“
In the Sierra foothills there are the California Caverns, a gigantic cave system that begins, after an initial narrow twisting descent of 30-some feet, with an abrupt 180-foot drop… The Park Service found scores of ancient human skeletons at the bottom of that drop, dating back centuries, millennia. Knowledge of the Native American cultures living there at those times argued strongly against these being human sacrifices. Instead, they were explorers who took one step too far in the gloom. And the skeletons are always of adolescents.
[The author notes that this sort of heedless exploring behavior is common to our relatives the baboon, the chimpanzee, etc. etc. and argues it contributes to our success as a species.]
”— The Trouble With Testosterone, Robert M. Sapolsky, p. 88n
(Source: marick)
