Shepard Essay #3 continued

In the last entry I discussed Paul Shepard's essay On the Significance of being Shaped by the Past and his refutation of the common story of human progression from savage to civilized. I will finish summarizing this essay now, the second half dealing with the implications of the first. Civilized peoples attempt to downplay the degree to which our actions are the result of biological necessity, we would rather believe our culture, family and selves have shaped our behavior. Shepard argues that our bodies and minds evolved to a way of life that we have abandoned. The effects of this are seen in our poor mental and physical health.

Our hunter/gather ancestors were healthier than us because they got plenty of exercise and ate sparsely. Our cardiovascular system evolved to fit the hunter life, with plenty of running. For us to be healthy, we need to use our "....muscles and glands in functional equivalents of the environments in which our primate forebears and the human organism evolved." (Shepard, 129) Without this environment, even an artificial recreation of it, our bodies suffer deleterious effects.

As far as our diets go, studies have found that underfeeding is far healthier than overfeeding. The carnivore aspect of our biology allows us to eat over three pounds of meat at a time and make and store fat for less plentiful times. When we exercise this ability daily and don't exercise enough, our "....muscles, joints, bones, lungs, body metabolites, coordination, disease resistance, and psychological function(ing)" deteriorate. (Shepard, 131) There are differences in men and women in diet and exercise needs, women don't need to run as much and don't have as many problems relating to fat-storage systems taxing the vascular.

Lastly, Shepard looks at war as "...the states expression of social pathology." (Shepard, 137) The only non-human incidence of cooperative murder take place in caged or stressed creatures. Like most mental illness, the real cause is subconscious. We don't have large ranges to roam and prey to hunt. As Shepard concludes "...war emerged with the sift in ecology; which produced the arrogant concept of land ownership and the struggles for resources, space, and power." (Shepard, 140)