Walking with cavemen: commentary thread

BlkbrryTheGreat · Post by **BlkbrryTheGreat** » 2003-06-15 08:07pm

The title pretty much covers the topic here. All I have to say so far is that there is nothing to put life in perspective like the geologic time scale. I mean... 3.2 million years... recorded history is.... almost insignifigant in comparison.

Howedar · Post by **Howedar** » 2003-06-15 08:07pm

Almost?

BlkbrryTheGreat · Post by **BlkbrryTheGreat** » 2003-06-15 08:14pm

Well keep in mind that this three thousand years of our history have had a comparitively greater impact on the Earth then any other three thousand year period in our history (heck you could even scale that up by an order of magnitude or two).

kojikun · Post by **kojikun** » 2003-06-15 08:16pm

i like the part where Alec said "Hey, this is your history so you better watch"

Post by **weemadando** » 2003-06-15 08:19pm

kojikun wrote:i like the part where Alec said "Hey, this is your history so you better watch"

Alec Baldwin is narrating? Damn, that would mean you'd have to have a complete re-write and re-edit of the series.

kojikun · Post by **kojikun** » 2003-06-15 08:22pm

hes HOSTING. explaining things, etc.

and yes i imagine a lot was redone, as with Walking With Dinosaurs. We had Captain Sisko narrating that.

Rye · Post by **Rye** » 2003-06-15 08:28pm

kojikun wrote:hes HOSTING. explaining things, etc.

and yes i imagine a lot was redone, as with Walking With Dinosaurs. We had Captain Sisko narrating that.

whoa...over here we had professor robert winston hosting it...you yanks cop out and get the celebrity

kojikun · Post by **kojikun** » 2003-06-15 08:31pm

yeah people here like familiar people. but hes doing a good job.

BlkbrryTheGreat · Post by **BlkbrryTheGreat** » 2003-06-15 08:32pm

On a side note, did anyone else like that skit with Lucy's pack leader? "Hes 25 years old, and if he lucky he can live another 25..." ***SNAP***

In he goes into the crocodiles mouth.....

BlkbrryTheGreat · Post by **BlkbrryTheGreat** » 2003-06-15 08:35pm

On a side note, the skull sizes of the live action aren't proportional to the size of the skulls on the stands. Obviously this is the case due to the actors protraying the ape-men, but what the heck its a nifty point anyway

kojikun · Post by **kojikun** » 2003-06-15 08:47pm

anyone else find some of these apes vaguely.. sexy? x.x

BlkbrryTheGreat · Post by **BlkbrryTheGreat** » 2003-06-15 08:56pm

kojikun wrote:anyone else find some of these apes vaguely.. sexy? x.x

Speaking of which, I wonder how far back we could actually go and still produce a viable offspring in a cross breeding.... (not that I would want any child of mine to be a half witted)

kojikun · Post by **kojikun** » 2003-06-15 08:59pm

probably very far, but not an easy mating. hey, look at ligers and the huge differences between lions and tigers. and were talking about direct ancestors not seperate descendants.

*edit* this show makes me proud to be human.

BlkbrryTheGreat · Post by **BlkbrryTheGreat** » 2003-06-15 09:13pm

kojikun wrote:*edit* this show makes me proud to be human.

Oh yea, best thinking and cooling systems on the planet baby!

Admiral Valdemar · Post by **Admiral Valdemar** » 2003-06-15 09:17pm

As with the UK showing, the DVD of the series and book will come out within the week.

kojikun · Post by **kojikun** » 2003-06-15 09:27pm

I really wish Discovery was showing more stuff like the Walking With series', or Wild Kingdom, etc. Real documentaries, not these interior decorating shows. I grew up watching Wild Discovery every day nonstop, you know that? Every day at, I think it was 4pm.

Post by **Alyrium Denryle** » 2003-06-15 09:28pm

yeah...MORE DOCUMENTARIES!

kojikun · Post by **kojikun** » 2003-06-15 09:33pm

oo those three neanderthal guys were cute.. >)

Stravo · Post by **Stravo** » 2003-06-15 09:35pm

Love this documentray but one thing that they don't explain to my satisfaction is HOW these new cavemen races came about. Liek teh Heidelburg man is pulled into two different species by the environment, one is Neanderthal the other I assume will be Cro Magnon man in Africa. Anywho HOW does one species of man become another? Will we one day evolve into a new species. I never really understood the process from a practical viewpoint.

Johonebesus · Post by **Johonebesus** » 2003-06-15 09:58pm

Stravo wrote:Love this documentray but one thing that they don't explain to my satisfaction is HOW these new cavemen races came about. Liek teh Heidelburg man is pulled into two different species by the environment, one is Neanderthal the other I assume will be Cro Magnon man in Africa. Anywho HOW does one species of man become another? Will we one day evolve into a new species. I never really understood the process from a practical viewpoint.

Gradual change plus the occasional random mutation. Over a couple thousand years Europeans bred the wild ox into the modern domestic ox. No immediate drastic change, just a gradual process of choosing animals with desirable traits. Over hundreds of millennia, nature can do the same thing.

What I'm wondering is how out of date my knowledge is. The last I heard, H. erectus was the same species in Asia and Africa. There seem to be a lot of things that don't quite match what I have read. Some of it just seems incomplete.

It also seems that the narration is not in sync with the dramatizations. Just after Baldwin explained that H. habilis couldn't speak, we see the actors apparently talking. And the apes didn't seem ape-like enough to me.

SyntaxVorlon · Post by **SyntaxVorlon** » 2003-06-15 10:09pm

My mother, a phd in sociology who works in a soc/anth dept, was annoyed by the gender specific lingo and outmoded terminology, but found it to be accurate, a good portrait.

My favorite line:
"The Homonid Empire Strikes Back"

kojikun · Post by **kojikun** » 2003-06-15 10:18pm

SyntaxVorlon wrote:My mother, a phd in sociology who works in a soc/anth dept, was annoyed by the gender specific lingo and outmoded terminology, but found it to be accurate, a good portrait.

What gender specific lingo??

SyntaxVorlon · Post by **SyntaxVorlon** » 2003-06-15 10:22pm

ascent of man, he learned, he this, him that, man did this.
That gender specification.
Women did half the work, they should at least get acting credit.

BlkbrryTheGreat · Post by **BlkbrryTheGreat** » 2003-06-15 10:23pm

kojikun wrote:
SyntaxVorlon wrote:My mother, a phd in sociology who works in a soc/anth dept, was annoyed by the gender specific lingo and outmoded terminology, but found it to be accurate, a good portrait.
What gender specific lingo??

You mom sounds like one of those women who take offense to terms like "Alpha male" for no good reason.

Johonebesus · Post by **Johonebesus** » 2003-06-15 10:24pm

kojikun wrote:What gender specific lingo??

He probably means the universal masculine, such as refering to an entire species as "he". Sociologists tend to hate that. It seems at times to be one of the chief causes of strife between historians and sociologists.

And if I weren't so easily distracted and looking at three different sites at the same time, I might have noticed that he already answered the question. Teach me to leave the reply window open five minutes before typing anything.