I’m watching a documentary and noticed how chill great ape babies are. They’re quite content just holding onto their mom, and you never see them crying in the same shrill, oftentimes excessive way human babies do.
Swaddled wrong? Cry. Gassy? Cry. Hungry? Cry. Too full? Throw up, then cry.
What gives?
In: 5
One anthropologist (Sarah Hrdy) posited an evolutionary mechanism. If an ape or monkey puts a baby down for a bit, it’s best chance of survival is to stay quiet and hope mum comes back. It can last for a good bit. A human baby is basically fucked if mum does not come back, very quickly. So make lots of really penetrating noise (babies’ cries are tuned to maximum annoyance), to remind her.
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