Duplicate Upstream Graph?
 

While doing the Primitive Man tutorial in Maya E-book 'Learning Maya' all works fine until it comes to the point of duplicating the arm.

After selecting shoulder / ikHandle / nurbsCylinder (the arm and associated joints parent) it says to Duplicate -> Duplicate Upstream Graph set to ON (page 411). This was obviously written for an earlier version of Maya because in 4.5 the option is renamed "Duplicate Input Graph".

What I want is to simply duplicate the arm and skeleton. What I get is a duplication of the entire body, legs and all.

If I try the same with "Duplicate Input Connections" I get a "proper" duplication of the arm hierarchy but all the connections/transformations are whacky.

What the heck am I doing wrong?

Sincerly, Dexter

Not sure but maybe you should just duplicate the geometry alone and use the Mirror Joint for duplicating the skeleton.