Many prehistoric Australian aboriginals could have outrun world 100 and 200 metres record holder Usain Bolt in modern conditions. Some Tutsi men in Rwanda exceeded the current world high jump record of 2.45 metres during initiation ceremonies in which they had to jump at least their own height to progress to manhood. Any Neanderthal woman could have beaten former bodybuilder and current California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in an arm wrestle. These and other claims are detailed in a book by Australian anthropologist Peter McAllister entitled Manthropology and provocatively sub-titled The Science of the Inadequate Modern Male. McAllister sets out his stall in the opening sentence of the prologue. If youre reading this then you or the male you have bought it for are the worst man in history. No ifs,no buts the worst man,period. As a class we are in fact the sorriest cohort of masculine Homo sapiens to ever walk the planet. McAllisters conclusions about the speed of Australian aboriginals 20,000 years ago are based on a set of footprints,preserved in a fossilised claypan lake bed,of six men chasing prey. An analysis of the footsteps of one of the men,dubbed T8,shows he reached speeds of 37 kph on a soft,muddy lake edge. Bolt,by comparison,reached a top speed of 42 kph during his then world 100 metres record of 9.69 seconds at last years Beijing Olympics. McAllister said that,with modern training,spiked shoes and rubberised tracks,aboriginal hunters might have reached speeds of 45 kph. But if they can do that speed of 37 kph on very soft ground I suspect there is a strong chance they would have outdone Usain Bolt if they had all the advantages that he does. Turning to the high jump,McAllister said photographs taken by a German anthropologist showed young men jumping heights of up to 2.52m in the early years of last century. It was an initiation ritual,everybody had to do it. It was something they did all the time. McAllister also said a Neanderthal woman had 10 per cent more muscle bulk than modern European man.
