So, let’s say you’re an Associated Press writer and you hear about a tribe of people in Ecuador. And let’s say this tribe had the highest homicide rate ever recorded by anthropologists. And let’s say that researchers discovered, among other things, that the most murderous of the tribe members didn’t always get the most wives and stuff.
Is this how you would write your opening paragraph?
Apparently the bad boy doesn’t always get the girl. At least in a South American tribe with the highest known murder rate, it turns out that the most aggressive guys end up with fewer wives and children than milder men, according to a report in Tuesday’s edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Randy’s article suggests that the report discussing the lives of these people covers a lot more than who got laid the most. Thus, proving the “bad boys” wrong seems like an odd thing to fixate on… almost as bizarre as equating our American conception of a “bad boy” with an Ecuadorian tribesman who murders a lot.
Hey Randy, I’m really sorry some 19 year old with a camaro and an almost-mustache was dating the girl you liked in Social Studies class, but trying to tell that person today that he’s going to have less sex than you by pointing to a tribe of people who have absolutely no shared context with our lives in the developed world is an enormous fucking stretch. And ethnocentric. And rooted in sexism. And soaked in weak sauce.
He can’t hurt you anymore, dude.
Wha..? That’s so full of fail (can we drop the “lame” please?). The sad part is, I’d really like to read what the anthropologist came to as a conclusion for the high homicide rate.
What strikes me as most odd is that you have to go pretty far out of your way to say that the tribe is somehow unique in the fact that murdering people doesn’t lead to hot sexy time with the wimminz who are obviously just prizes for your awesomeness. I’m pretty sure those who engage in acts which violate norms (such as murder, which, outside of a context of executioners, dueling, or warfare) is pretty well condemned in most cultures and get caught aren’t likely to get too many dates anyway since they’re usually executed young, banished, isolated, or otherwise suffer sanctions as a result of their behavior. Are there tons of cultures where killing lots of members of your society (and not those pesky “others”) is likely to bring benefits? Because I haven’t come across them in the course of my anthropological or sociological education.
That said, I’m pretty sure this post should be addressed to every “nice guy” in the world.