Why the Survival of the Early Man is not a Big Deal
Why the Survival of the Early Man is not a Big Deal
I've been coming across contents that are fond of comparing the early man with mankind of this generation. These contents always extol certain virtues they think the early man must have had, virtues like persistence, valour, strength, immunity, etc. They'll talk about all the challenges the early man faced in the prehistoric age and how the early survived them all in order to produce offsprings like me and you.
At the end of it all their main aim is usually to talk about how mankind today does not meet the standards of strength, valour and persistence (etc) that the early man set. They usually end up saying mankind today is just a bunch of weak lazy bastards overly dependent on technology and that our ancestors would be ashamed to see that they braved all those challenges of their days just for us to be born and waste our lives playing video games, masturbating and smoking weed.
You may have seen contents like these too. Really brutal and unforgiving takes, these people have and quite funny too.
Now, there's a lot more consideration and diving into detail that is to be be done when comparing the early man with today's man and I'll cover that in some other post. If one thing is certain it is that people who make those content don't take so many factors into consideration and their arguments don't dive deep enough. For this post, though, I'm going to show how the survival of the early man produce us his offspring is not a big deal at all.
Not a Big Deal at All
This is not to downplay all the challenges the early man went through back when there wasn't good enough technology and knowledge to aid navigating life, but it is simple to state the truth about survival, which is it is pretty easy! How?/Why?
Because it Was Just Sex!
As simple as that. All the early man had to do to survive and keep birthing till today's man was birthed was just have sex. People could be dying in great numbers, but as long as more are getting born regularly then the specie is sure to survive. And reproduction boosts population in geometric progression, so...
One man with 4 women at his disposal can birth 30+ children, even if 20 die the other 10 can produce 50 and the other 20 who died may have produced 100 before they died. Because all they had to do was have sex! And they didn't have to be so old to have sex, reproduction began at a much earlier age for the early man. Teenagers of 13 - 15 were having sex and birthing children like nobody's business.
For all the praises we mount on the early man we always forget that the major thing he had to do for the survival of the specie was have sex. Yes he had to fight diseases, predators, etc but as long as he kept having sex then he could fail woefully but the species would still survive because he planted 100 seeds to live after him before he died through the simple pleasurable act of sex.
And Sex Was Way More Accessible, Rampant and Common Place Back Then
I already mentioned that people were having it at younger ages. This is easily verifiable because even as recently as the 20th century child marriages and sex was very common place. Even up till today child marriages are happening in so many societies like in Islamic societies. Children of 9 years old are getting married (mostly young girls marrying older men). And they're giving birth at ages 13-15 too. So imagine what it must have been for the early man.
Here are more reasons sex was more accessible, rampant and common place:
Rape: Might Was Right:
Might was right and the strong man usually had his way. Nowadays a strong man who wants females would have to woo them, buy gifts, etc. And at the end of the day get only a few girls. In the days of the early man with lesser civilization goodluck stopping the strong from getting as many girls as they want.
When they go to war with their neighbours the winners always end up with more women.
Polygamy:
Polygamy was the order of the day. Whether there was formal marriage or not what I mean here is that one man had many women to birth children with and it was the rarest thing to find a man who only birthed children with one woman.
Photo of pregnant early women
Children Were Easier to Cater For:
These were simple days, all a person need was simple shelter, simple clothing and food. All of which were gotten from the environment, one didn't have to save up money for it. One didn't have to pay for school and the so many technology which we can't do without today.
Since children were this easy to take care of they were birthed without any control whatsoever. Societies even wanted more children to give them strength in numbers and to ensure survival. Perfect didn't wonder about birth control, they even strained their brains thinking of ways to birth more children.
So, with all these, take a minute to imagine the peace of mind with which the early man gave birth to children. No worries about raising them and all. On second thought, I'm sorry, you'd need more than a minute to fully grasp the extent.
How all the Challenges Don't Stand a Chance Against Geometric Progression
For those who may not know, geometric progression is progressing from 2 to 4 to 8 to 16 to 32, rather than progression from 2 to 3 to 4 to 5. Geometric progression is progressing at a fast pace. That's what reproduction does, that's how reproduction progresses.
When a population is progressing at that rate due to how easy and common place sex is what can stand a chance against them? Remember I'm not saying they have to thrive, all they have to do is just survive. The major challenges they faced were predators and diseases. Let's take them one by one:
Predators:
Can predators finish them off? They're not just sitting ducks, they can run, hide in cages, fight these predators, etc. They're also not the only prey in the jungle so predators don't have to starve until they eat a human being, in fact a predator might overlook them because he's so filled up after having a deer or buffalo or antelope, or goat, or.. you get the point.
Predators would succeed in getting them sometimes but can never get all of them as they are also fighting. Furthermore, as predators get them they're increasing in geometric progression so they're sure to survive and leave seeds behind before they die.
Diseases:
How many can diseases kill off? They're also not sitting ducks as they're trying different herbs and treatments. Also some people might develop immunity and lastly if all fails remember leaving a seed and tens of seeds before dying is there to back them up.
Conclusion
At this point you're probably beating yourself up for ever being impressed with the survival of the early man, but you shouldn't, the things discussed here do not easily come to mind when you think about it.
Remember, when you hear "the early man survived" your mind is usually deceived into taking it like the early men all survived and lived long even with all the challenges. Your mind doesn't realize that "the early man survived" simply means he reproduced and has nothing to do with one man surviving for so many years in the face of challenges.
It would have been impressive if and only if a man had to reach age 60 before he can pass his seed, if the early man had to survive that long to keep the specie alive then his survival would need a commemoration but since they could reproduce as early as 14 years in most cases then let's celebrate the early man for something else but definitely not for surviving.
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I think it's just arrogance to downplay the struggles of our ancestors while living in the comforts of what modern civilization can provide. Yes, their priorities were basic and straightforward to achieve but this entailed some skills and responsibilities that pushed them to become efficient with their limited resources or they die trying. You don't have to go hunting for days to provide food, a convenience store is nearby to satiate your hunger. You can have all the sex you want provided you don't get killed by competition within your tribe or outside your tribe. Now you can just pay for sex and not bother with mating rituals. People were prone to diseases back then and they had little choice on the matter in contrast to how much we can have an assortment of antibiotics today.
I knew it! I knew someone was going to misunderstand something about what I'm saying here 😂.
Alright, here's the thing, I'm not comparing our struggles with the struggles of the early man and downplaying the struggles of the early man, I'm only talking about the aspect of keeping the specie going and how it had way more to do with sex than the skills, valour and strength the early man had. Survival/keeping the specie going should not be confused with battling all the challenges they had to battle because reproduction was the true MVP and played a way bigger role than their fight against nature.
Have you considered they were able to have sexy time because escaped predators or killed competition for resources to get sexy time?
Escaping and the capacity to eliminate threats were more important because these were prerequisites to reproduce. You cant reproduce effectively in a resource scarce environment. You eliminate those that compete with your territory for resources or run away to have sex another day.
You're right, but this still doesn't mean sex didn't play the biggest role because imagine sex was not as easily accessible as I've described in the post, imagine reproduction wasn't in geometric progression like I also explained, no matter how good they get at escaping predators and gathering resources they wouldn't have kept the species going! Their chances would have been zero if sex wasn't so easy and reproduction wasn't in geometric progression.
Ok, which do you think became first priority?
Escape predators, eliminate competition, and securing resources to live another day?
Or
Have sex, bear children that will compete with food, get those children eaten by predators or starve to death.
I don't know, seems like the first line had a greater role and your supposed "sex had the biggest role" argument was a secondary consequence for the first.
The thing is, escaping predators, eliminating competition and securing resources were being carried out alongside having sex and reproduction. So no matter how they fail at the former, the latter was always there to keep things going.
Your logic is correct, though, you have to survive to a certain age or for a while first before you can reproduce so staying alive was a priority. But something being a priority doesn't mean what comes after (the secondary consequence) can not play a bigger role than the first.
When we say the early man was able to stay alive till they gave birth to children it might seem like the early man was such an expert at staying alive but he might have been terrible at it, only making the bare minimum score, and it wouldn't matter because sex and reproduction is so easy and in geometric progression.
The requirement of staying alive was fulfilled even if one only barely managed to stay alive. One didn't have to stay alive for so long in order to reproduce. Everyone could have died in their twenties and it wouldn't matter. It's just like a man telling his son that if he makes the minimum grades he would make him CEO at the company then his son makes minimum grades and becomes CEO. Without him making minimum grades would he become CEO? But that doesn't mean making minimum grades plays a bigger role in the equation than his dad.
That's how it was for the early man. Sex and reproduction told the early man that all he has to do is live long enough to birth and it would make sure his specie never goes extinct. Staying alive is commendable, making minimum grades is commendable, I'll never down play them but what came after was just deus ex machina! An insane game changer.
Why would they prioritize sex when their threat to safety is at risk?
Am I reading this right? without first event, second event can't occur yet second event still wins?
Sex and reproduction weren't easy, in order for males to get laid, they had to be selected by females and mating selection requires competent strong males to protect the offspring for survival. Males didn't have it better and weren't just slacking, they had competition and even the reproduction had it's own hurdles beyond shooting the hoop. Have you seen how females pick their mates? they needed to have sex with the fittest.
I think you mixed up some priorities there. You need to prioritize survival first to have sex another day but all I'm hearing from you sex first for the win while prioritizing actual prerequisites to survive and have sex comes second. Do you see the flaw in this? putting reproduction first over mechanism that ensure you even get a chance to reproduce? because that's how it sounds like on the article.
I'm not saying they prioritized sex, but in their daily life even as their safety was at risk sex was still part of it. When you've retreated to the safety of caves a lot of sex happens. The urge for sex is like hunger it comes and requests satisfaction.
It's quite tricky, take this example: a guy shows up at the gym and does all the difficult workouts and at the end of the year he's built perfect muscles. Which of his actions played the bigger role in his muscles? Is it the first action which is showing up at the gym or is it the second one which is doing the actual difficult workouts? Of course the workouts played the bigger role. Without showing up at the gym he wouldn't be able to work out in the first place but that doesn't mean showing up is the real MVP here because that's the easier part in relation to doing actual work out. You see?
That's how secondary can outshine the first. In the case of the early man staying alive was important but nothing compared to the insane effects of easy sex and reproduction.
It doesn't matter how females picked their mates because at the end of the day they picked someone. Even if all the women picked one man, that one man was still able to father 100 children. Also I'll refer you back to the post, to the part where I talked about how easily accessible sex was.
Even what you said about females chosing their mates and rituals are quite inconsequential when you consider the fact that civilization was poorer and rape and men having their way with women due to the superior physical strength of the males was the order of the day. Even with all the civilization and police we have today rape still occurs how much more in a lawless jungle?
I agree with you, survival first, but remember this survival didn't even have to be properly done, didn't even have to be for so long. What comes after this survival which is sex and geometric progression is so insane and deserves most of the glory the same way working hard at the gym would take more glory than showing up at the gym.
Saying "I'm not saying they prioritized sex" then following it up a sentence that says they still did sounds conflicting. Say they prioritized sex but it was not a top priority compared to escape and eliminating predators is a better response.
I think you mistook effect as a priority than the cause that brought about the effect. If you don't survive, you can't have sex. If you can't have sex, you can still survive. I get the point you're trying to drive with sex being the real MVP here and I'm challenging that argument where you just circle around and around that it no longer adds value to your main point being challenged.
This is the part where I disagree strongly. Females don't pick males that are sickly or do not have the physical traits that could give confidence that their genes are good enough to be carried to the next generation. Their survival depends on how good they can be fertilized by a capable mate. We're still talking about primitive mating here right? Instinctual survival of the species? if so, then your argument that females don't care about who they mate contradicts how primate species tend to have an alpha male and several female on the harem.
This whole article says, sex is the real MVP but you just keep ending up agreeing on sex happens after they escape predation or eliminate threat which brings support to my claim that sex was a secondary priority in contrast to your claim it is an MVP.
How? I said they didn't prioritize sex but it was part of their lives. How is saying it was part of their lives still me saying it was a priority?
I'm not saying females don't care who they mate, I'm saying whatever selection process they went through at the end of the day they selected someone didn't they? All that matters is they ended up picking someone at last.
Also why are you talking about sex like it was all about a female selecting? Why are you not considering the fact that men also force their way?
I've given two analogies to explain this, what do you have to say about them?
Since you get the point do you agree or disagree with it? Even if you say it was secondary priority does that mean it still isn't MVP?
You wouldn't be incorporating an activity that improves survival if it isn't a priority to your daily routine.
I didn't say it was all about female selection for potential mating. Quote me what part did I specifically mention it was all about female selection for potential mating? and why did you assume I am not considering "fact that men also force their way?"? I could but I don't think using that argument helps my point.
That the article is a click-bait and an exaggeration.
I disagree with the article being sex as a real MVP as what it claims and our conversation further convinced me it is.
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One needs to review the literature and references very well. No matter which theology you are having, Holy books don't endorse child marriage. When it comes to survival many forbidden things are even made choices but on conditions of only survival and in this case of marriage I don't think that any book will reflect such a point.
About marriage, Islam clearly indicates the terms and conditions and puberty is the first one, one is not allowed to have any relationships when the partner hasn't gained maturity(consent is crucial in all cases) so why you will say that religion authorizes this injustice of child marriage from either gender??? @nevies If you want to glance follow the link
. But child marriages are non-supportive and unlawful everywhere. It's a ruthlessness to do so or blame anyone for this.
The custom of an area has not necessarily do to with the religion of the state. People are not necessarily following the theological guideline but the customs and traditions of the geographical culture.
Islam has clear guidelines about marriages. Puberty and consent of the girls is a necessity
Well it's being indicated that leaving the good progeny will make you better fitted rather than getting eliminated because of not leaving any seeds. Somehow it looked like having the best mate ancestors accomplished everything 😅 they defeated the predators, secured the territory and left their marks are survived, man. So attaining the last thing they went for sex and the means you have explored better fit the discussion. So in my view survival was only possible by adopting a such hilarious way of mating.
So they have done everything to make it possible by hook or crook. By the way do the incoming generation would adopt the same way or will they prefer only to limit the life to pleasure. Don't know if I am going off the track but your thoughts are commendable. I guess I know you since Uptrennd am I right 🤭😂
The man always had to pass through struggles in all the eras. The challenges were always in competition with the available resources. The present generation has its own challenges, the previous had their own.
Yes, the previous generation reproduced more and so it became possible for the man kind to reach this era. Otherwise many of the races would have extinguished. It means more reproduction was the need of the time.
So far as wooing thing is considered. The questions is how many of men really do that. Only a very small percentage. There is a large number of people who do not have enough to feed let alone woo and gift a lady to impress, and there is a large number of ladies who just have to get married with being wooed.
Polygamy was not the case of earlier days. It still exist in a more problematic way. What would you want to say about swingers and many others who are involved in infidelity.
And about might is right. Might still have the right, even in the present era. 50000 rape incidents annually happen in New York, a big city of a Super Power state.