7 ms·

Fascinating. If you were a fan of evolutionary origin stories, you could easily imagine that the negative association with body odor is an evolved "canary in th

Fascinating. If you were a fan of evolutionary origin stories, you could easily imagine that the negative association with body odor is an evolved "canary in the coal mine" mechanism. That is, once you start being irritated by your cave-mates BO, it's time to step outside for some fresh air (before you are asphyxiated). That said, I doubt humanity spent enough time in caves or other restricted airflow environments for such a response to evolve...

deleted 7y ago
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travisp 7y ago
Additionally, to support the idea that we evolved to detect and dislike body odor, you'd have to make sure that humans even have this trait. Too many evolutionary just-so stories generate hypotheses from limited cultural observations. This article about one of the few remaining hunter-gatherer people left, the Hadza, might lead you to question the idea that humans have a "dislike body odor" trait: > While Hadza have a word for body odor, the men tell me that they prefer their women not to bathe—the longer they go between baths, they say, the more attractive they are. Nduku, my Hadza language teacher, said she sometimes waits months between baths, though she can't understand why her husband wants her that way. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/2009/12/hadza/ https://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/2009/12/hadza/ And this despite the theory that hunter-gatherers are probably even better at smelling than we are: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/01/180118142744.htm https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/01/180118142744.h...
- Retric 7y ago
  A larger issue is Hadza like most hunter gatherers don’t live in caves, which are fairly rare in most parts of the world. The idea of ‘cave man’ is sampling bias because natural caves preserve ancient artifacts which tend to disappear in the open.

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]

travisp 7y ago

Additionally, to support the idea that we evolved to detect and dislike body odor, you'd have to make sure that humans even have this trait. Too many evolutionary just-so stories generate hypotheses from limited cultural observations. This article about one of the few remaining hunter-gatherer people left, the Hadza, might lead you to question the idea that humans have a "dislike body odor" trait: > While Hadza have a word for body odor, the men tell me that they prefer their women not to bathe—the longer they go between baths, they say, the more attractive they are. Nduku, my Hadza language teacher, said she sometimes waits months between baths, though she can't understand why her husband wants her that way. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/2009/12/hadza/ https://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/2009/12/hadza/ And this despite the theory that hunter-gatherers are probably even better at smelling than we are: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/01/180118142744.htm https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/01/180118142744.h...

Retric 7y ago
A larger issue is Hadza like most hunter gatherers don’t live in caves, which are fairly rare in most parts of the world. The idea of ‘cave man’ is sampling bias because natural caves preserve ancient artifacts which tend to disappear in the open.