Fighting may have shaped evolution of human hand

[Permalost]

Make a proper fist, and then open your hand as if you were holding a baseball sized stone. Notice how the one grip is the closed grip version of the other? The stability of that position is for another, legit lethal, purpose: throwing fucking rocks.

While I'd say that's more probable, its also speculative like "hands evolved to punch".

[Vieux Normand]

Open the hand and then put the straightened fingers together.

See how flat and oar-like it all is.

It's obvious: hands were specifically-evolved for surfboard paddling.

[DCS]

Why the lack of creationism (or at least some intelligent design) in this thread? Are you now or have you ever been members of the Communist Party?

[Matt Phillips]

While I'd say that's more probable, its also speculative like "hands evolved to punch".

I'm offering an alternative hypothesis. All hypotheses are speculation (until you do an experiment)

[doofaloofa]

One could put a face piece on Chimp contender a la Hanible Lechter

This article hypothesises that weapon use (wielded clubds, thrown stones) guided the evolution of the early homonid hand from similar to a chimps to the present day masterbation tool

[bobyclumsyninja]

People losing their temper make fists. We shake our clenched fists at people, and public transportation, (or teh gods) in frustration. IMO it's likely to have been a factor, as it seems so deeply set into our instinct.

I doubt humans just now learned to make a proper fist. Our ancient ancestors likely weren't oblivious to self injury.

Good articles, all of these.

[Vieux Normand]

People losing their temper make fists. We shake our clenched fists at people, and public transportation, (or teh gods) in frustration. IMO it's likely to have been a factor, as it seems so deeply set into our instinct.

If we have something sharp or blunt in the hand when we get pissed off enough, we don't drop the item in question and brandish empty fists, as an "instinctual-fist" hypothesis would indicate. We brandish the item at whomever or whatever is pissing us off. Only if there is nothing at hand when anger strikes do we wave a fist.

Might it not, then, be more likely that the brandished fist is only an instinctive brandishing of something that would have been in our hand, had we the choice? This can be evidence of weapons being so ingrained in us as to have become instinctive.

Fists as instinct? Again, we don't drop-club-and-brandish-fist. We brandish the club (or whatever) when sufficiently enraged.

[MrGalt]

As a former biologist, at least at the B.S. level, I think we see people ascribing a lot of things to "evolution" for which I at least can't imagine a mechanism. Natural selection weeds out maladaptive mutations. It doesn't find a problem and then solve it.

Did an inability to make a proper fist result in our ancestors either dying before mating or failing to find a mate? No? Then the fist was just along for the ride during the evolutionary process.

Did an inability to grasp and manipulate objects result in our ancestors either dying before mating or failing to find a mate? You bet your ass.

[The Question]

To what degree has the ability to fistfight (compared to, say, the ability to develop and wield weapons) played any role in evolutionary and/or history-making events among humans? What's the actual evidence? Right.

Evidence? Evidence about evolution? Really? About some **** that you can't fucking test? My ninja, come the **** on. Have there ever been any experiments designed to test any theory of evolution? That ever possibly could be?

[W. Rabbit]

Nature is notorious for making tools, our first "fists" were fins, to swim with.

If the more evolved human fist resembles any natural tool, it became a hammer, which is as good for smashing open a grapefruit or melon as it is smashing another human.

Evolved to eat with is way more likely than evolved to fight.