Primates of Park Avenue, by Wednesday Martin

From Wednesday Martin's fascinating socio/anthropo-logy point of view (and she just moved from downtown to the Upper East Side -- UES):

Really interesting stuff, drawn in a MOST amusing (if not terrifying) way:

'...competitive signaling, as biologists call it [such as marking turf with urine], is costly.  It takes energy and time to secrete those proteins, energy and time that could otherwise be expended by females on maintaining good nutrition, optimizing fertility, seeking nesting materials, being pregnant, lactating and caring for one's young.
'Because aggression is potentially dangerous and competitive signaling is costly, it is now believed, female mammals, including primates, have learned over the eons to compete "under the radar."  That is, they inflict social rather than physical violence through coalitions, subtle signals and nonphysical aggression.'

Mean girls!  Shite, they still rule.

I also loved this:

Speaking of the cabal of uber-worked out, double-zeroes, charity ball-thrower bitches from hell of the UES (Upper East Side), she says, 'they couldn't have been further from the Efe and the Aka people of the Ituri Rain Forest in the Democratic Republic (wow there's that's an oxymoron, said the blogger!) of Congo, of the !Kung San of the Kalahari desert.  These hunter-gatherers are radical egalitarians, meaning they live in groups without hierarchy or socioeconomic stratification, as humans did for nearly all our evolutionary prehistory (itals mine).  Among these tribes, no one owns anything and no one's status is any higher or lower than anyone else's.  The notion of property is unknown (again, itals etc).  This state of affairs is reinforced by several mechanisms.  One is object demands.  It is common for one woman to walk up to another and demand her beads, for example, or for a child to approach an unrelated adult and demand a portion of their food, or for one man to demand and receive another's spear tips for hunting.  SAYING NO IS UNHEARD OF (caps mine).  These 'gifts demands' reinforce the notion that nobody owns anything.  Self-effacement and downplaying one's own achievements and those of others is another way to ensure no sense of hierarchy develops.'

Even when meat is hunted/killed, nobody takes credit, though of course everybody knows exactly who's responsible.  But 'the man supplying coveted meat cannot take or receive meat.  Everyone and no one killed the meat, and so everyone is and remains equal.'

WOW.  Wow wow wow!

Can we go back to our long long long history of prehistoric evolution now, PLEASE?

Thank you Wednesday Martin.
(I might be biased because I was born on Wednesday -- but I doubt it).

I absolutely believe this woman sociologist/biologist/human being has a unique and fascinating take on men, women, the market, relationships, an ethos, and the world.

And I just bet it worked a hell of a lot better that !Kung way.