Ardipithecus and Pliocene Progressivism

It’s amusing to see how little time elapsed between the spectacular discovery of the Pliocene primate “Ardi” and the revelation, based on study of her canine teeth, that she was a “New Soviet Woman,” endowed with all the progressive behavioral characteristics pertaining thereto. In particular, we learn that she lived harmoniously as a co-equal partner with small-fanged males who shared their food with her, helped rear her offspring, and spared her the unseemly spectacle of fighting with other males for her favors. No doubt if we find a few more teeth we will discover that she was an innocent victim of imperialism and colonialism perpetrated by less worthy primates who diverged from the direct human line at a very early date, and that her carbon footprint was unusually small for a Pliocene mammal.