Interview with Daniel Lieberman:
http://www.outsideonline.com/outdoo...Human-Body-has-a-Story-to-Tell-.html?page=all
http://www.outsideonline.com/outdoo...Human-Body-has-a-Story-to-Tell-.html?page=all
Plenty of info there, but I've got a question: Is Lieberman implying that although flat feet do not interfere with procreation they do otherwise inhibit health and/or fitness? It sounded to me like be was agreeing that orthotics make up for the " deficit " of flat feet!
But he himself runs barefoot, right?
I think he was saying that things like arch supports cause the genes for flat feet to be phenotypically expressed, whereas formally, in a more active lifestyle, they would remain unexpressed, dormant or latent.Plenty of info there, but I've got a question: Is Lieberman implying that although flat feet do not interfere with procreation they do otherwise inhibit health and/or fitness? It sounded to me like be was agreeing that orthotics make up for the " deficit " of flat feet!
That was my understanding, yes. I did see some barefoot village elders in Mozambique with pretty flat feet, well-callused of course.OK, so if a person has the gene for flat feet but is living and moving around barefoot there will be no problem, but that same person using support and living a sedentary life style may develop problems that the "normal" arched person won't.
OK, so if a person has the gene for flat feet but is living and moving around barefoot there will be no problem, but that same person using support and living a sedentary life style may develop problems that the "normal" arched person won't.
Right, Lieberman says "genetic basis" and "genes." And I think a charitable interpretation of his interview answer could be read the same as Hoffman's analysis, that flat-footedness as a pathology doesn't exist among unshod populations. That's the way I took it anyway, and it concurs with my casual observations in Mozambique and elsewhere.I'd modify this slightly. First, I doubt there is a single "flat foot" gene, just as there is not a single "short" gene. There are a number of genes involved that can give a range of arch heights.
Second, as Hoffman pointed out in 1905, in "Conclusions Drawn from a Comparative Study of the Feet of Barefooted and Shoe-wearing Peoples", natural feet come with varying arch types. But what he found is that low arches were not pathological the way they are for shoe-wearers, "If these statistics are a fair index for all feet, the conclusion is justified that weakness of the longitudinal arch rarely results in its depression, and that flat foot as a pathological entity hardly exists."