| Kirk Lee Spencer wrote: |
|
Very interesting thread! Hey Sean... I had always thought that the reason we seem to know what an extra-terrestrial would look like was because of their common depiction is all the sci-fi we have watched. I read a few years ago that one possible reason that science fiction has depicted them this way is because of a belief among evolutionists of something called "neoteny" (I think that is the term). Neoteny proposes that humans have evolved, at least on the outside, by a progressive arresting of development from child to adult forms. So humans today look like juvenile Australopithicines. The conclusion would be that a creature more highly evolved than Homo sapien would look like baby humans or even fetuses. So the skull of extra-terrestrials, as more highly evolved creatures, looks much like the skulls of a fetus (big bulbous head, big dark eyes and little triangular jaw). ks |
Close,
"Neoteny" does indeed describe an evolutionary situation where a juvenile trait is retained in the adult form. Humans do certainly look like oversized "baby apes" (have you ever seen a chimpanzee baby? VERY human-looking). As for "aliens" looking like fetuses, that is very likely the case (not because of neoteny, but because of the human psyche--the aliens are never REALLY there, its for all intents and purposes a dream). However, extra-terrestrials looking like humans AT ALL falls under the idea of anthropromorphism, which can be said to stem from the belief that humans are somehow the penultimate, and that naturally any intelligent creature must look at least superficially like us (assuming that evolution on another planet would necessairly come about to something like us, or any life on Earth for that matter, is naieve and silly).
Interesting observation: Back in the "pre-industrial revolution" times, witches and demons were blamed for a lot of bizarre happenings to people--waking up in the middle of the night to strange noises and lights, can't move, bizarre sometimes sexual occurances. Interestingly, the symptoms described by "witchcraft victims" (such as at Salem and elsewhere) are remarkably similar to the symptoms today's "alien abductee" victims describe. The human subconscious is creating the same lucid dream situation, we've just found a different scapegoat.
As for dragons (and griffins, and very large giants, etc.):
As a paleontologist, I think it is perfectly plausible that the origin of the dragon myth stemmed from the discovery of (what we now know to be) fossils by our predecessors. Of course, the immediate nature of the fossils was not always clear (e.x.. the scrotum humanum incident). Also, large and strange possibly man-eating beasts certainly did, and do exist in the world. Crocodiles, large snakes, monitor lizards (such as the Komodo Dragon), large ratites (birds like emus, ostriches, and the Moa). Remember also that Europe, Africa, and Asia are all physically connected and humans very likely went through Asia, where there are crocs, snakes, and fossils, to get to the Americas. Furthermore, human migrations, trade, and travels have been going on for a long time (after all, I don't doubt the existance of China was certainly known about by the Europeans long before Marco Polo set off east). It is certainly plausible for stories of strange beasts and giant bones to filter around.
Combine the finding of giant bones, stories of giant creatures, and our still animalistic brains with its ingrained "be wary of getting eaten" , and there you go: dragons.