WHY DID PEOPLE START FARTING?

I think Queen Victoria began the trend. The exact genesis of her lifting one ham to sound the trumpet is not factually established.

Oooo . . . cool, an academically sourced reply . . .

What was the alternative? Exploding?

Nope... It's just our ancestors were into bullshitting big time.

Which type of fart are you considering? I tend toward the application of farting.

I mean; flatulent farts probably were first used as communication because of their bark and whistle, whereas fetid farts were more individually unique mark range, or volume.

Then there are the mixtures of flatulence and fetid that imply signals of each.

Rsp

I think volume was the most important, this would bring one into close proximity and then the moisture content and use of direction manoeuvre's to connect with the commuters nostrils'.. the rest I leave to your imagination ( phew )

All of this suggests to me that farting would have been a liability to the hunter-gatherers, who needed to keep their scent from potential prey.

What if it was farting prey? Cattle are well-known for their methane production. Are antelope similar in this regard? Perhaps a prehistoric hunter (let's call him Og) put on an antelope skin, ingested a mess of beans, and then hid in the herd, farting away, until it was time for the hunt.

Of course, sometimes Og himself would be speared, but hey, that's the price of progress.

Og invented the phrase,
"Pull OG Finger"

I think I read somewhere that prehistoric man had a much better sense of smell than us, so I therefore put forward my theory that the noise element of the average male fart was purely to warn the ultra sensitive noses of his mates that an unbearable pong was due to engulf them.

This is why the silent but deadly is seen as SO antisocial. A classic example of this was when my better half and I were in a long, stationary queue at airport check in, with another couple who were our good friends that were going on holiday with us.
We stood for a good long while, when all of a sudden, my friend leant into me and whispered, "Good luck with that", and grabbed both women, taking them off to the nearby airport shop, supposedly to buy cold drinks.

It all happened in about ten seconds, and I stood there mystified for a short while, until my little section of the queue suddenly started convulsing. Kids running off, women retching and hitting their husbands, that sort of thing.

I glanced across to see him grinning and waving from a very safe distance.....

I wonder if farting is used for communication between groups would farts be language dependant?

Is a dialect difference between a BLAAT, a phew, a squeek and a spew?

Rap

Beware the black spot.

A classic 'whodunnit,' or in Viz parlance an Agatha Christie.

A Historical fart.


http://simple.wikiquote.org/wiki/Elizabeth_I_of_England

When, is lost in the dim brown mists of prehistory.
Why, its enzymatic my dear Watson.

Alpha-galactosidase

You have neglected this offering by Chaucer:
Sorry to be trolling your thread, Set.

It was from the time of the first hummus among us.