Why tall?

There was a time in the Earth’s history when it was covered
by tall grasses. Faced with this endless savannah, I assume that
primitive humans cleared part of the land to establish their
dwellings and carry on with their day-to-day activities. They
could not, however, always stay there and needed at times to
travel through this endless prairie.

Picture yourself walking among these tall grasses. If
you’re not tall, you feel as if you’re in a “green prison.” You
lose all sense of direction, but this is the least of your
problems. There are wild beasts everywhere, not to mention
members of hostile clans. Your movement through the grasses can
attract the attention of a saber-tooth tiger; if you can’t see
him, it could very quickly be over for you.

Women being shorter than men, needed to be accompanied by
their partner. In turn, if this partner was tall, you, as a
woman, felt safer. He could see over the grasses and spot
potential dangers. Thus females preferred taller men, and the
taller the better. This preference in time became part of their
genetic package. In other words women find tall men more
attractive. And this carried on long after that preference
played any useful role. In time these endless prairies
disappeared. But we are still stuck with the “Must Be Tall!”

Anthropology together with Evolutionary Psychology can bring
to modern women the following message: “You no longer need a
tall partner. The savannah is long gone. There are no longer
any saber-tooth tigers, at the most you will meet the odd
pussycat!”

We are not the slaves of our genes. We do not respond only
to urges and basic instincts. We are humans after all, and our
fate is to continually change. New knowledge gives us power, the
power to abandon that which is useless and move forward.

Modern women should look at men as a package, they should
not abandon valuable attributes for useless physical
characteristics such as height.

(Of course, what I just said applies to men as well. But
here I am writing about women. I can only pursue one objective
at a time).

Armed with this knowledge, can women choose their mates more
judiciously? Not yet, not this generation, or indeed many
generations after it. But there will come a time when women will
wonder why their female ancestors were so obsessed with tall
males.

(I could be mistaken regarding the timing, if so, prove me
wrong!)

Sources

1) Why do people think being tall is a positive trait?
on Yedda-People.Sharing.Knowledge.
http://yedda.com/questions/people_think_tall_positive_trait_95155
81019891/

2) When being tall is a “disability”
By Susannah Cullinane
BBC News.UK
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4229000.stm

3) Being Tall May Raise Prostate Cancer Risk
Study Shows Link Between Men’s Height and Risk of Prostate Cancer
By Neil Osterweil
WebMD Health News
Reviewed by Louise Chang, MD
www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=92357

4) Are tall people more susceptible to certain health problems
than people of average height?
www.teengrowth.com

5) Consultation with the Specialist: Tall Stature
Bruce S. Alpert, MD*
*Plough Foundation Professor of Pediatrics; Director, Pediatric
Clinical Research Center, University of Tennessee, Memphis, TN.
http://pedsinreview.aappublications.org/cgi/content/extract/19/9/303

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