The human revolution: Editorial introduction to 'honest fakes and language origins' by Chris Knight
Year: 2008
Type: article
Abstract: Introduction to 'Honest Fakes and Language Origins' by Chris Knight Menstrual Sex-Strike TheoryIt is now more than twenty years since Knight (1987) first presented his paradigm-shifting theory of how and why the 'human revolution' occurred -and had to occur -in modern humans who, as climates dried under ice age conditions and African rainforests shrank, found themselves surrounded by vast prairies and savannahs, with rich herds of game animals roaming across them.The temptation for male hunters, far from any home base, to eat the best portions of meat at the kill site -as do other social carnivores -called for strong measures from human females, who were paying the heavy metabolic and physical costs of bearing large-brained but helpless children.Even in the modern west, with well stocked supermarkets, a pregnant or lactating woman can lose ten percent of the dry weight of her brain, because developing babies demand dietary lipids for brain growth (Horrobin, 1998).Hence the idea of the menstrual sex strike, designed to force males to deliver their kills entirely into the hands of women for cooking and distribution -a practice common in foraging communities to this day.Knight's theory thus finally deposed macho theories of 'Man the Hunter', crediting the creation of modern culture to the 'weaker sex', and implying that worldwide 'rule of women' myths had historical substance.The same myths tell of a male counter-revolution, whereby men seized control of female powers -such as sacred flutes and synchronized menstruation -so accounting for the universal patriarchy that we find in the world today, and secret rituals in which men Journal of Consciousness Studies, 15, No. 10-11, 2008, pp.??-??
Author: Charles Whitehead
Language: English
Subfield: Cultural Studies
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
SDG: Gender equality
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2342259001