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Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons

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Biological and Physical Anthropology

University of Massachusetts Amherst

Selected Works

Articles 1 - 2 of 2

Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

The Anthropometry Of Barbie: Unsettling Ideals Of The Feminine Body In Popular Culture., Jacqueline Urla, Alan Swedlund Jan 1995

The Anthropometry Of Barbie: Unsettling Ideals Of The Feminine Body In Popular Culture., Jacqueline Urla, Alan Swedlund

Jacqueline L. Urla

No abstract provided.


Forever Young: Upon Reading Growing Young By Ashley Montagu, Raymond Coppinger, Charles Smith May 1983

Forever Young: Upon Reading Growing Young By Ashley Montagu, Raymond Coppinger, Charles Smith

Charles Kay Smith

We argue that the evolutionary process of neoteny -- the natural selection of regulatory gene mutations that retain a youthful ontogenetic system of physiological and behavioral characteristics, and thus never activates the full species-specific features of the ancestors’ adulthood. The resulting new behavio-morph retains infant/young features throughout ontogeny and never displays the adult behavior or physiology of the adult ancestor. This kind of neotenic adulthood defines the human character. We not only inherit our ancestors’ youthful anatomy and physiology but the ancestors’ youthful motivations and proclivities such as docility and social dependency, curiosity and learning as well. We retain our …