their readers.
Peter J. Bleackley, Horsham, Sussex, UK
THESE five readers, together with the five whose entries are published in our next issue 鈥� Dan Meredith, Penny Hyslop, Rhodri Jones, Damian Wise and Mark Selby 鈥� will each receive a prize. Thanks to the generosity of the makers, this will consist of a bottle of Famous Grouse whisky and, thanks to Time Warner Books, a copy of Steve Jones鈥檚 Y, The Descent of Man.
It only remains for us to congratulate and thank all of you who entered the competition, and to wish all our readers a very happy holiday season.