X-Git-Url: http://unremediatedgender.space/source?p=Ultimately_Untrue_Thought.git;a=blobdiff_plain;f=content%2Fdrafts%2Ffriendship-practices-of-the-secret-sharing-plain-speech-valley-squirrels.md;h=c9cac45147a91c58ab3f18abf61beb2a98fc6a17;hp=976749f0ca2718eae407ed0caaf74540e80defc6;hb=86e4e6d2920941ac91bf3cf7cd6ba9585f481e9a;hpb=a738e00d1eb2df1dcf9d108ec4f0079308484ee2 diff --git a/content/drafts/friendship-practices-of-the-secret-sharing-plain-speech-valley-squirrels.md b/content/drafts/friendship-practices-of-the-secret-sharing-plain-speech-valley-squirrels.md index 976749f..c9cac45 100644 --- a/content/drafts/friendship-practices-of-the-secret-sharing-plain-speech-valley-squirrels.md +++ b/content/drafts/friendship-practices-of-the-secret-sharing-plain-speech-valley-squirrels.md @@ -22,7 +22,7 @@ The coincidental conjunction of a friendship-forming instinct, a novel-secret-se But the squirrels' _novelty-seeking instincts_ didn't track such distinctions. Secrets from one subspecies thus functioned as a superstimulus to the other subspecies, on account of being so exotic, thus making "special" cross-subspecies friendships particularly desirable and sought-after. -At the same time, subspecies differences in social instincts also made them particularly _frustrating_, as friendships. Particular squirrels had a subspace of their behavior that characterized them as different from other individuals of the same age and sex: _personality_ being the technical term (coined in Dunbar's volume on social systems). The friendship-forming instinct was most stimulated between squirrels with similar or at least compatible personalities, and the two subspecies had different personality distributions that resulted in frequent incompatibilities: for example, west-valley ground squirrels tended to have a more anxious disposition (reflecting the need to be alert to predators on open terrain), whereas east-valley tree squirrels tended to have a more rambunctious nature, which tended to put west-valley ground squirrels on edge. +At the same time, subspecies differences in social instincts also made them particularly _frustrating_, as friendships. Particular squirrels had a subspace of their behavior that characterized them as different from other individuals of the same age and sex: _personality_ being the technical term (coined in Dunbar's volume on social systems). The friendship-forming instinct was most stimulated between squirrels with similar or at least compatible personalities, and the two subspecies had different personality distributions that resulted in frequent incompatibilities: for example, west-valley ground squirrels tended to have a more anxious disposition (reflecting the need to be alert to predators on open terrain), whereas east-valley tree squirrels tended to have a more rambunctious nature (as was useful for leaf fights, but which tended to put west-valley ground squirrels on edge). Really, the typical west-valley ground squirrel and the typical east-valley tree squirrel wouldn't have been friends at all, if not for the tantalizing allure of exotic secrets. Thus, special cross-subspecies friendships tended to be successfully formed much less often than they were desired.