Web Hype
Anthropology Lessons from Metal Magazines: A Variation in a Series
This Guy is Metal, but not from Wino.
Perusing Metal Maniacs, I happened upon the band Wino’s new release, Punctuated Equilibrium (check them out on myspace)! My minor in college was in anthropology and it really should have been my major, but I was too lazy and cheap to go back and take all the pre-requisite stuff. In my evolutionary theory class, punctuated equilibrium was well discussed. Stephen Jay Gould and the lesser known Niles Eldredge (good link to Gould’s work here), beyond coining the phrase, developed largely the most radical variation on Darwin’s theory of natural selection and specifically, the idea of gradualism (although since then, I think other stuff has come about in the field. I was in college, um, 20 years ago). I read so many xeroxed papers that Gould wrote in obscure academic anthropology journals! He was supposed to come speak once to our class- he didn’t, though. I thought he was rad. And I think Wino is rad. Here’s a brief description of the theory of punctuated equilibrium, taken from Wikipedia, but it explains the theory well enough:
Punctuated equilibrium is a theory in evolutionary biology which states that most sexually reproducing species experience little change for most of their geological history, and that when phenotypic evolution does occur, it is localized in rare, rapid events of branching speciation (called cladogenesis).
Punctuated equilibrium is commonly contrasted against the theory of phyletic gradualism, which states that evolution generally occurs uniformly and by the steady and gradual transformation of whole lineages (anagenesis). In this view, evolution is seen as generally smooth and continuous.
In 1972 paleontologists Niles Eldredge and Stephen Jay Gould published a landmark paper developing this idea. Their paper was built upon Ernst Mayr’s theory of geographic speciation, I. Michael Lerner‘s theories of developmental and genetic homeostasis, as well as their own empirical research. Eldredge and Gould proposed that the degree of gradualism championed by Charles Darwin was virtually nonexistent in the fossil record, and that stasis dominates the history of most fossil species.
Tags: stephen jay gould, wino
that’s heady stuff for the morning. phew. david letterman was talking to a doctor on his show the other night and discussing obesity, he said something to the effect of “what if that’s evolution and in a few hundred years everyone is five hundred pounds?”
also, off topic, pr, i remember you saying something about liking genre work on occasion… have you ever read anything by Paul Di Filippo?
that’s heady stuff for the morning. phew. david letterman was talking to a doctor on his show the other night and discussing obesity, he said something to the effect of “what if that’s evolution and in a few hundred years everyone is five hundred pounds?”
also, off topic, pr, i remember you saying something about liking genre work on occasion… have you ever read anything by Paul Di Filippo?
big bursts of change than…nothing changes. then another big ole burst! Then nada for a long time. It makes sense. It’s all theory though. Anthropological theories are very funny sometimes. like this one guy who theorized that all sexual intercourse was doggie style for early man. argue that in an academic journal! For real. Oh shit- what was the caveman movie? all grunting and stuff? my husband will remember…
I just googled this man and found his website! Thanks Ryan. I do read sci fi and crime stuff (not big on westerns or romance…am i forgetting any?)
that is a hilarious… i’ll have to remember to tell my wife about that, she’ll get a kick out of it.
PDF’s website is pretty cool, his mail art alone is worth checking out, but he’s one of very few genre writers who i can not only stand, but actually genuinely like. and his brother was my high school latin teacher, no less.
that is a hilarious… i’ll have to remember to tell my wife about that, she’ll get a kick out of it.
PDF’s website is pretty cool, his mail art alone is worth checking out, but he’s one of very few genre writers who i can not only stand, but actually genuinely like. and his brother was my high school latin teacher, no less.
nice connection! i like margaret atwood. phip k dick. orwell. i read a cool story on that website by a guy named mike allen.
http://transcriptase.org/fiction/allen-mike-the-button-bin/
oh, and horror. i don’t really do horror. but that allen story is horror and i enjoyed it. also, i’ve been meaning to read doris lessing’s scifi stuff. I LOVED the fifth child. one of my favorite books.
Little Doors is a really first-rate book of stories. If you like him, check out Ray Vukcevich some time.
The world’s most important caveman movie: Caveman.
Little Doors is a really first-rate book of stories. If you like him, check out Ray Vukcevich some time.
The world’s most important caveman movie: Caveman.
i never got into atwood, maybe ’cause i felt like she was being stuffed down my throat as an undergrad. but i like pkd and orwell. neal stephenson is the only other current genre writer that i can think of who i really get excited about. i like jonathan lethem a lot and he goes back and forth, which i like. i like noir-style crime stuff… i’ve been reading that book Pistol Poets, which you sent me, in snippets when i work out, which i’ve been digging.
i never got into atwood, maybe ’cause i felt like she was being stuffed down my throat as an undergrad. but i like pkd and orwell. neal stephenson is the only other current genre writer that i can think of who i really get excited about. i like jonathan lethem a lot and he goes back and forth, which i like. i like noir-style crime stuff… i’ve been reading that book Pistol Poets, which you sent me, in snippets when i work out, which i’ve been digging.
Yes! Little Doors is fantastic. my favorite is Fractal Paisleys, but that’s a sentimental pick of sorts. i just preordered his next collection, which is getting some fantastic reviews.
Yes! Little Doors is fantastic. my favorite is Fractal Paisleys, but that’s a sentimental pick of sorts. i just preordered his next collection, which is getting some fantastic reviews.
Quest for Fire! It depicts girl on top sex as a turning point for “man”, that movies is hilarious.
Matthew, that Caveman link made me go look at other caveoman youtube things and i just finished watching a caveman masturbate to a “tablet” with stick figures carved on it. Now, My brain feels all bad. I am going to go read a short story in the new yorker or something.
pistol poets is funny. i have another book of his, suicide blonde, that i haven’t read yet.
“Quest for Fire! It depicts girl on top sex as a turning point for “man”, that movies is hilarious. ”
wait… it was wasn’t it? viva la revolucion!
“Quest for Fire! It depicts girl on top sex as a turning point for “man”, that movies is hilarious. ”
wait… it was wasn’t it? viva la revolucion!
punctuated equilibrium (both the phrase and theory) makes me feel warm and gooey, like a gelatinous blob between two walls of glass, until one is ripped up and away and i spoinge forth all anthropomorphic with that new baby smell.
punctuated equilibrium (both the phrase and theory) makes me feel warm and gooey, like a gelatinous blob between two walls of glass, until one is ripped up and away and i spoinge forth all anthropomorphic with that new baby smell.