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CANNIBALISM, the act or practice of eating human flesh by mankind. In his acci dental discovery of the West Indies Columbus heard of, if he did not himself see, the Carib Islands, the inhabitants of which were spoken of as Caribales, or, owing to the customary dialectical interchange of 1, n and r, Canibales. These Canibales or Caribales were reported to be man-eaters. This terrible association of Canibales with the practice of eating human flesh naturally enough led straightway to the transfer of the name of the people to their horrid custom. The Greek word, anthro coming down from pre-Christian times, indicates that the practice, though unknown to Columbus, was ancient and well enough known to be in the literature of the older peoples. The story of Polyphemus devouring human flesh as told in the 'Odyssey) and other legends of semi-divine man-eaters is evidence enough that the ancient authors knew, by hearsay at least, of this practice. It is a well-established fact that all races of men have at some time, in a greater or less degree, been guilty of the practice of eating human flesh for one purpose or another. It is very generally believed, and with a good show of reason, that there never has been a time, since man first appeared, down to and including our own, when the world has been free from canni balism. It is nearer being free from it now than it has been perhaps in all past time. To-day it exists among isolated South American tribes; in West Equatorial and Central Africa; in the Malay Archipelago, some of the South Sea Islands (mainly in Melanesia) and in parts of Australia. Excluding Australia cannibalism may be said to be confined to a belt of land extending to a little more than 10 degrees north and south of the equator. How far back the practice goes it is not possible to tell. So far as is known there is nothing to warrant the belief that the ancestors of the human species or the first of the human species ate one another. There is little if any evidence to indicate that down to as late a period as the close of the Old Stone Age the several races of men which had successively inhabited Euro-Asia and northern Africa prac tised cannibalism. Cannibalism is not univer sally characteristic of the savage state. A few charred and broken and scraped human bones from the cave-dwelling period are substantially all that has been found which can by any stretch of the imagination be supposed to hint at this practice. Tylor goes as far as the facts seem to warrant when he says that this evidence may "perhaps be taken to show that prehistoric savages were in this respect like those of modern times neither free from cannibalism nor universally practising it..) Cannibalism originates in and is carried on from widely different motives, ranging all the way from eating human flesh as a regular part of daily subsistence to the eating of it for purely magical or ritualistic reasons. It is not possible to draw a dividing line between the several kinds because all or nearly all forms are more or less interrelated. This may arise from the fact that usually the practice does not begin in a single motive., As a Means of Subsistence.— The most repulsive and degrading form of cannibalism is that of eating human flesh as a part, the main part, of the regular diet. The negro tribes along the Guinea Coast southwards into the Kongo and for some distance eastward eat human flesh as food. It is treated just as other races treat animal flesh. Raids are made to capture prisoners and they are herded and kept till wanted. Sometimes they are fattened just as other races fatten animals for the slaughter. Under great stress of hunger occasioned by shipwrecks, sieges and famines civilized persons have been driven to the eating of human flesh. The siege of Samaria about the middle of the 8th century B.C. (II Kings vi, 24ff); the siege of Paris in 1590; and the famine in Algiers in 1868 furnish instances of this. What civ ilized people are driven to do by the pressure of hunger it is not surprising that the savage should do with even greater readiness under similar circumstances. Many savage races have resorted to cannibalism onlyin times of famine. The Mungerra tribe in Queensland in times of severe famine *kill an eat some of their female children.) The natives of Tierra del Fuego, when starving in winter, *throttle and devour the oldest woman of the party. When asked why they did not kill and eat the dogs, they reply 'Dogs catch otters.' ° As Manifestation of Affection.— In credible as it may seem cannibalism in some instances seems to be prompted by affection. The Binderwurs of Central India killed and ate the sick and aged, °thinking this an act of kindness and acceptable to the goddess Kali.* The aborigines of southwest Victoria practise eating human flesh in a solemn service of mourning for the dead, particularly for those killed by accident. °The Tangara carry their dead about with them, and whenever they feel sorry for their death, they eat some of the flesh till nothing remains but the bones.) Among still other peoples parents partake of the flesh of their dead children las a token of grief and affection for the The practice of eating flesh for the purpose of honoring dead kinsmen is of a similar charac ter. Herodotus, writing of the Massagetie, a Scythian people living in the northeast of the Caspian, relates that when a man has attained a great age among these people it is the custom for his kinsmen to sacrifice him, boil his flesh with the flesh of cattle and eat it. This is accounted an exceedingly happy ending. Lyden describes a cannibalistic custom which has the appearance of a very pious ceremony. The aged and infirm invite their descendants to eat them. The victim ascends a tree around which the others assemble singing a funeral dirge: °The season is come, the fruit is ripe, and it must descend.) He then descends, and is put to death and eaten in a solemn banquet. As a Ritualistic Practice.— Cannibalism as a religious institution is one of the most widespread and persistent forms of the practice and it ranges all the way from almost a pass able refinement to the most revolting orgies. The religious purpose is not always the same. In some instances it is due to a desire, as among some Australian tribes, who make a practice of eating their totems, to become identified with the totem or god. In other cases the desire is simply to establish a close bond of friendship between the flesh-eating god and themselves. The peoples who offer human sacrifices to the vd eat of these sacrifices, believing that by so doing they directly and surely become possessed of the divine virtues supposed to proceed from such sacrifices. With the Khonds it was the custom for a girl representing the goddess Tari to be sacrificed and torn limb from limb by the worshippers eager to obtain a piece of the deified victim. Cannibalism as a purely re ligious exercise among people possessing a high degree of culture is best and most notoriously illustrated by the Mexican custom of offering human sacrifices to the god Huitzilopochtli. "The victims were enemies or slaves and were offered before the images of the gods. The priest cut open the breast with an obsidian knife, tore out the heart and offered it to the gods; then he sprinkled his assistant and the offerers with the blood. After this a cannibal feast on the body took place, priest and offerers partaking.) Early writers say these cannibalis tic sacrifices reached yearly into the thousands. To obtain rain from the rain-god Quiateot, children and adults were sacrificed to him and his images were sprinkled with their blood. As Magic and of the most varied forms of cannibalism is that orig. inating in the belief that by eating human flesh or certain parts of the human body very im portant advantages would be gained. Dead rel atives in some instances are eaten in the belief that the soul of the deceased will thus pass into the eater, and he thereby become possessed of all the desirable qualities of the dead man. In other instances the body of an enemy was eaten because that was the way to destroy the soul and thus put an end to further menace. Landor reports that in Tibet the dead is eaten partly by the Lamas and in part by the relatives, it being believed that the spirit whose flesh has been eaten will always remain friendly. The Boto cudos ate an enemy to render themselves invul nerable against the arrows of the hostile tribe. Among some peoples at the founding of a new town a human victim was slain and the heart and liver eaten by all present so that they might not die within the year. In I Kings xvi, 34, is reflected a survival of a similar custom. The idea that the eating of human flesh endows the eater with distinctly magical or supernatural powers is frequently met with in the savage world. In East Central Africa it is quite gen erally believed that the uncanny powers sup posed to be possessed by witches and wizards are obtained by the feeding of the latter upon human corpses. From this comes, naturally enough, the belief that whoever feeds on human flesh will have the power of witches and wizards. Not infrequently cannibalism has arisen from an almost uncontrollable passion for re venge, and a savage belief that eating an enemy is the surest way of bringing about his lasting disgrace. The ferocious natives of New Cale donia do not consider that revenge is complete until they have devoured the slain. The can nibal practices in Samoa seem to have had hatred and revenge as the motive. aI will roast was the greatest insult that could be offered a Samoan. For a long time after the practice was abandoned, captives, in token of submission, would offer burning wood and say •Kill and cook us when it seems good to The Tupis of South America ate their dead enemies, and the children were brought home captive and cared for till the age of 14 when they were slain and eaten. Instances have been met with where the criminal enemies within the tribe are slain and eaten. Where this is the custom it is usually the chief alone who has the privilege of eating the offending tribesmen. In some cases it is not easy to distinguish between this custom and that of mere glut tonous cannibalism. The chief goes so far as to cause a tumult to be raised. As a punishment the offender is slain and the chief invites guests to share in the meal of human flesh. So power ful an incitement to cannibalism is this passion for revenge that quite civilized peoples have been guilty of it. Other are several other motives leading to cannibalism more or less dis tinct from those mentioned. Among some peo ples the flesh of a fallen enemy was eaten after the fight by both contending parties as a token of entering into a binding' covenant of peace. At the coronation of a king in the Sandwich Islands it was the custom for the new king to swallow the left eye of a human victim that he might thus receive an accession of strength. Among the Indian tribes of the Northwest of America cannibalism took the form of initia tion into certain secret societies—a sort of ritualism. At the beginning of the initiation into the cannibal society the person is supposed to become possessed of the cannibal spirit, and so of a violent desire to eat human flesh. In olden times, when the cannibal was in a state of ecstasy, slaves were killed for him and he devoured them raw. Cannibal practices are of almost infinite variety, and perhaps all, except where human flesh is eaten simply as food, have their root in a superstitious view of life and the world. Naturally the practice has been disap pearing before the progressive enlightenment of the world, and even the tribes who are still guilty of eating human flesh as food are in creasingly ashamed of it, very often carrying on the practice in closely guarded secrecy. The bibliography of the subject covers a multitude of publications. Articles on an thropology and ethnology in journals devoted to such subjects will yield much information; also the narratives of travel and adventure by well-known explorers of early and later times. A few might be mentioned simply as sugges tions: Weeks, 'Among Congo Cannibals' ; Frazer, J. K., (Totemism and Exogamy); Stan ley, H. M., In Darkest Africa) ; Landor, W. S., 'In the Forbidden Land); Rannie, 'My Ad ventures South Sea ; Dennys, 'Folklore of China.>

Female 'ghost' appears during filming of Taiwanese drama Posted on 23 Sep 2011 A female 'ghost' has apparently been caught on photo during the shooting of Taiwanese idol drama Love Recipe. STOMPer Casper, who shared the story, said: "A set was of photographs were released to promote the drama, but one of the photos shows lead actor Kenji Wu leaning against a van, with the face of a woman appearing from inside the vehicle. "The crew insisted that there was no one in the van when the photo was taken. "According to a magazine report, Kenji Wu said he felt sick after shooting a scene in the van, and had to go on a three-day medical leave. He also said that he felt like someone had patted him on the back, but he couldn't find anyone when he turned around. "Perhaps the drama is so good, even spirits want to watch it."

Making soul connections Cheow Xin Yi Sep 21 We're more aware of mental illness - but not enough to recognise the signs in ourselves or friends, says author A veteran in the charity sector with more than 20 years of youth development and counselling experience under his belt, Mr Chua Seng Lee, 46, could not understand how he could miss the warning signs of depression. The young man he had been mentoring committed suicide last year, at the tender age of 23. Shocked at how little he knew about the "destructive powers" of depression and determined to turn his grief for a friend into a "blessing for others", the former director of the youth arm of Touch Community Services embarked on a personal mission to shed light on the subject. After interviews with psychiatrists, psychologists and mental health caregivers, as well as more than 20 sufferers of various mental health afflictions, his 19-month research effort finally culminated in a book featuring their stories on coping with and recovering from their illnesses. Speaking to Today, Mr Chua - who runs a training company and a charity - cited medical statistics he uncovered during his interviews with the professionals, such as how 35 per cent of depression cases are genetically influenced while the rest are caused purely by environmental factors. He stressed the need for society to "slow down" and be more sensitive to those more pre-disposed to depression, even as he warned about the increasing prevalence of mental illness in tandem with the rise of life stresses related to work, relationships and physical ailments. Thanks to education and social campaigns like Silver Ribbon (Singapore), Mr Chua reckons Singapore has moved towards greater awareness of mental health issues. "Everybody knows the word depression. Youths use it like part of their vocabulary and will say "I'm depressed". But we need to move beyond just describing what depression is to go into the causes, helping people to understand the signs and symptoms and refer people to get help," he said. In the case of his mentee, Colin (not his real name), Mr Chua said he had exhibited signs of clinical depression since his junior college days - when the student would lock himself up and cut off contact with everyone - but neither his friends nor Mr Chua himself "took (the symptoms) seriously". "We may be very well connected, but we may not be well-connected heart to heart. I may know you as a friend, we can go for a drink together, but I may not know what's going through in your heart," said Mr Chua. This is why his book, titled My Voice: Overcoming, includes a list of typical symptoms for clinical depression, such as being restless and irritable, having difficulty in concentrating and feeling emotional and often crying. "One very distinct sign is a difference in behaviour, for example, if you notice a drop in energy level or appetite, or if someone stopped doing what he or she used to enjoy doing," he said. According to him, two weeks of prolonged sadness will cause the brain to start producing excess cortisol, a stress hormone linked to clinical depression. Mr Chua sought to present stories from survivors whose mental conditions were sparked by a wide spectrum of external causes, from divorce and, work stresses to post-natal blues. In the case of former actress and businesswoman Jacelyn Tay - one of those featured in the book - the trigger was financial failure after she lost S$500,000 in an investment. Despite the stigma of mental illness, Mr Chua said it was not difficult for him to find mental health patients, in different stages of recovery, to share their experiences with him. In fact, of the seven featured in his book, four - including Jacelyn - used their real names. "The people who are willing to offer their story are those who have experienced some level of breakthrough. Depressed people at different stages of their sickness - not all are able to talk about it. I'm sure if I interviewed Jacelyn when she was in the pits, she wouldn't want to see or entertain me - she said she didn't bathe for two weeks." Still, Mr Chua says that stigmatisation is very much a real issue in Singapore. He has known cases where both sufferers of mental health conditions and their family members vehemently refuse treatment at the Institute of Mental Health despite the former already exhibiting violent tendencies. "This is something society must change ... A person with cancer - you'll just say the person is sick. But a person with a mental illness, we call him a mad person, we tie it to his identity when they are just normal people with a sickness." SOUL CONNECTORS Beyond publishing the book, which Mr Chua admits is very much about his desire to "find closure" after Colin's death, he has also kick-started a new programme called "SoulCare" through his charity Life! Community Development. Aimed at developing emotional resilience among youth, the idea is to train "soul connectors" to develop healthy "thinking, feeling and relating habits" through a series of lessons and activities. The programme, developed jointly with psychologists and psychiatrists, is at a pilot stage with Mr Chua leading training sessions with 20 students at the Singapore Institute of Management. "We hope to achieve two things through the process: Help them to discover more about themselves so that if they have symptoms (of mental illness), we can create this community where they can ask for help. Then they will also be the 'eyes and ears' for the people around them." Citing a lecture by United States clinical psychologist and author, Dr Archibald Hart, who said everyone will experience some form of depression at least once in their lifetime, Mr Chua said it is important that the youth equip themselves now with the tools to deal with the vicissitudes of life - especially when depression is expected to be the second-leading cause of disability by 2020, according to World Health Organization estimates. Through SoulCare, Mr Chua aims to reach out to 2,000 young adults aged 18 and above over the next two years, by collaborating with other tertiary learning institutes and workplaces. Chua Seng Lee's "My Voice: Overcoming" is published by Write Editions.

Rate This Article: (No Ratings Yet) Qing Ming Spring Festival In Singapore – Continuing A Long Tradition Of Filial Veneration Built by pushpitha on Friday, March 18th, 2011 The Festival of Qing Ming is a Chinese traditional holiday observed in Singapore for single day of each calendar year. The Festival is known by several names, such as Clear and Bright Festival and the Chinese version of All Souls Day. Falling upon the 15th day after the Spring Equinox, this celebration usually falls around early April according to the Gregorian calendar. The Chinese celebrates the newborn joy of spring on this day by honouring their ancestors and dearly departed in an outdoor ceremony. Boasting a history that stretches back over two and a half millennia, the festival is thought to have originated during the rime of Emperor Xuangzong. In a bid to curtail the extravagant displays held by the wealthy citizens of his kingdom in honour of their illustrious ancestors, the Emperor declared that such respects should thenceforth only be paid in the day of Qing Ming. The festival found a firm niche in Chinese culture and continued unbroken for generation until the Communist Revolution, which repealed the holiday. It was only reinstated by the Chinese government in 2008. In Singapore, however, Chinese expatriates were able to continue their cultural practices uninterrupted, and so the rites and rituals of Qing Ming became one of the many Chinese-influences permanent fixtures of the Singaporean yearly roster of pageantry. Although the festival is not officially recognized as a holiday by the Singapore government, the Lion City is one of the two places outside of China that most prominently hosts the ancient rites of veneration. It is thought that Qing Ming has been celebrated in Singapore by expatriate Chinese living in the Malaysian peninsula since the days of the Ming and Qing dynasties. Singaporeans rise early on the day of the festival and pays homage to their dead family members both at their household shrines and the graves of their relatives. Thus, the cemeteries, crematoriums and temples all become nexuses of family gathering on this day, by throngs of extended family members bearing incense, candles and food offerings. The Kong Meng San Phor Khark See Temple on Bright Hill Road is one of the most popular convening points for these rituals in the Lion City. Other expatriates go as far as visiting their family gravesites all the way in mainland China. Other than tending to the gravesites and offerings of illumination and incense, families also burn paper replicas of material possessions and “spirit money”. This harks back the ancient belief that the dead will need to carry these things to their journey in the afterlife. The family members then kowtow to the ancestral tombs several times in a show of filial piety. This ritual is performed usually according to the order of seniority, with the family patriarch commencing. After these proceedings of honouring the dead, the family then assembles a feast at a nearby memorial park and sits down to appreciate and reconnect with the living in a large and joyous family reunion. Those visiting Singapore in the springtime should not overlook this comparatively muted yet charming cultural spectacle. Visitors staying at a Singapore hotel right at the heart of the city, near Chinatown will enjoy an enviable vantage point when it comes to festival sightseeing. Raffles Hotel Singapore is the premier choice of accommodation in this area, being a legendary five star hotel in Singapore with a global reputation for hospitality and service excellence.  Report Article Tags: five star hotel in singapore, qing ming festival, raffles hotel singapore, singapore hotel Category: Recreation, Recreation, Travel Leave a Reply Name (required) Mail (will not be published) (required) Website Verify your real existence, Drag the flower to the bouquet Reset Notify me of followup comments!

The Indonesian island of Sumatra is the sixth largest island in the world. Sadly it has lost half its rainforest in the past 35 years, erased by the chainsaw to make way for palm oil and coffee plantations. Despite this, in the west of the island there are still vast tracts of forest standing, among them Kerinci Seblat National Park which covers 13,791 square kilometres – about the size of Montenegro. It is from these forests that reports of a species of ape that walks upright and is unknown to science have been emerging for almost 100 years. The orang pendek, "short man" in Malay, is said to be 4-5 feet tall but powerfully built with broad shoulders and long muscular arms. Sightings suggest it walks upright like a human, its body is covered with black or honey-coloured hair, and it may have a long mane of hair from its head down its back. It appears to live on the forest floor, unlike the arboreal Sumatran orang-utan which is confined to the north of the island. The orang pendek's diet is said to be mostly fruits, vegetables and tubers, but some witnesses say they have seen it ripping open logs to get at insect larvae. Rare reports describe it eating fish and freshwater molluscs, and some early reports even have it consuming the flesh of dead rhinoceros that had fallen into pit traps. Native people in Sumatra, including the modern Sumatrans of Malayan descent and the Orang Rimba or Kubu – the aboriginal people of Sumatra – ascribe no supernatural powers to the creature, unlike tigers, pythons and other naneks: spirit or tribal totem animals. Nevertheless, many jungle people fear the orang pendek because of its strength, even though it is not considered aggressive and will usually move away from any human it sees. It is said occasionally to use rocks and sticks as crude weapons, hurling them when it feels threatened. Native knowledge of the creature goes back into the mists of history and there are a number of local names for it. In the south-eastern lowlands it is called sedapa or sedapak. Gugu is the name in southern Sumatra while in the Rawas district it is atu rimbu. In Bengkulu it is known as sebaba. These days the creature is reported only in the west of the island, specifically in and around Kerinci Seblat National Park. News of the creature first reached the west in the early 20th century via Dutch colonists. In 1918, the Sumatran governor, LC Westenenk, recorded an event that took place in 1910: A boy from Padang employed as an overseer by Mr van H– had to stake the boundaries of a piece of land for which a long lease had been applied. One day he took several coolies into the virgin forest on the Barissan Mountains near Loeboek Salasik. Suddenly he saw, some 15 metres away, a large creature, low on its feet, which ran like a man … it was very hairy and was not an orang-utan; but its face was not like an ordinary man's … " Westenenk recorded another encounter. In 1917 a Mr Oostingh, owner of a coffee plantation at Dataran, was in the forests at the base of Boekit Kaba when he saw a figure sitting on the ground about 30 feet away. According to Oostingh: His body was as large as a medium-sized native's and he had thick square shoulders, not sloping at all. The colour was not brown, but looked like black earth, a sort of dusty black, more grey than black. "He clearly noticed my presence. He did not so much as turn his head, but stood up on his feet: he seemed quite as tall as I (about 1.75m). Then I saw that it was not a man, and I started back, for I was not armed. The creature took several paces, without the least haste, and then, with his ludicrously long arm, grasped a sapling, which threatened to break under his weight, and quietly sprang into a tree, swinging in great leaps alternately to right and to left." The sightings continued into the 1920s, some of them at very close range. In May 1927, a Dutch plantation worker called AHW Cramer who lived in Kerinci reported seeing an orang pendek from a distance of only 10 metres. It had long hair and black skin. The beast ran away leaving small, human-like footprints. Also in 1927 an orang pendek was said to have been caught in a tiger trap but broke free. The traces of blood it left were examined by zoologist KW Damerman who concluded that it was not from a bear, gibbon or human. In the 1930s interest in the creature waned, perhaps due in part to the outbreak of the second world war and the Indonesian struggle for independence that followed. It was not thrust into the public gaze again until an Englishwoman, Debbie Martyr, began her research in the late 1980s. Martyr first visited Sumatra in July of 1989 as a travel writer, and while camped on the slopes of Mount Kerinci her guide Jamruddin pointed out areas were Sumatran rhinoceros and tiger could be seen. Then, casually, he commented that in the forested mountains east of Gunung Tujuh orang pendeks were sometimes seen. When Debbie made a sceptical comment Jamruddin told her that he had seen the orang pendek twice. He told her it was still common, but getting rarer due to the incursions of farmers. Martyr stayed on in Sumatra and began to collect eyewitness accounts that would eventually fill several volumes. She had her own sighting in 1990. I saw it in the middle of September; I had been out here four months. At that time I was 90% certain that there was something here, that it was not just traditional stories ... When I saw it I saw an animal that didn't look like anything in any of the books I had read, films I had seen, or zoos I had seen. It did indeed walk rather like a person and that was a shock. "It was a relatively small, immensely strong, non-human primate. But it was very gracile, that was the odd thing. So if you looked at the animal you might say that it resembled a siamang or an agile gibbon on steroids! It doesn't look like an orang-utan. Their proportions are very different. It is built like a boxer, with immense upper body strength … It was a gorgeous colour, moving bipedally and trying to avoid being seen." Martyr, together with photographer Jeremy Holden, began a 15-year search funded by Fauna and Flora International. Jeremy used camera traps set up in remote jungles but failed to capture orang pendek on film. However, he did catch a glimpse of it as he climbed over a ridge in the jungle, but the creature swiftly moved away. He only saw it from the back but noted it walked upright like a man. My good friend Adam Davies, together with Andrew Sanderson and Keith Townley, have found and cast orang pendek footprints, and collected hair in the Kerinci area. Primate biologist Dr David Chivers of the University of Cambridge compared the cast with those from other known primates and local animals and concluded that it was definitely an ape with a unique blend of features from gibbon, orang-utan, chimpanzee and human. "From further examination the print did not match any known primate species and I can conclude that this points towards there being a large unknown primate in the forests of Sumatra," he reported. Anthropologist Dr Jeffrey Meldrum at Idaho State University said the cast was probably a primate print, but suggested it might be a handprint. Having seen orang pendek tracks in the field, however, I believe Davies's track is a footprint rather than a handprint, and from my experience of the great apes I can say that the tracks of the orang pendek are quite distinct from any known species of ape. Dr Hans Brunner, an expert on mammal hair, compared the hairs with those of other primates and local animals and concluded that they originated from a previously undocumented species of primate. On Friday I will describe my own three expeditions to Sumatra, during which we interviewed witnesses, set camera traps and examined footprints. On the latest of these expeditions, in 2009, one of the group saw the creature. I believe the orang pendek is a great ape closely related to the orang-utan – in other words an undiscovered species of ponginae. In all the interviews I have conducted with eyewitnesses, they describe what sounds like an ape rather than a hominin: long arms, massive shoulders, little neck, much body hair, short legs. But why, in a jungle full of trees, does the orang pendek walk upright and live on the ground? Martyr suggested that the creature became bipedal in the wake of the eruption of the Toba supervolcano around 75,000 years ago that would have stripped the island of its trees. However, this does not explain how the Sumatran orang-utan survived. I believe the orang pendek's distinct evolutionary origins are older than this. When they come to the forest floor, male Sumatran orang-utan walk on two legs, but up in the trees they will also walk erect along branches. Bipedalism was once thought to have developed on the plains of East Africa when hominids first left the jungles to exploit new food sources around 5 million years ago. Standing erect, according to the theory, gave them a better view of potential predators. The vervet monkey demonstrates this kind of behaviour, rearing up to look about it for danger. But now it seems that bipedalism may have begun to evolve in the jungles. During a year-long study of the Sumatran orang-utans of Gunung Leuser National Park, palaeoanthropologist Susannah Thorpe of the University of Birmingham spotted apes in the trees on almost 3,000 occasions, including numerous instances were they walked erect. In 75% of these cases they maintained balance with their hands, and for over 90% of the time their legs were stiff, unlike the bent-knee, bent-hip shuffle of chimps and gorillas, which also sometimes stand upright in trees. The apes stood erect mainly to reach for fruit while on fairly narrow branches. Thorpe postulated that the straight-legged posture helped them balance in the same way as a gymnast on a trampoline. Palaeoanthropologist Bernard Wood of George Washington University in Washington DC commented on the findings: "Most of us had assumed that the only place where it's sensible to be bipedal is on the ground. A handful of fossil species dating from 5 million to 28 million years old, mostly before chimpanzees split from hominins, showed signs of upright posture and bipedalism, but the evidence has been pretty flakey." Wood thinks Thorpe's findings put these fossil apes in a new light and that they may have been true bipeds that evolved bipedalism to reach for fruit. As the jungles shrank they took up bipedal walking on the ground while the gorillas and chimpanzees took up knuckle walking. The fossils in question were of course African, but could something similar have occurred in the jungles of Asia, ultimately giving rise to a number of bipedal ape species? Sunda was a large land mass that once incorporated Sumatra, Borneo, Java, the surrounding islands and the Malayan peninsula and connected them all to mainland Asia. As melting glaciers flooded the oceans 19,000 years ago, sea levels rose and the huge land mass became the islands we know today. As I have mentioned, the two known orang-utan species had already speciated some 400,000 years ago. We do not know why this occurred but the more gracile Sumatran form, and the robust Bornean, separated. The robust form populated the eastern island of Borneo and the gracile the western island of Sumatra. A larger form, Pongo hooijeri, the size of a modern gorilla and presumably a ground dweller, existed further north in what is now mainland Asia. Closely related and known only from its teeth and jaws was the huge Gigantopithecus blacki. This latter species has left fossils in India, Vietnam and China – some dating as recently as 300,000 years ago. Due to the wide shape of the jawbone it has been postulated that Gigantopithecus was a biped, with the neck placed directly under the skull. If this is correct, and if the rest of the animal was built on the same scale, then Gigantopithecus would have stood 10 feet tall. Some believe that the creature is not extinct but survives in parts of India, Tibet, China, the Himalayas and elsewhere, known as the larger type of yeti. All of the above, including modern orang-utans, seem to have descended from a genus of ancient apes known as Sivapithecus. They flourished 12.5 to 8.5 million years ago and had bodies shaped like chimpanzees, but heads more like those of modern orang-utans. Another genus Lufengpithecus arose around 10 million years ago. These may have descended from an earlier form of Sivapithecus. Morphologically they seem to fall between Sivapithecus and modern orang-utans. It is from Lufengpithecus that modern orangs may have evolved. I think that when the speciation of the modern orangs began, they split not into two but three species. The robust P. pygmaeus, the more gracile and more upright P. abelii and a third, smaller terrestrial species that we today know as the orang pendek. If we can prove this creature exists, not only will it be an astounding zoological discovery but it may give us more clues to how bipedalism evolved in our own species. Richard Freeman is zoological director of the Centre for Fortean Zoology. On Friday, as his latest expedition begins in Sumatra, he describes his own quest for the orang pendek

  0 0 Lonesome women seek lust-ing relationships Mon, Sep 12, 2011 | The Star/Asia News Network By Wong Pek Mei, Ng Si Hooi and A. Raman MALAYSIA - Many women are willing to seek new partners to fulfil their sexual desires despite having good looks and a rich husband, Metro Ahad reported. They look for single or even married men to fulfil their lust, but at home, they are still the housewives and the mothers to their children. The daily's reporters, who went undercover, tracked a group of such women in their 30s, who lamented that felt lonely without their husbands, who are usually busy businessmen. One of them, Linda, 31, said she has had relationships with five men during the past seven years. However, she would not leave her husband and family, although she claimed that her husband was more committed to his work than to her. "I realise that my behaviour is wrong. I know what I am doing and I'm now happy with the path that I chose," she said. Linda said her husband only looked for her when he wants sex. "Even that comes once a month," she added. Shima, 34, said she has been having a difficult relationship with her husband's family even after eight years of marriage. What was even worse was that her husband preferred to communicate with his own family than with her. That was why she decided to find other partners. "I was worried at first that my husband and family would find out. But now I know how to handle the situation," she said. Shima justified her act, claiming that she suspected that her husband was doing the same thin