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Tools and Teeth: Some Speculations Regarding Canine Reduction 1
Author(s) -
Holloway Ralph L.
Publication year - 1967
Publication title -
american anthropologist
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.51
H-Index - 85
eISSN - 1548-1433
pISSN - 0002-7294
DOI - 10.1525/aa.1967.69.1.02a00070
Subject(s) - sexual dimorphism , reduction (mathematics) , maxillary canine , cognition , selection (genetic algorithm) , psychology , biology , zoology , orthodontics , medicine , neuroscience , mathematics , computer science , geometry , artificial intelligence
Starting with a critique of current beliefs that maxillary canine reduction in hominids was causally related to tool‐use and tool‐making, the article suggests that reduction took place because selection favored a different pattern of social behavior. Sexual dimorphism and aggressive intragroup behavior tend to be related in terrestrial primates. A shift in hormonal interactions is suggested, such that selection for diminution of aggressiveness resulted in a diminution of sexual dimorphism. Tool‐making is seen as one of a number of cognitive reorganizations, not as a causal factor in canine reduction.