ABSTRACT
Neoteny is recurrent in human evolution. Neoteny is the centerpiece of most forms of domestication. All societies have economies, systems of production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. The cultural meanings of production, distribution, and consumption are mutually involved with cultural definitions of maturity and gender. Today's Americans may not see manhood in the picture painted above; they may also fail to understand what is so shameful about consumption. Consumption may have come to prominence in the United States because Americans have deployed their power and wealth to break up the production process and scatter its pieces all over the globe. Sheldon, Leonard, Howard, and Raj are all boy-men, but they are childish in different ways. The Big Bang Theory, almost despite itself, has been chronicling a slow march, with the boy-men gradually constructing a fully operational masculinity from the neotenous bits and pieces available.
