Comments on: Chapter Two – Page Five

By: Robert A. Howard

Robert A. Howard — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 20:04:17 +0000

I wonder how much of that is due to genetics and how much is due to nurture. In preindustrial societies, women would probably eat less protein because the men did the majority of the hunting, while women did more of the gathering (the scifi webcomic Freefall had a fascinating treatises theorizing on hunter/gatherer behavior and its links to “window shopping” in modern society); thus men would predominantly eat more protein which would allow them more muscle mass and larger size.

Before the famines in Europe leading up to the Black Plague (possibly caused by the “mini-ice age” during the Maundering Minimum), Europeans were taller on average because their diet allowed them to achieve their full potential for size. Literally, our diet can effect how much we grow, and having insufficient protein and nutrients can result in our growth being retarded. So if a growing girl ate as much as a growing boy, and the same types of food, she would likely grow taller.

By: Rachel

Rachel — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 07:50:19 +0000

Hee hee. He’s kind of loosely based on Aristotle, in the sense of being marvelously right about lots of things and fabulously wrong about others.

(I was specifically thinking of Aristotle’s claim that women have fewer teeth.)

By: Rachel

Rachel — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 07:48:35 +0000

Well, women are smaller than men on average, and that’s a meaningful difference in a lot of situations. But you can certainly be a mother as well as a soldier, especially if you have to!

Mainly, though, Brother Dox has just never met a girl, so he thinks they’re literally made of rubber.

By: Gillsing

Gillsing — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 06:58:52 +0000

Yeah, I’ve read that there are other reasons for why women are unsuitable for war. Such as wide hips making women worse runners. And apparently women have a harder time building muscles, and in primitive warfare they could probably use more testosterone to fuel aggression. In modern warfare I’ve read that women make better snipers though, due to their lack of adrenaline.

But the most interesting theory I’ve read is the one where you put two tribes at war with each other, where one tribe fields only men, while the other fields half men and half women. Over years of warfare the tribe who fields only men will grow faster, as more of their women are free to go through childbirth, as less would’ve been killed in warfare. That seems like a plausible explanation to me. The world isn’t the way it is because it’s ‘right’, it is the way it is because it works. Modern times change things though. I used to think that evolution is slowed down with all this modern technology, but apparently it’s faster than ever.

In a world with magic though, I guess powerful witches could be the best at anything! :-D

By: J-dawg

J-dawg — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 05:12:24 +0000

Mr. Dox is a bozo! Soft bones :P