CHAPTER XXXII 



THE UPRIGHT POSTURE 



It will be gathered from a perusal of the iovc^om^ 

 chapters that, in the main, I have attempted to derive 

 most of the peculiar features of Man, and of liis kindred, 

 from adaptations and advantages gained during an 

 arboreal apprenticeship. To this source of derivation of 

 these adaptations|I can see no real alternative: ])nt it 

 must be pointed out that most of the physical di-tails 

 to which I have called attention are generally explaiiuxl 

 as being outcomes of the " attainment of the erwt 

 posture." The problem of making Man has, indeed, 

 commonly been regarded as " the turning of an ordinary 

 quadruped a quarter of a circle into the vertical plane " 

 (Robert Munro). There is here evinced that unnatural 

 and thoroughly mechanical picture of " the far-reaching 

 effects on the organism of this slov.'[and painful acquisition 

 of a radically new posture " at which D wight and some 

 few others, have scoffed, but which underlies so tena- 

 ciously much modern anthropological teaching. The 

 erect position of Man is obvious, but I heartily agree w ith 

 D wight when he says that " as an explanation it has been 

 terribly overworked. "^Walking upright upon the surface 

 of the earth has produced its changes in the human hody. 

 of this there is no doubt; but we must be careful to dis- 

 tinguish between these ''finishing touches" and those 

 other changes which are so much older and so nuich 

 more important — the adaptations to arboreal life. 



We may not say at what point in the evolutionary 

 story the rising member of this stock became what all 



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