The Mythical Hyrax

Watch out for the yellow-spotted rock hyrax: he's got a mean streak!

My friend Mike is obsessed with two animals found in Jordan: the hyrax and gerboa. I remain skeptical that they even exist at all. However, Mike is adamant that they do, as is someone who wrote articles on them in Wikipedia (it could be that the author and Mike are the same person). The story on hyraxes goes something like this:

Hyraxes are any of four species of fairly small, thickset, herbivorous mammals that live in rocky terrain across Africa and the Middle East. They are furry, rotund creatures with a short tail. Most measure between 30–70 cm long and weigh between 2–5 kg.

They are well-adapted to the arid regions of Jordan. They have complex, multi-chambered stomachs that allow symbiotic bacteria to break down tough plant materials, so that they can digest just about any kind of plant. They also have efficient kidneys that allow water retention, and their feet have rubbery pads with numerous sweat glands, helping them grip rocky surfaces.

Hyrax males have a mean streak.  Antagonistic behavior is often displayed by a single male against his rivals when protecting the territory of his small family group. He will growl and chew rapidly and loudly at them. Where there is abundant living space, the male may dominate multiple females, each with their own range. One can only assume that the greater the territory, the nastier the hyrax alpha male.  The remaining males live solitary lives, often on the periphery of areas controlled by larger males.

Where did these alleged creatures come from? The order first appears in the Eocene fossil record over 40 million years ago, and for many millions of years hyraxes were the primary terrestrial herbivore in Africa. Imagine that!  There were many different species, the largest of them about the weight of a small horse, the smallest the size of a mouse. Their numbers began to fall during the Miocene when they competed head to head with recently evolved bovids.  However, despite being pushed into more marginal areas, the order remained widespread, diverse and successful until the beginning of the Pleistocene (2 million years ago). 

The descendants of the really big hyraxes evolved in different ways. Some became smaller, and gave rise to the modern hyrax family. Others appear to have taken to the water (perhaps like the modern capybara), and ultimately gave rise to the elephant family.

Yup. Hyraxes are often described as being the closest living relative to the elephant. They still share numerous features with elephants, such as toenails, excellent hearing, sensitive pads on their feet, small tusks, good memory, high brain functions compared to other similar mammals, and the shape of some of their bones.

Sure thing, Mike.  Yup, mouse-like elephants.
 
 

Mike also really likes unicorns and insists that, like the hyrax, they too exist

History's lessons

Hernan Cortes

Spain’s empire in the 16th Century saw ships laden with gold and silver sail from her many world-wide colonies back to the mother country. Some estimate that 16th C Spain had the equivalent of $1.5 trillion (USD, 1990) in gold and silver. Having access to such largesse was not necessarily a good thing. Such wealth contributed to ultra-inflation in Spain in the last decades of the 16th century, and made Spain overly dependent on foreign sources of raw materials and manufactured goods. The silver and gold whose circulation helped facilitate the economic and social revolutions in the Low Countries, France and England and other parts of Europe helped stifle them in Spain. In a way, all of her money positioned Spain as a ‘consumer’ country, and condemned her to a Late Medieval world that saw aristocrats all the more unwilling to get their hands dirty in something as base as manufacturing. Spain simply consumed, while so many other countries of Europe entered with aplomb the industry of the Renaissance period and became global ‘producers’.


What is the point, I hear you ask? My dear uncle Allan has been traveling around the world for a few years now, and is, I think, on his third lap. The last time he came to Campbell River, he told us that traveling west from North America to the Far East was a revelation. On this side of the Pacific we see the fruits of those eastern manufacturing juggernauts in our stores. However, when in the Far East, he sees the very source of such prolific industry and manufacturing. He argues that even if America’s economy is presently still bigger, at this rate it will not be long before it will be eclipsed by these manufacturing and producing economies. It is simply a matter of time.

Already we are the consumers, and the Far Eastern economies are the producers. On this trajectory, we are doomed to repeat Spain’s history, and slide into economic and political obscurity, while the Far East continues to rise in economic and political power. If history does indeed repeat, we are witnessing the death throes of American power and influence.

Why is this important?  As flawed as our western-style democracies can be (George W Bush's administration represents, perhaps, the nadir), even the worst democracies have got to be better than the best autocracies, let alone theocracies.  With the passing of economic and political power to countries such as China, the western democratic powers will lose political influence in world affairs.  This might mean the passing of hard fought world legislation on human rights issues like the treatment of women, First Nations, homosexuals, to name just three.  Will a politically powerful China be at all concerned about basic human rights?  Will it not simply flex its muscles when it is displeased?

Dr Zeuss' 'Who-ville'

The Economist magazine ran a story this week on a group of islands called Socotra off the coast of Yemen. Dr. Zeuss might have been inspired by this place.

The Sucotran archipelago is on the right side of the above map

The beaches and sea around these islands are filled with giant lobsters, turtles, and dolphins. Because these islands are whipped throughout the year by gale force winds, the beaches have dunes of white sand that rise hundreds of metres high.   

White dunes surround this very odd place

Beyond the beaches and cliffs, the islands comprise limestone plateaus cut by gorges of rushing streams, and spiked by granite towers rising to 1500 metres.   About 50,000 natives live here, subsisting off mostly fish and goat.  They speak four dialects of a 'sing-song' language intelligible only to the people of these islands, and they live in caves often cut into the granite towers.  They follow an ancient Socotran calendar based on 13 months.

'Dragon's Blood' tree

The people live among 700 species of flora and fauna found only on these islands.  A species of tree called 'dragon's blood' can grow up to 15m in height and can live up to 500 years.  It oozes red sap and looks like a 'cross between a steroidal mushroom and a monster broccoli'. A breed of wild cat wanders about the limestone terraces, and a species of cows stand only a couple of feet high.  

'Bottle' tree

 One day I'd like to visit this place.  Perhaps while there I'll meet 'Yertle the Turtle', or 'Bartholemew Cubbins'.  

Women in power

Two years ago at our college, all but one person on 'President's Council', the group that wields the most power, were male.  Due to retirement, just about every one of these positions has changed hands, and presently, only one of the males remain.  This might represent a growing trend across our society.


I see it.  I look out at my classes of thirty students, and all but three or four of them are male.  While anthropology is rarely the choice of these students for a profession later on in life, it is through anthropology and other social sciences and humanities that students will become lawyers, architects, politicians, judges, psychologists, professors, and a host of other professions that carry influence and nurture our cultural heritage.  While I don't have empirical data in front of me, it seems at any rate that just about all of this cultural heritage and responsibility seems to be changing hands from males to females in this generation.


How important is the passing from one gender to the other the reins of power and influence?  In 1989, Chairman Mao was asked to assess the influence of the French Revolution at its bicentenary: he replied that it was too early to tell.  It could be the same for the issue of females in our culture gaining positions of power and influence: we simply cannot properly assess its importance at this point.


However, there is a very good chance that it could be as critical as some of the most important developments in western civilization spanning roughly three millennia.  Because I am feeling rather rash and irresponsible, as well as deliriously happy at finishing the marking for this term, I am going to throw a Mao-like discretion to the wind.


I think that the move away from patriarchy in our society is as important as any of the following things:  the setting aside of pagan gods and the embracing of Christianity in about the 4th C AD; the embarkation of European hoodlums and fanatics eastwards into the Middle East in the Crusades, and later westwards towards a 'discovery' of a New World; the re-discovery of the ancient texts during what we now refer to as the Renaissance; the breaking away from Scholasticism in the 18th C into a new world of unfettered enlightenment; a new method in science that has allowed us to answer efficiently age old questions at a dizzying pace; the setting aside of Newton in favour of a relative approach to physical things; the science of the mind and all those other cool ideas developed first by Freud and Jung;  the exploration and analysis of space, and the realization that we are simply on an insignificant rock in a vast universe. 


It is fun and exciting to think of our culture on the brink of a Brave New World, this time run by females.  Perhaps my daughter will be Empress.

Revisiting Sport's Leap Year

Earlier this year I posted a piece on Sport's Leap Year. 

So far, so good.  I was really happy that the Saints won the Super Bowl, even though I appreciate the genius of Peyton Manning. 

Canada Men's Hockey, Gold Medal Triumph

Now in an Olympic's aftermath, the only thing for me that really went beyond stamp collecting of medals for many sports that I have never tried nor ever seen in real life, was hockey.  The Canadian men and women's teams won gold in hockey, and because of this, the Olympics were a stupendous success.

As expected, the Sedins have been brilliant in these play-offs

The Canucks have found success early in the play-offs, defeating the red-hot LA Kings in 6 games to advance to the second round of the play-offs.  They will now meet Chicago Black Hawks, their nemesis of last season.  Last year, the Canucks came within a couple of minutes from going up 3-1 in the series against Chicago, but the young, speedy, and skilfull Hawks prevailed and won the series 4-2.  This year, the Canucks seem to relish playing the Hawks again, perhaps for the sweet taste of redemption, or perhaps because revenge is a dish best served cold. 

Arsenal still has a wonderfully talented core group of players

Arsenal - brilliant, meteoric, beautiful - crashed out of the FA Cup, Champions League, and are now mathematically eliminated from winning the League Cup.  Oi vay.  The good thing is that they have locked up third place, and so have guaranteed entry into Europe next year for Champion's League play.

Lionel Messi: the best player of our time

Tomorrow I will sit back and watch Barcelona's smooth-as-silk style of play triumph over Bayern Munich and then the winner of Lyon/Inter for the Champions League title. For those of you who do not know, this Barcelona team might be the best soccer team ever assembled.  Even if you do not particularly like the sport, try to catch a glimpse: it is simply a joyous celebration of the beauty of sport.  Lionel Messi might be a god.

Hotel room in the Crystal Hotel, Aqaba, Jordan

The World Cup of soccer is still coming up.  I and Kira will be in the Middle East, and apart from the odd game on weekends, will suffer an almost total eclipse of this most important sporting tournament.  My hope is that on those precious weekends, my daughter, some of my friends, and I will gather around a hotel tv for a game: we will watch beautiful soccer, eat nuts, and drink more Amstel than we really ought to.   And then we will watch another game.

Mark, Mark, Mark... life as a hair-lipped dog

I have just marked the last final exam, and this term is finally over. 

I have been marking constantly for the past 2 months.  First were rough drafts of the first essays in Liberal Studies, then final drafts.  Next came midterms in first and second year anthropology.  Then came the essay outlines and then essays for first and second year Anthro.  This was followed by rough and final drafts of Liberal Studies essays, and then final exams for the Anthro classes.  Not a day has gone by in the last two months that I have not sat down and marked something, be it an exam or an essay.  Today, I marked my last final exam, posted the marks, and now look forward to Spring session beginning next Monday as we prepare to go on a dig to Jordan for a month.

All of this marking takes its toll.  I find that after a session of analyzing, interpreting, judging, and then finally giving a grade, I tend to think differently.  Aidan's job of cleaning the kitchen after dinner is about a C+, Kira fed the fish at an A level, Denise's desk sits at a C- and only with hard work and diligence can she bring it up to a B level.  American Idol is on tonight, and Simon is a wonderful salve to Ellen's happy ignorance and Randy's eternal optimism.  I like House because he too tends to grade everything in his world.  Because Arsenal blew their last 3 games, rendering them out of contention for the Premiership title, they have gone from an A to a B- on the year. 

After so much grading fatigue, at this time of the year I usually seek out tasks that limit the amount or scope for assessment.  I need to start running again, meditating, taking long, luxurious baths, reading fun and exciting novels, riding my bicycle.  After a few weeks I will stop grading life so much.

I give this post a 'B'.

The Canucks will break my heart

Sigh

I know it.  It happens every year.  Everyone I know who enjoys hockey and supports the Vancouver Canucks in the play-offs, inevitably spends time in mourning this time of year. 

And this is odd, because they tend to do so well in the regular season.  They have won their division two of the last three years, and over the last decade have had an impressive win-loss record. Every play-off season, we all hope that this year is going to be different, and the Canucks will figure out how to win when they are behind.  Last year they bowed out to a brilliant Chicago Black Hawks in the second round. That they lost three out of the four games having had a three goal cushion was like a kick in the gut.

This year they are playing the Los Angeles Kings in the first round.  The Kings' line-up is comprised of young, fast, strong, committed players that had a wonderful regular season.  The Kings are now up 2-1 in a best of seven series that might just go seven games.  The two teams are very close.

There are many variables in hockey.  The play-offs are long and gruelling, and the eventual Stanley Cup winners will have played at least 16 games, and possibly 28 games to win it.  It is a contact sport that is played at a dizzyingly fast pace.  Inevitably there will be injuries to key players, and the good teams are those with enough depth at every position to see them through.

However, since their entrance into the NHL in 1971, the Canucks have made it to the finals only twice, in 1982 and 1994, and lost both times.  A Stanley Cup is a good idea, nothing more.  Given their 39 year track record of mediocrity, there is one thing we can count on: the Canucks will break peoples' hearts.