Parent-Offspring Conflict
gregladen | June 28, 2012This looks like one of those questions that pops up when you start typing a query into a Google Search Box, but it is really a question asked rhetorically by Claudia Sawyer on my facebook status where I made mention of the fact that toddlers will put anything you give them in their mouth (even after that "putting everything in their mouth" phase is over ... they still do it enough that you can't give them knives or sandpaper, believe it or not).
And there actually is an answer to this question and it comes from science. The answer is about five years old, and here's why:
A newborn mammal…
emjohnson | July 8, 2009Offspring Abandonment in the Ancient and Natural World
In the Greek tragedy Oedipus Rex the great kingdom of Thebes is condemned following a case of mistaken identity (and a little patricide). The sordid tale begins when the infant prince is abandoned by his parents (see right) after learning of a prophecy that his son will one day murder his father, marry his mother and assume the throne. His ankles pierced with a spike, young Oedipus is sent to be abandoned atop mount Cithaeron. While this tale sets up a beautiful tragedy it also hints at a common reality in both the ancient and natural…