So we moved on, to retrace the evolutionary story on the cultural side: 

 we explored the limitations of the world of the apes, the awakening dawn 

 of Australopithecus, the settling in of Homo liabilis, the maturation of 

 Homo erectus, and the flowering and prospering of Homo sapiens. 



We tried to dissect the various trends of cultural hominization, as we 

 had earlier done of brain-size increases. And we invoked the aid of cyber- 

 netics to explore some of the 2-way relationships between cultural and non- 

 cultural features. 



When accepting the invitation to deliver this James Arthur Lecture, 

 I intended to learn something about brain evolution. All the way along, I 

 had the guiding words of Claude Bernard echoing in my ear: "It is what 

 we think we know that prevents us from learning." 



Every so often, I had to steel myself, being mindful of Wilfred Trotter's 

 words, written long before the days of Professor Christiaan Barnard: "The 

 mind likes a strange idea as little as the body likes a strange protein and re- 

 sists it with a similar energy" (Trotter 1941, p. 186). 



Finally, at the end of it all, I found myself retreating to the potted 

 opiate of James Thurber, whom I shall allow to have the last word: 



The brain of our species is, as we know, made up largely of potassium, phos- 

 phorus, propaganda, and politics, with the result that how not to understand 

 what should be clearer is becoming easier and easier for all of us. Sanity, sound- 

 ness, and sincerity, of which gleams and stains can still be found in the human 

 brain under powerful microscopes, flourish only in a culture of clarification, 

 which is now becoming harder and harder to detect with the naked eye. [Thurber 

 1961, pp. 112-13] 



& »5* 



