I have an uncle-in-law in Jaipur who is a very prominent doctor. He’s one of the most fun relatives I have, especially for late night discussions on diverse and often useless discussions. We disagree on most everything we discuss and sometimes it gets to the point that we are almost ready to roll up our sleeves to prove a point we feel strongly about. During a recent family gathering, we were up around till about three in the morning arguing about the established milestones in a new-born baby’s life.
I think they are purely arbitrary and I let him know my opinions on the matter. As usual, he wasn’t very happy about my stand and we ended up arguing on this same point for several nights. Our arguments were based on one of these milestones around the time of birth when a baby first recognizes his mother and returns her smiles. This is supposedly a technical indication of bonding between the two or the beginning of bonding anyway. I think its crap. From what I have seen of my own daughters, their sense of smell or her voice plays a bigger role in recognition of the mother than sight.
The laughing part is ok but I think it is more or less a forced evolutionary thing in humans. We have always been partial to beautiful babies and have managed to force the hand of evolution. Its not just for our babies. We have selectively crossbred dogs, poultry and cattle to better suit our own requirements. We may not have known it at the time but it is true. There is nothing wrong in it. If a cow gives more milk it has more chances of gaining favor from its masters and would be carefully bred. And over thousands of generation of selection by us, we have cows which give more milk consistently even though naturally it is only supposed to give enough milk to sustain its calf. A dog which is better at guarding its owner is bred more carefully and more often than one which is indifferent. This has resulted in dogs being much better at guarding by our definitions than their ancestors.
The same is true for us as well. We like beautiful babies, whether consciously or sub-consciously we promote the ones that feel better to us. The ugly ones are neglected from birth and the beautiful ones are pampered throughout. So they end up getting more opportunities, better lifestyles, better partners. All this is not necessarily intentional. It’s the human part of us. The better looking ones lead more protected and bountiful life and have more chances to procreate than those who are not. And like the bubble sorting algorithm in computers, the more suited ones gradually rise to the top over generations while the less suited ones are discarded.
Many people would frown at this and deny it vehemently. They would claim to love their children no matter how they turned out. But scientifically we are just another life form and like all life forms our strongest instinct is that of survival. Beautiful people is just another extension of that. They are discriminated for throughout their lives and are more likely to end up in positions of power and influence. Because of this, their children automatically are more protected and cared for. Over several millennia this has resulted in better looking babies for the whole human race. The uglier ones never made it this far.
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