From Marc Seifert
I applaud Thornhill’s comments on rape, perhaps not because he has a
plausible biological theory on the motives which drive men to rape, but instead
for considering our actions in terms of animal behaviour. For far too long,
people, including scientists, have suffered from a superiority complex which has
driven a wedge between Homo sapiens and “nature”. We consider our
behaviour to be civilised and our interactions with the environment as unnatural
or “artificial”.
We have the intelligence and the means to communicate, to develop new
technologies and to decide what is morally and ethically acceptable. But we are
also bound by our biology and the evolutionary forces which shaped us as a
species.
Perhaps the provocation and outrage that has resulted from Thornhill’s theory
comes partly from H. sapiens’s continual denial of its animal ancestry.
Queensland
