Comments on: Lol your caveman

By: Amananta

Amananta — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 22:55:50 +0000

I saw the biggest, fattest bluejay I ever saw last week. He had the roundest, whitest belly! And it wasn’t feather fluffing, because it’s quite warm out. Someone’s been hitting the birdseed pretty hard, eh? Maybe he should go on a diet so he can feel virtuous while he suffers through the cold this winter!

By: Erika

Erika — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 06:11:27 +0000

I have (sadly) heard this kind of logic before, but it’s often been in the form of “How many people at Auschwitz were fat, huh???” I mean, are we seriously supposed to emulate people near death? I mean, I guess idiots often think that women should, but how on earth that has become an acceptable implication is really beyond me.

I, for one, am kind of happy about the technological and medical progress humans have made since those caveman days. Regardless of their size, obviously. Yeeeeessssh

By: keshmeshi

keshmeshi — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 08:33:14 +0000

Yes, persistent near starvation does make people thin. Just explain to me why, during a time of plenty, all of us have to force ourselves into near starvation just to satisfy dimwits like this guy.

By: Lu

Lu — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 23:02:05 +0000

Late to the game with this, but:

thegirlfrommarz:
I saw a lionness in Tanzania who had COMPLETELY porked out on a baby zebra and had a belly practically touching the ground – I bet the other lionnesses were lying on the rocks judging her.

Baby zebras: The baby doughnuts of the wild kingdom? Discuss.

By: Pauli

Pauli — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 08:25:13 +0000

While she might have been exagerrated and possibly “pregnant”, this does not change two facts: first, she was fat to begin with, no woman would get that shape only from pregnancy, come on – these are REAL curves of a true Shapeling ;) And secondly, the cavepeople carved and painted things connected with worship, cult – Venus of Willendorf is a sculpture symbolizing fertility, health, and even if they didn’t look like that a lot, they sure considered this kind of appearance beautiful and desired – a symbol of feminine power to create life, provide warmth and safety to her man and children.
The cavemen were wiser than the majority of modern people, I’d say *lol*

By: Vegemite

Vegemite — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 21:28:11 +0000

Sorry to go just a wee way off topic – but the comments on the sites cited above about the possible origin of the Venus of Willendorf play into that crap about ‘thin cavemen’. From reading them it seems academics think the figure is ‘exaggerated’ and probably pregnant. I beg to differ – she looks a hell of a lot like my 130-odd kilo, 1.63 metre self. The way the breasts and belly hang, the way the thighs sit, even the extra fatty ‘covering’ between her legs. She looks like me. Which means there may well have been at least 1 fat woman… the model.

By: Emerald

Emerald — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 18:50:54 +0000

slythwolf – somewhere among my many books on the Pacific Northwest is one that describes the Coast Salish natives’ eating habits in some detail. They’re popularly regarded as almost entirely living on seafood, but various types of tuber and, yes, wild rice formed a substantial part of their diet, as well as berries and the rest.

Their word for the rather meagre time of year we’re in right now roughly translates as ‘time when your belly sticks to your spine (from hunger)’. Whatever size hunter-gatherers may be, they don’t idealize thinness.

By: Anastasia

Anastasia — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 17:21:06 +0000

I totally love everyone’s examples of fattie animals but a person could shut that down by saying they shouldn’t be fat and are only fat because they live in an environment where they get food from humans, which is “unnatural.” I don’t buy that, I’m just saying.

On the other hand, I wonder what we do with the criteria “fat” when it comes to animals. We assess animals by what is average or some otherwise normal/typical range for that species. So is a panda bear fat? Well….um….aren’t all panda bears kind of fat? Wouldn’t a skinny panda bear be abnormal/undernourished?

By: Karalora

Karalora — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 19:49:32 +0000

What, they think the entire grain category just *poofed* into existence the instant people realized that they could plant seeds on purpose and harvest the results later?

Also, any self-respecting hunter-gatherer knows where to find lots of tubers. Not to mention nuts, mushrooms, the occasional clutch of eggs, and even honey, if you can figure out how to get it without being stung. This NeanderThin thing sounds more like a chimpanzee diet

By: thegirlfrommarz

thegirlfrommarz — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 16:25:09 +0000

P.S. Please forgive my interesting spelling of “lioness” upthread – I am very tired after two nights of attending dinners for work and not getting enough sleep (networking is not easy, dammit!).