In praise of the miracle of walking
By Dr Jonathan Moch
In this article , I will cover something a bit more pedestrian ... We often speak of the miracles of sight , of hearing , of taste , touch and smell , of breathing . But seldom do you hear chatter about the miracle of walking .
Only humans walk with an upright spine . Which means we can walk and talk , walk and eat , walk and think , walk and look back and then turn and see the horizon . We can even walk on the moon .
Let us explore this miracle of walking from my perch as a physician , a wide berth of readings and a keen observer of the human condition . What follows is haphazard memory recalls and reflections as I slowly page through a wonderful book , In Praise of Walking – A New Scientific Exploration by Professor Shane O ’ Mara , a world-renowned neuroscientist based at Trinity College , Ireland . And an intrepid walker to boot !
A first question to ponder is : Why have our ancestors risen onto their hind legs from the quadrupedal alternative ? It is not particularly helpful to dream up reasons why walking on two legs is a good thing for getting around – if it was , many other mammals ( and especially our closest relatives , the chimps ) would do it too .
Many theories have been advanced . I suspect the answer has something to do with the freeing of the hands as the really important advantage of bipedality . We rose on our hind legs , not because it is a good way of getting around , but because of what we are then able to do with our hands .
The distinguished zoologist Jonathan Kingdon agrees , and in his book , Lowly Origin , he suggests that the transition to bipedality was accelerated when humans started to do more of what he calls squat feeding – turning over stones or leaf litter for food – and developing rudimentary tools to hunt and harvest .
The physiological and anatomical adaptation to walking far distances is a key feature of evolution . It allowed our ancestors some 70 000 years ago to leave North East Africa ( now Ethiopia ) and move to populate the world .
Walking on two limbs instead of four is not easy , as we know . Humans typically need a year to learn to walk from birth , and a couple more to run and be agile . Comparatively , most mammals walk and run within minutes of birth .
As a grandparent , I watch how my youngest grandchild crawls , sits , tries to stand , but not yet walking . He just has to learn to do it himself . And deal with all the frustration of falling , time and again , and starting all over , a good metaphor for life !
13