Being Human

Language Log: Neuroscience in the service of sexual stereotypes

It's recently fashionable for books and articles to enlist neuroscience in support of the view that men and women are essentially and unavoidably different, not just in size and shape, but also in just about every aspect of the way they see, hear, feel, talk, listen and think. These works tend to confirm our culture's current stereotypes and prejudices, and the science they cite is often overinterpreted, and sometimes seems simply to have been made up. I recently discussed an example from Leonard Sax's book Why Gender Matters ("Are men emotional children?", 6/24/2006), which David Brooks has used to support an argument for single-sex education. The latest example of this genre, released August 1, is Louann Brizendine's book "The Female Brain".

Rebecca Saxe: The Forbidden Experiment

In the seventh year of the French Republic (1799 to the rest of the world), some peasants of Tarn and Aveyron, in southern France, encountered a naked boy scavenging alone in their fields and forests. He did not speak, and seemed not to understand any French. At first he ran away from other humans. More than once he was captured and brought to town; each time, he escaped. Later, the boy became familiar to the mountain farmers. He would appear in their houses during the day to be fed, and then disappear again every night. Some claimed he moved unusually fast, on four limbs. Others claimed he rejected meat, and inferred from this that human beings are not naturally carnivorous. One night in 1800, while he was taking shelter from a storm, the boy was captured for good. His family and past were unknown and became the topics of intense speculation. Had he been abandoned at birth? Had he intentionally escaped from brutal parents? Because he did not understand language, he was initially—but inaccurately—assumed to be deaf. Eventually he was transferred to the care of Abbé Sicard, the head of the Institute for Deaf Mutes in Paris, and to the protection and investigation of the Society of Observers of Man.

Did anyone see the movie High Fidelity? Rob Gordon, the character played by John Cusack, continuously divides the world into categories, and ranks members of each category by choosing his "top five." Top five girl bands, top five B-sides on 45s, top five movie soundtracks, etc. You get the idea.

I want to know what your top five questions are about humans. What are the things that you wonder about the most? Write 'em up and post them here as a comment. I'll start:

1. Why do humans take so long to develop? Most other species mature far sooner than humans do. Why?
2. What's the relative contribution of nature and nurture to development? How much of what makes humans unique is from culture and how much is from innately evolved mechanisms?
3. What are the divisions (partitions?/sections?/neighborhoods?)of the mind/brain? How does information pass from one part to another?
4. Where does racism (or any other -ism that allows some humans to exclude or oppress other humans) come from?
5. What are the best ways to organize information so that humans can learn? Are schools doing a good job? What would work better?