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The upright posture of the human body gave humans a new shape, the result of the redistribution of fat. During the quadripedal locomotion of humans, fat was concentrated on the backs of both male and females, and around the necks of the females. With the gradual adoption of the upright posture the fat, for reasons of balance, slipped down the spine where it remained, forming the buttocks. Buttocks are a peculiar characteristic of the human species.
I explained earlier that when humans gained excess fat in the savannah the females acquired nearly twice that of the males. Most of this extra fat was originally concentrated around the neck, stomach, and thighs. When the human female stood up, the neck fat gradually descended down the front of her body and balanced her buttocks, which were larger than those of the males. Breasts in women and buttocks in both men and women were the humans' balancing factors in their new unnatural and highly precarious position, where the minimal weight not symmetrically distributed and balanced could have upset the stability of the body, knocking its center of gravity off center.
In his book The Naked Ape Desmond Morris's explanation of the appearance of women's breasts runs as follows: "If the female of our species was going to successfully shift the interest of the male round to the front, evolution would have to do something to make the frontal region more stimulating" . . . Morris goes on to say that. . . "With the upright posture, a frontal mating came to be adopted, and this created the need to bring sexual signals on to the front of women's bodies as well" . . . He continues: . . . "Can we, if we look at the frontal regions of the female of our species, see any structures that might possibly be mimics of the ancient genital display of hemispherical buttocks and red labia" . . . "The protuberant, hemispherical breasts of the female must surely be copies of the fleshy buttocks, and the sharply defined red lips around the mouth must be copies of the red labia" . . .
I cannot believe that the breasts and buttocks of the human female had anything to do with sexual attraction. If woman had never acquired them, man would still have had the same desire to copulate, as he did in the woodlands and for so many millions of years in the savannah before becoming upright. Besides, humans have sexual intercourse with animals, and animals have neither breasts nor buttocks.
The upright posture, as a result of the demands of gravity, brought some changes in blood pressure and circulation. In the new body position, circulation of blood to the new brain (the brain that was the very cause of bipedalism) became more difficult. As one is aware of the presence of any organ only when it is causing discomfort, so man became aware of his new brain when the circulation of blood to it became more difficult. Thus to this quirk of nature do we owe our self-awareness, self-consciousness, our ability to think abstractly, and our dualism. In this way we can explain the detachment, disconnection, and independence of the mind. In this way we can explain our awareness of the dissociation between mind and body. A synchronized organism, an organism in harmony, an organism in perfect functional integrity, can never be aware of itself.
The sensitivity of the human new brain to changes in blood supply can be deduced by the fact that even a slight diminution in this supply, caused by drugs, malnutrition, or change in the quality of air or rhythm of breathing, can create an extreme dissociation of mind from body, such as trance, hallucination, or fainting.
Another characteristic of humans is their proboscid nose, its purpose being one of the other mysteries in the history of human evolution. It may have been another balancing factor in the human body, particularly for the skull, which took on a new shape with the upright posture. If you look at someone who has just had his nose shortened by surgery you may notice that his posture changes slightly while he gets reaccustomed to the new balance of his head.
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