Sociobiology tHe new syNTHESIS Edward O. Wilson ‘The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press Cambridge, Massachusetts, and London, EnglandCopyright © 1975 by che President and Fellows of Harvard College All gts reserved Seventh priating, 1982 Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 1483910 ISBN O-6T4 816218 Printed inthe United Sates of AmericaChapter 27 Man: From Sociobiology to Sociology 507 Let us now consider man in the fee spit of natural history, as though we were zoologist from another planet completing a catalog, ‘of social species on Earth, In this macroscopic view the humanities and socal selences shrink to specialized branches of biology; history, biography. and fltion are che research protocols of human ethology, ‘and anthropology and sociology together constitute the sociobiologY ‘of a Single primate species Homo sapiens is ecologically very peculiar species. Te occupies the widest geographical range and maintains the highest local dens: ties of any of the primates. An astute ecologist from another planet ‘would not be surprised to nd that only one species of Homo exist. ‘Modern man has preempted all the conceivable hominid niches. Two ‘of more species of hominids did eoexis in the past, when the Aus- tralopithecus man-apes and possibly an early Home lived in Africa, But only one evolving line survived into late Pleistocene times to pariciate in the emergence of the most advanced human social "Modern man is anatomically unique, His erect posture and wholly bipedal locomotion are not even approached in other primates that coceasionally walk on their hind legs, including the gorilla and chim Danze. The skeleton hes been profoundly modified to accommodate ‘the change: the spine is curved to distibute the weight of the unk ore evenly down its length, the chest is atened to move the center of gravity back toward the spine the pelvis is broadened to serve {san atachment fo the powerful striding muscles of the upper legs and reshaped into a basin to hold the viscera the til is eliminated, its vertebrae (now called the coceyx) curved Inward to form part of the floor of the pelvic basin, the ocepital condyles have rotated far beneath the skull so thatthe weight ofthe head is balanced on them, the fae i shortened to ait this shift in gravity, the hur is enlarged to give power to the hand, the legis lengthened, and the foot is drasially narrowed and lengthened to facilitate striding. (Other changes have taken place. Hair as been lost fom mos of the body. Ii sll not known why modera man isa "naked ape.” One plausible explanation ie that nakedness served a+ device to cool the body during the strenuous pursuit of prey inthe beac af the African plains. itis associated with man's exceptional reliance on sweating to reduce body heat; the human body contains from evo to five million sweat glands, fr moze than in any other primate species, The reproductive physiology and behavior of Homo sapiens have also undergone extrsordinary evolution. In particular, the estrous cycle ofthe female has changed in two ways that affect sexual and ‘social behavior, Menstruation has been intensified. The females of some other primate species experience slight bleeding, but only in women is there a heavy sloughing of the wall of the “disappointed ‘womb’ with consequent heavy bleeding. The ests, or period of female "heat," has been replaced by virally continuous sexual58 ve tt activity. Copulation is inated not by response to the conventional Primate signals of estas, such as changes in color of the skin around the female sexual organs and the release of pheromones, but by ex tended foreplay entailing mutual stimulation by the partners. The teats of physical atraction are, moreover, xed in nature. They ‘nciude the pub hai of both sexes snd the protuberane breasts and bbutocks of women. The dattened sexual cycle and continuous female ateactiveness cement the close marriage bonds that are basi 10 human social ite, "At a distance 2 perceptive Mardan zoologist would regard the lobular head as a most significant clue to human biology. The cere- ‘rum of Homo was expanded enormously during a relatively short span of evolutionary tise (see Figure 27-1). Three million years ago “Aastralopithecus had an adult cranial eapacity of 40.500 eubic cen limeters comparable to that of the chimpanzee and gorilla, Two milion years later is presumptive descendant Homo erectus bad a capacity of about 1000 cubie centimeters, The next million yeas saw ‘an increase to 14001700 cubie centimeters in Neanderthal man and 500-2000 cui centimeters in modern Homo sapiens The grows in Sneligence that accompanied this eolargement was so great that it ‘cannot yet be measured in any meaningful way. Human beings can be compared among themselves in terms ofa few of the basie compo. nents of intelligence and creativity. But no scale has been invented that can objectively compare man with chimpanzees and other living primates 1600 1,800} Homo sopiens J N200] Austoeptnecus Featoiopithecus monies ‘tricone punobicc estimated) a A a a MILLIONS OF YEARS BEFORE PRESENT [Figure 27-1. The increte im brsn size duviag human evolution, (Re- drawn from Pilbeam, 1972) ‘The Sovial Species ‘We have leaped forwatd in. mental evolution és 2 way that con: tines to dety selfanalyis, The mensal hypertrophy has distored ‘even the most basi primate social qualities inca nearly uncecognizi ble forms, Indiwidual specs of Ol! World monkeys and apes have notably plastic socal organizations; man has extended the trend into 4 protean ethnicity. Monkeys and apes ulze behavioral sealing to adjust aggesive and sexual interactions, in man che scales have ‘become multidimensional, culturally adistable, and almost endlessly suble, Bonding and the practices of reciprocal aleruism are rudimen- tary in other primates; man has expanded them into great networks where individuals consciously alter roles from hour to hour as if changing masks kis the task of comparative sociobiology t0 tsee these and other human qualities as closely as posible back through time. Besides sudding perspective and pechaps offering some sense of philosophical ‘ease, the exercise will help to identify the behaviors and rales by ‘which individual human beings increase their Darwinian fitness ‘through the manipulation of society. In a phrase, we are searching for the buman biogtam (Count, 1958, Tiger and Fox, 1971). One of the key questions, never far from the thinkin of anthropologists and Diologsts who pursue real theory, is to what extent che biogam represent an adaptation to modern cultura fe and to what extent {tis phylogenetic vestige. Our civilizations were jerybuile around the biogzm. How have they been influenced by if Conversely, how much flexibility Is there in the biogtam, and in which parameters parcculaly! Experience with other animals indicates that when oF sans are hyperrophied, phylogeny is hard to reconstruct. This isthe crux ofthe problem ofthe evolutionary analysis of human behavior, In the remainder of the chapter, human qualities wil be discussed insofaras they appeat tobe general ait of the species. Then current knowledge of the evolution of the biogram will be reviewed, and finally some implications for the planning of future societies wil be considered Plasticity of Social Organization ‘The first and most easly verifiable diagnostic trait is statistical in pature. The parameters of social organization, including group size, Droperties of hierarchies, and rates of gene exchange, vary far more mong human populations than among those of any other primate species The variation exceeds even that occuring between the te ‘atning primate species, Some increase in pasiity tobe expected Ie represent the extrapolation of a tend toward variabiliey already apparent in the baboons, chimpanzees, and other eereopithecoids, ‘What is ely surprising, however, isthe extreme to Which thas been carried 'Why ate human societies this exible! Fart of the seston is thatChaprer the momihers themselves vary s0 much in behavior and achievement. Even in the simplest societies individuals ditfer greatly. Within small tbe of ‘Kung Bushmen can he found individuals who are feknowledged as the "bese people"—she leaders and outstanding Specialists among the hunters and healers, Even with an emphasis fon sharing goods, some are exceptionally able encrepreneurs and tunostentatiosly acquire certain amount of wealth, Kung mea, no less dhin men in advanced industrial societies, geneally establish themselves by their mid-thiries or else accepe a lesser status for lie ‘There ae some who never ty to make it live in rundown huss, and show itl pride in themselves 07 thet work (Miter, 1969), The ality 0 slip into such roles, shaping one’s personality w At, may itsel be adaptive. Human societies are organized by high intelligence, and exch member is faced by 2 mixeure of social challenges that taxes all of his ingenuity. Ths baseline vanation is amplified at the ‘group level by other qualices exceptionally pronounced in human societies: the long, close period of sovalization, the loose connected ness ofthe communication networks, the multipiity of bonds; the ‘capacity, especially within literate cultures, a communicate overlong dditnces and periods of history, and from all hes ais, the capacity to distemble, to manipulate, and co exploit. Fach parameter can be akered easily, and each has 2 marked effect onthe final social struc: tue. The result could be the observed variation among societies. “The hypothesis to consider, then, is that genes promoting exibility ‘in socal behavior are strongly selected at the individual level. But rote that variation in social organization is only a possible, not @ rnecesary consequence of this process. In onder to generate the amount of variation actully observed to oecur, it is necessary for thereto be mule adaptive peaks. In other words, different forms ‘of society within the same species must be nearly enough ake in ‘sural abiliy for many to exjy long tenure. The result would be 4 statistical ensemble of kinds of vocieties which, if not equilibria, isa lease nd shifting rapidly coward one particular mode or another. “The alternative, found in some seis insets, i flexibility in individ ual behavior and caste development, which nevertheless results in ‘an approach toward uniformity in the statistical distribution of the Kinds of individuals when all individuals within a colony are taken together. In honeybees and in ants ofthe genera Formica and Pogono- Imyrmex. “personality” diferences are strongly marked even within singe castes, Some individual, referred to by entomologists as the lites are unusually active, perform more chan their share of ifetime work, and incite others to work through facilitation, Other colony Imembers are consistency sluggish, Although they are seemingly Inalthy and live Jong lives, thei pr individual output is only a small fraction of that ofthe lites. Specialization also oteurs, Certain ind vidusls remain with the brood as nurses far Tonger than the average, while others concentzte on nest bullding or foraping. Yet somehow Man: From Sociobiology to Sociology se ‘the total pattern of behavior in ehe colony converges on the species avenge. When one colony with its hundreds or thoosinds of mem bers ts compared with another of the same species, the stanstial patterns of activity are about the same. We know that some of this Consistency is due to negative feedback. As one requirement such 4s brood cate ar nest repair intensifies, workers shife cheir activites to compensate ua the need is met, chen change buck aguin. Expert ‘ments have shown that disruption of the feedback loops, and thence deviation bythe colony from the statistical norms, cam be disastrous Its therefore not surprising to Rad thatthe loops are both precise and powerful (Wilson, 19713) ‘The controls governing human societies are not nearly so strong, and the eects of deviation sre not so dangerous. The anthropological licratare abounds with examples of societies that contain obvious, fneficencies and even pathological flaws—yet endure, The slave society of Jamaica, compellingly described by Orlando Patterson (1967), was unquestionably pathological by the morsl canons of civil {ged life. "What marks it out isthe astonishing neglect and distortion lof slmos everyone of the baie prerequisites of normal human living. ‘This was 2 society in which clergymen were the ‘most finished Aebauchees’ in the land; in which the institution of marsage was, fofcally condemned among both masters and slaves, in which the ‘family was unthinkable to the vast majority of the population and Droméscuity the nor, in which edueation was seen as an absolute waste of time and teschers shunned like che plague, in whieh the Tegal system eas quite deliberately a wavesty of anything that could be called justice; and i which all forms of refinements, of ar, of folkwvays, were either absent or in a state of total disintegration. Only small propertion of whites, who monopolized almost al ofthe fertile land in the island, benefited from the systems, And these, no soonce Ihad they secured their fortunes, abandoned the land whieh the pro- duction oftheir own wealth had made unbearable to live in, forthe comforts of the mother counuy.” Yet this Hobbesian world lsted for neatly wo centuries. The people multiplied while the economy Aourshed “The kof Uganda are an equally instructive case (umbull, 1972) “They are former hunters who have made a disstous shifeto culeva tion, Always on the brink of starvation, they bave seen their euleure reduced to a vestige. Their only stated value is ngog. or food; their basic notion of goodness (marangik) i the individua! possession of food in the stomach, and their detiniion of a good man is yakie fane marang. "s man who has a full belly.” Villages are sill bul ‘but che nuclear family bas ceased 10 funetion as an institution (Children are kept with reluctance and from about thie years of age sre made to Gnd cheir own way of life. Marriage ordinaiy oceurs ‘only when there isa specifle need for cooperation. Because of the lack of energy, sexual activity is minimal and ies pleasures ae com550 ate sidered to be about on the smc level as those of defecation. Death is treated ith relict or amusement, since if means more gag for survivors, Beeause the unfortunate Tk are atthe lowest sustainable level there fsa temptation to conclude that they are doomed. Yer somehow their eociety has remained intact and more or less stable for atleast 3D years, and it could endure indefinitely. ‘ow ean sich variation in soil structure persist! The explanation ray be lack of competition fom other species, resulting in what biologists call ecological release. During the past ten thousand years for longer, man as 2 whole has been so successful in dominating his environment thae almost any kindof eulture can succeed fora while, $0 long as i has @ modest degree of inteaal consistency and does fot shut off reproduetion sltogether. No species of ant or termite joys this freedom, The elightes neficieney in constructing nests, Inestablishing or eis, or in conduceing nuptial fights could result in the quick extinction ofthe species by predation and competition from othe social insects. To a scarcely leser extent the same is true for social carnivores and primates, In shor, animal species tend to be tightly packed in the ecosystem with Iie room for experi- mentation or play. Man has temporarily eiaped the constraint of Interspeciflc competition, Although culeres replace one another, the process is much less effective than interspecific competition in re- ducing variance Tris part of the conventional wisdom chat virtually all culrural ‘aration is phenotypic rather thin genetic in origin. This view bas fined suppor from the ease with which certain aspect of culture fan be altered in the space ofa single generation, too quickly to be frolutionary in nature, The drastic alteration in trish society in the fist two years of the potato Blight (1861848) is = case in point “Another (the shift in the Japanese authority structure during the ‘American peeupation following World War IL Such examples can be ‘multiplied endlesly—they ae the substance of history Its also true that human populations are aot very diferent from one another senetically, When Lewontin (1972b) analyzed existing data on nine bloodsype systems, he found that 85 percent of the variance was composed of diversity within populations and only 15 percent was ‘due to divenity between populations. There is no a priori reason for supposing that this sample of genes posiesses 2 diseabution much diferent from those of aber, lesaccessble systems affecting behavior, ‘The extreme orthodox view of environmentalism goes further, Iholding tat in effect there is no genetic variance in the transmission of culture, In other words, the eapsciy for culate is wansmitted by 4 single human genotype. Dobzhansky (1963) stated this hypothesit 4s follows: “Cultue isnot inherited through genes, tis acquired by learning from other human beings... Ina sense, human genes have ‘surendered their primacy in human evolution to an entirely new, “The Social Species nonbiological or superorgani agent, culture. However, it should not be fongoren that this agent is entcely dependent on the human, enosype.” Although the genes have given away most of their sover lent, they maintain a certain amount of influence sn a least the behavioral ques chat underlie vaeiations between cultures. Moder ately high hertabity bas been documented in intoversion-extover fiom measures, personal tempo, psychomotor and sport activites, ‘neuroticism, dominance, depression, andthe tendency toward certain forms of mental illness such as schizophrenia (Parsons, 1967; Lerner, 1968). Even a small portion of this vaviance iavested in population Aiferences mighe predispose societies toward cultural differences. At the very lest, we should try to mesvure this amount. [eis not valid te point tothe absence of a behavioral uait in one o afew societies as conclusive evidence thatthe tit is environmentally induced and has no genetic disposition in man, The very opposite could be true. Ta shor, there isa need fora discipline of anthropological enetics, 1m the interval before we acquice i,t should be possible to charac. terize the human biogram by two indirect methods. First, models can bbe constructed from the most elementary rules of human bebavior. Insofar as they can be tested, the rules will characterize the biogram in mach the same way that ethoptams drawn by zoologist: idenciy ‘the “typical” behavioral repertries of animal specie. The rules can be leguimately compared with the ethograms of other primate species. Variation in the rules mong human cultures, however sigh, might provide clues to undeslying genetic diferences, particularly when it ts correlated with variation in behavioral traits known tobe hertabl Social siento have in fact begun to take this rst approach, al ‘ough in a diferent context from the one suggested here. Abraham ‘Masiow (1954, 1972) postulated that human beings respond t0 a Dierarchy of needs, such chat the lower levels must be satised before ‘much atention is devoted tothe higher ones. The most bsie needs are hunger and sleep. When these are met, safety becomes the pri ‘mary consideration, then the need to belong to 2 group and receive Tove, next selfestecm, and finaly seltacmulization and creativity “The desl society in Maslow’s dream is one which “fosters che fullest evelopment of human potentials, of the fullest degree of human- ness" When the biogram is frely expressed, its center of gravity, should come to rest in the higher levels. A second social scientist, ‘George C. Homans (1961), bas adopted a Skinoerian approach in an anempte reduce human behavior tthe basic processes of associa. tive learning. The rules he postulates are che following 1. Af in the past the occurrence of a particular stimilussieuation thas been the oscation on which 2 mans activity has been rewarded, then the more simular the present simulussitustion 48 to the past fone, the more Ukely the man is at the present time to emit this activity of one similar co itChapeer 27 2. The more often within s given period of time a man’s activity rewards the behavior of another, the more often the other will per form the behavior “4. The more valuable to & man a uni of the activity another ives bm, the more often he behaves in the manner rewarded by the activity ofthe other ‘4 The more often a man has in the recent past received a reward> ing activity Irom another, the lets valuable any further unit ofthat activiey becomes to hi. ‘Maslow the ethologist and visionary seems a world apart from Homans the behaviorist and reductionist. Yet their approaches are reconcilable, Homans’ rules can he viewed as comprising some of the enabling devices by which the human biogram is expressed. His ‘operational word is reward, which isin fat the set ofall interactions ‘defined by the emotive centers of the brain as desirable. According to evolutionary theory, desirability is measured in units of genetic fitness, and the emotive centers have been programmed accordingly. Maslow’s hierarchy is simply the order of priority in the goals toward which the rules are directed ‘The other indieece approach to anthropologieal genetics is ehrough phylogenctic analysis By comparing man with other primate species, i might be possible to identify basic primate traits that he beneath, the surface and help to determine the conBiuration of man’s higher social behavior. This approach has been taken with great style and vigor in a series of popular books by Konrad Lorenz (On Aggression), Robert Andrey (The Social Contract), Desmond Mortis (The Naked ‘Ape), and Lione Tiger and Robin Fox (The Imperial Animal), Th flrs were salutary in calling attention to man’s status asa biological species adapted to particular envizonments. The wide atention they received broke the stifling grip of the extreme behaviorist, whose view of the mind of man a6 a vitwaly equipotent response machine was nether cgztect nor heuristic. But their particular hanuling ofthe problem tended tobe inefeent and misleading. They selected one plausble hypostesis or another based on 4 review of a small sample fof animal species, chen advocated the explanation to the limit. The weakness of this method was discussed earlier in a more general context (Chapter 2) and does not need repetition here ‘The correct approach using comparative ethology isto base a rigor. ‘ous phylogeny of closely related species on many biological waits ‘Then social behavior is rested as the dependent variable and its evolution deduced from it. When this cannot be done with com fidence (and it cannot in man) the next best procedure isthe one ‘outlined in Chapter 7: establish the lowest taxonomic level at whieh tach character shows signifeant itertaxon varation. Characters that shut from species to species or genus to genus are the most labile ‘We cannot safely extrapolate them from the cercopithecold monkeys Man: From Sociobiology to Sociology set and apes to man. In the primates these faile qualities include group ‘ize group cohesiveness, openness ofthe group o thes, involvement ff the male in parental care, attention structure, and the inensiy and form of territorial defeme, Characters are considered. con: Servaive if they remain constant atthe level ofthe axonomic family for throughout the order Primates, and they are the ones mort likely to have persisted in relatively unaltered form into the evolution of Homo, These conservative traits include aggresive dominance sys tems, with males generally dominant over females, scaling in the intensity of responses, especially during aggressive interactions, aed sive and prolonged maternal care, witha pronounced degre of social. ination in he young, and matin] socal organization, Thi las ‘ation of behavioral waits offers an appropriate basis for hypothesis formation It allows 2 qualitative asessmenc of the probabilities that, ‘various behavioral tats have persisted into modem Homo sapiens ‘The possibilty of eourse remains that some labile waits are homolo- sous between man and, say, the chimpanzee. And conversely, some ‘waits conservative throughout the rest ofthe primates might never theless have ehanged during the origin of man. Furthermore, the assessment 4 not meant to imply cha conservative waits are more [onetic—that is, have higher hentabilty—tan labile ones, Labiity ‘an be hased wholly on geneve differences between species or popula: ‘ions vithin species, Returning finally to the macter of cultural evo tion, we cin heuristically conjeceue thatthe uaits proven tbe labile are also the ones most likely co differ from one human society © another on the bass of genetic differences The evidence, reviewed in Table 27-1, x not inconsistent with this baie conception, Finally, itis worth special noe thatthe comparative ethologieal approach does not in any way predict man’s unique walt, It isa general rule of evolutionary studies thatthe direction of quantum jumps is not easily read by phylogenetic extrapolation Barter and Reciprocal Altruism Sharing is rare among the nonhuman primates It occurs in rudimen. tary form only in che chimpanzee and perhaps afew other Old World monkeys and apes. But in man ie is one ofthe suongest social traits, reaching levels that match the intense tophallactic exchanges of termites and ants. Asa result only man has an economy. His high intligence and symbolizing abilicy make true barter possible. Intel: sence aso permis the exchanges to be stretched ovt in time, con- vercng them into acts of reciprocal aleruism (Trivers, 1971). The conventions of this mode of behavior are expressed in the familiar vurterances of everyday life ‘Give me some now, repay you lerure Ht The Soci Species Table 27-1. General social tits in human beings, clasied according co whether they are unique, belong tra lint of behavior that ste variable atthe level ofthe species or genus in the remainder ofthe primates (labile), or belong t a class of behaviors that ae uniform through the remainder of the primates {conseratve Evoluionanily baile primate ales Group size Group cohesiveness Opentes of soup to thers, Involvement of male 1 parental care Atestion sven Intensity and form of terior defense rohutionarliy conservative priate tits Aggresive dominance systems, with males Alominane ove females Sealing of responses, specially im agressive Prolonged maternal car, pronounced ocialieation of youn Macainesl organization Human aie SHARED WITH SOME (ruta PRNares Highiy variable Higaly vaable Highly variable Seong Centripetal on Teading males Highly variable, but terntonaliy is ened SwaRED WIT ALL OR ‘ALMOST ALL OTHER ‘Consistent with other peat, although varie ‘Consistent with other primates Consistent with ‘other primates ‘Mostly consistent ‘with other primates Nave “True Langue, laborate culture Sexval aetnty ‘continuous ehroush menstrual cycle Formalized incest taboos and mariage exchange rues With ‘eeognition of Tenship networks Cooperate division ‘of labor between, ‘ule males and fernaeeChapter 27 Coane to my ak this te, nd eal didnt think of the rescue as hors, ie was only what 1 would expect others do for me oF ey family inthe same situation.” be your fiend when you need ‘Mone, 8 Taleo Parsons has been fond of pointing ot, has no value iste Teens onl of bis of mees and seraps of paper by which, men pledge so surrender varying amounts of property and services ‘upon demand, in other words i is a quantifestion of reciprocal slerism Pethops the earliest form of barter in easly human societies was the exchange of mest caprzed by the males for plant food gathered by the females I living huntergatherer societies reflec the primitive state, this exchange formed an important element in a distinerive kind of sexual bond, Fox (1972), following Lévi-Strauss (1949), has argued from ethno- fraphic evidence chata key early step in human social evolution was the use of women in barter. As males acquired satus through the control of females, they used them as objects of exchange to cement alliances and bolster kinship neevorks. Prliterate societies ae char- actenzed by complex rues of marrage that can often be interpreted directly as power brokerage, This is particulary the eave where the elementary negative marrage rules, prosenbing certain types of unions, are supplemented by positive rules that direct which ex- changes must he made. Within individual Ausvalian aboriginal societies two moieties exist berween which marriages ae pected, ‘The men of each moiety trade nieces, or more specially the sisters’ daughters. Power accumulates with ae, because 4 man can Control the descendants of nieces as remote asthe daughter of his sisters daughter. Combined with polygyny, the system insures both political and genetic advantage to che old men of the tribe oral its intricacy the formalization of marital exchanges berween tribes bas the same approximate generic effect as the haphazard wandering of male monkeys from one troop to another or the ex change of yoling marae females between chimpanzee populations. Approximately 75 percent of marriages contracte among Australian aborigines prior to European influence were intertrial, and similar rates have been yepored in Brazilian Indians and other preliterte societies (Morton, 1969) wil be recalled (Chapter 4) that gene ow of che order of 10 percent per generation is more than enough to counteract fatly intensive natural pressures that tend to differen tate populations, Thus intertribal marital exchanges are 2. maior factor n resting the observed high degree of genetic similarity among ‘populations. The ulimate adaptive bass of exogamy is no gene fow per se but rather the avoidance of inbreeding. Again, ¢ 10 percent ‘ene flow is adequate for the purpose. ‘The microstructure of human social organization is based on $0: phisticated mutual assesment tht lead t0 the making of eoneacs. Man: From Sociobiology (0 Sociology 583 AAs Erving Goffin correctly perceived, a stranger is rapidly but po litely explored to determine his socioeeonomie status, intelience and education, seléperception, social attudes, competence, trust Wworthines, and emotional stability. The information, much of subconsciouilt given and absorbed, hasan eminently practical value ‘The probe must be dep, forthe individual tres to crete the impres. sion that will gin him the maximum advantage. At the very least hhe maneuvers to avoid revealing information that will imperil is status. The presentation of self can be expected 20 contain deceptive clement ‘Many crucial fets We beyond the tne and place of interaction oF le Concealed within For evarple, he "rue" weal” atts eli, Shd emotions of he individual can be asgersined only indirectly, ‘hiough his sowals or through wht appear to be involuntary expres see behatiog Sunt the individual ors the oohers a product or Service, they wil nf find that doring the intersesion there wil be fo time oF place immediately svalable for eating the pudding thatthe root ean Be found In. They will be forced to accept some events 35 onventlonal or nitual sigs of somehing not dieclyavalale tothe fenses (Goffe, 1959) Deception and hypocrisy ae nether absolute evils that virtuous men, suppress to 4 minimum level nor residual animal crits yaiting to be erased by farther social evolution. They are very hurman devices for conducting the complex daily business of social lif. The level, Jn each pariular society may represent a compromise that reflects fhe size and complexity ofthe sociery. Ifthe level is to low, others will seize the advantage and win. If is too high, ostracism isthe result. Complete honesty on all sides is not che answer. The old primate frankness would destroy the delicate fabre of sociale that has built up i human populations beyond che limits ofthe immed ate clan. AS Lous J. Halle correctly observed, good manners have become a substitute for love Bonding, Sex, and Division of Labor The building block of nary ll human societies isthe nuclear family (Reynolds, 1968, Leibowitz, 1968). The populace of an American indi ity, no less than a band of buntergatherers in the Aus talian desert, is organized around this unit. In both cases the family ‘moves between regional communities, maincaining complex is with primary kin by means of visits (or telephone call and letters) and the exchange offs. During the day the women and children remain, inthe residential area while the men forage for game or is symbolic ‘equivalent in the form of barter and money. The mules cooperate ln bands tohuntor deal with neighboring groups. If not aceally blood ‘elatons they tend atleast to acts “bands of brothers,” Sexual bonds ate carefully contreted in observance with el customs and are554 Pare ‘intended to be permanent Polygamy, either covert or explicitly sane tioned by custom, is practiced predominantly by the mals. Sexual behavior is neatly continuous through the menstual cycle and rmarked by extended foreplay, Mortis (19672), drawing on the data ff Masters and Johnson (1966) and others, has enumerated the ‘unigue features of human sexuality that he considers tobe associated ‘withthe loss of tody hair the rounded and protuberane breasts of the young woman, the flushing of areas of skin during coition, the ‘asodiition and increased erogenous sensitwity of the bps, soft portions ofthe nose, ear, nipples, atcoac, and genitals, and the lage Size ofthe mule penis, especially during erection, As Darwin himself noted in 1471, even the naked skin of the woman is used asa sexual teleaser, lof these alterations serve to cement she permanent bond, ‘which are unrelated in time to the moment of ovulation. Estrus has been reduced to 4 vestige, tothe consternation of those who attempt to practice birth contol by the rhythm method. Sexual behavior hha boen largely dissociated from the act of feriization I is ionic that religionists who forbid sexual activity except for purposes of procreation should do s0 on the bass of “natural law." Theies is Iisguided effor in comparative ethology, based on the incorrect assumption that in reproduction mani essentially ke other animals, ‘The extent and formalization of Kinship prevailing in almost all Inuman societies ate aso unique features ofthe biology of our species. Kinship systems provide atleast cree distnet advantages. Fst, they bind alkances between tubes and suburibal units and provide a con- VERS + NOUN PHRASE 4, ARTICLE, the, 5.NOUN ——— bor, git, ball 6.veR8 —————+ hit ‘TREE OF PHRASE STRUCTURES SENTENCE NOUN pFIRASE ©—_-VERBpHRASE ARTICLE NOUN VERS NOUN PHRASE the by it ARTICLE NOUN me all [Figure 27-2. An example ofthe rules of phrase structure grammar in ‘he Engin language The simple sentence “The boy hit the bal” is seen to conset of a blerrchy of phrases At each level one phrase ca be substituted for another ofeqaitalentcompostio, bur the phrases can hot be split and their elements interchanged. (Based on Slbin, 1971) to be adequate, however, to choote berween hypotheses two and thie, in other words to decide whether che grammars are innately programmed or whether they are learned. The basic operations of transformation occur in all known human languages. However, chis fbserstion by itself does aot establish thatthe precise rules of rane formation ate the same, Ts there a univers! grammas? This question is difficult to answer ‘because most attempts to generalize the rules of deep grammar have been based on the semantic content of one particular language. Stir dent of the subject seldom confront the problem asi ic were eno- finely scientie, in a way that would reveal how concrete and soluble it mighe be, In fact, natural seiensists ae easily frustrated by the diffuse, oblique quality of much of the peycholinguistic literature, ‘whieh often seems unconcermed wih the usual canons of proposition Gnd evidence ‘The reson is that many of the writers, including ‘Chomsky, ate srucruralists in the wadition of Lévi Strauss and Piaget ‘Man: From Sociobiology to Sociology 59 They approach the subject with ehe implicit world view that the proeeses ofthe human mind ate indeed structured, and also dscrese, Snumerale, and evolutionarily unigue with no yreat need 10 be refered tothe formulations of other seientife disciplines. The analy sis is nontheorecal in the sense that fils co argue from postulates ‘that can be tested and extended empirically. Some psychologis, Including Roger Brown and his associates and Fodor and Garrett (1966), have adduced testable propositions and pursued them with ‘mixed results, but the Wal of speculation on deep grammar has not ‘neem esy to follow even for these shill experimentalist, Like poct naturalists, the strocturaliss celebrate idiosyncratic per sonal visions. They argue ftom hidden premises; relying largely on metaphor and exemplicaion, and with litle regard forthe method ‘of multiple competing hypotheses, Clesly, chis discipline, one of the ‘most important in al of science, is ripe forthe application of rigorous theory and properly meshed experimental investigation "A key question thatthe new Linguistics may never answer is when human language originated. Did speech appear with the fis we of stone tools and the eanstietion of shelters by the Austrlopithecus ‘manapes, over two milion years ago! Or did it awaie the emengence of fully modern Homo sapiens, perhaps even the development of feligious rites in the past 100000 years! Lieberman (1968) believes thatthe date was telatvely recent, He interprets the Makapan Aus tralopithecus restored by Dat to fll close to the chimpanzee in the form of v6 palate and pharyngeal tract, he is right this eathy ‘hominid mighe not have been abe co articulate the sounds of human speech. The stme conclusion has been drawn with respect co the fnatomy and roca capacity of the Neanderthal man (Lieberman et al, 1972), which if true places the ongin of language in the latest ‘Stages of speciation in the genus Homo. Other theoretical aspects of the evolutionary origin of human speech have been discussed by Jane Hill (1972) and 1G, Matcngly (1972). Lenneberg (1971) bas hypothe: sized thae the capacity for mathematical reasoning originated as a slight modification of Singuistie abi. Culture, Ritual, and Religion “The rudiments of culare are possessed by higher primates other than ‘man, including the Japanese monkey and chimpanzee (Chapter 7), ‘but only in man hae culsre thoroughly infltrated vitally every aspect of life Ethnographic detail is genetically underpreserbed, 1e- sulting in great amount of diversity among societies. Underprescip- tion does not mean that culture has been feed from the genes. What has evolved is the capacity for culture, indeed the overwhelming tendeney to develop one culeure or another. Robin Fox (1971) put the argument in the following form, Ifthe proverbial experiments50 ve Mt ofthe phasuoh Fammetichos and fames IV of Seodand had worked, and children fered in isolation somehow survived in good health, {donor doube that they could speak and dat theorevclly, given tne, thee or hei offspring would saventand develop» lage despite thet never hiving deen aught one. Furthermore, ehis Language, though totally diferent fom any krown tous, would be anlyzabe by Hinguss fon the some basv av other lpassges and tamslaable into all known Unguise bus woud push chs futher tose new Adam and Eve could sive snd breed (etal solaton fom ny cultural aenees— then eventually they woul prodace a society which would have Laws Shou property, tues about incest and mariage, customs of taboo and Svoicance, methods of settling Sisputes mith 4 minimum of Bloodshed, belies shout the superaatural and practices tli toi, a system of foclil satus and. methods of indicating, intstion cetemonies for Yours men, coustship practices including the adomment of female, {stems of symbolic body adommene gereraly certain stiies and Seoeatons set aside for men fem which women were excluded, ga ine of some Kind, 9 tool and weapon-making industry, ayes and Tegends, dancing adultery, and various doses of homicide, suicide, omoseeuality schizophrenia, psychosis and neuroses, and various poe tinonen to take advantage for cure these, depending on how Wey se wewed, CCulnre, including the more resplendent manifestations of ritual and religion, can be interpreted asa hierarchical system of environ ‘mental tracking devices. In Chapter 7 the totality of biological re- sponse, from milisecond-quick biochemical reactions to gene subst. tions requiring generations, was described as sucha system, At that, tame culture was placed within the scheme atthe slow end of the ‘ime sale, Now this conception can be extended, To the extent that the specific deals of culture are nongenetic, they ean be decoupled ‘rom the biological system and arrayed beside € a6 an auxiliary sys tem. The span of the purely cultural tracking system parallels much ‘ofthe slower segment ofthe biological tracking sytem, ranging from ‘days to generations. Among the fastest cultural responses in industrial cihzations are fashions in dress and speech. Somewhat slower are poliial ideology and social atieudes toward other nations while the Slowest of all inchude incest taboos and the beliet or disbelief in parsicuar high gods, Iti useful co hypothesize chat culearal details se for the mose pare adaptive in a Darwinian sense, even though some may operate indirect'y through enhanced group survival (Wash: ‘burn and Howell, 1960, Masters, 1970). A second proposition worth considering, to make the biological analogy complet, is chat che rate ‘of change in particular set of culsural behavior reflects the rate (of change ia the environmental featutes to which the bebavios are eyed. Slowly changing forms of culture tend to be encapsulated in ritual, Some social scientists have drswn an analogy between human eete- monies and the displays of animal communication. This isnot co rect Most animal displays are discrete signals conveying limited “The Social Species meaning They are commensurate with the postures, facial expres. sions, and elementary sounds of human paralanguage. A few animal display, such as the most complex forms of sexual advertisement and nest changing in bits, are so impressively elaborate that they have occasionally oen crmed ceremonies by oologss. But cven here the ‘comparison is misleading, Most human rituals have more than fast lan immediate signal value. As Durkheim stressed, they not only label ‘but reufirm and rejuvenate the moral values of the community ‘The sacred rituals ste the most istinetvely bursa, Thett most lementary forms are concemed with magi, the ative attempt fo rmanipulite nature and the gods, Uppet Palelichic at 20m the caves fof Westen Europe shows a preoccupation with game animals. There ate many scenes showing spears and arrows embedded in the bodies, ‘of the prey. Other drawings depit men daneing in animal disguises, for standing with heads bowed in front of animals. Probably the func ton of the drawings was sympathetic mage, based on the quite logial notion that what is done with an image will come to pass with the real thing. This anceipatory actions comparable to the intentlon ‘movement of animals, which in the couse of evolution have often ‘een ritualized into communicative signals. The waggle dance ofthe honeybee, ie will be recalled isa miniaturized rehearsal ofthe fight frém the nest wo the food. Primitive man might have undestood the :meaningof such complex animal behavior easily. Magic was, and stil, fs in some societies, practiced by special people variously called shamans soreerers, or medicine men. They alone were believed to have the secvet knowledge and power to dea} effectively with the supernatural, and as such their influence sometimes exceeded that ‘of the tial headmen Formal religion sensu stricto has many elements of magic but is focused on deeper, more wibally oriented beliefs. Its ntes celebrate ‘the eeaton mths, proptiate the gods ad esaneify the tribal moral codes. Instead ofa shaman controlling physial power, ther is pest, ‘who communes with the sods and curries ther favor through obe- sance,sanfce, and the proffered evidences of tribal pood behavior In more complex societies, polity and religion have always blended naturally, Power belonged to kings by divine righ, but high priests often ruled over kings by vireo of the higher rank ofthe gods, eis a reasonable hypothesis that magic and ttemism constituted ret adapations tothe environment and preceded formal religion fm social evolution, Seered traditions peed almort univerally in hhuman societies. So do myths that explain the origin of man or at the very last the relation ofthe wie w the rest of the world. But ‘elit in igh gods is noe universal, Among 81 huntergatberer wocie ties surveyed by Whiting (1968), only 28, or 35 percent, included high gods in thei sacred traditions, The concept ofan setive, moral God sho crested the word i even less widespread, Furthermore, thi ‘concept most commonly aiss with pastoral way of ie. The greaterCChapeer 27 ‘Table 27-3. The rls belts of 66 aersvian voles, prioned according to the percentage of suistence derived fo Herding cFrom Human Societies by Cand Jean Lemkl, Copyighe © [970 by MeGrawtil Book Company. Used with permission) Percentate of Percentage of societies suhsinence helieving in a active, Number of from herding mori eestor God sees es 2 3 235 a a 3 0 » o5 0 5 the dependence on herding. the mote likely the belief in a shepherd od of the Judaco-Christian model (see Table 273). In other kinds ‘of societies the belief occurs in 10 percent of less ofthe ea. Also, the God of monotheistic religions s always male. This strong patti archal tendency has several cultural sources (Lenski, 1970), Fastoral Societies are highly mobil, ughly organized, and often mlitant, ll fearures that tip the balance toward male authority. Ie is ako sig nifleant that herding the matn economic base, is primarily che 1e- sponsibility of men. Because the Hebrews were originally a herding people the Bible describes God asa shepherd and the chosen people Ashis sheep. Islam, one ofthe sieves fall monotheistic faiths, 0% to early power among che herding people of the Arabian peninsul ‘The intimate elation ofthe shepherd to his lock apparently provides, 4 microcosm which stimulates deeper questioning about the relation fof man to the powers that contol him. ‘An inereasingly sophisticated anthropology has not given reason to doube Max Weber's conclision that more clementary religions seek the supernatural for the purely mundane rewards of longi, bundant land and food, che avoidance of physical catastrophes, and the defeat of enemies. A form of group selection also operates in the competition berween sets, Those that gain adherents survive, those that eannoe fil Consequently, religions, lke other human instita tions, evolve soas to further the well of their petitioners. Because this demographic benef applies to the group 48.4 whole, ic ean be ‘mined in part by altruism and exploitation, with certain segments profiting at the expense of others. Alternatively, it ean aise as the sum of generally inereaed individual nesses. The resulting distine tion in socal term ie Between the more oppresive and the More beneficent relinons. All religions are probably oppressive co some ‘degree, especially when they are promoted by chiefdoms and sates, ‘The tendency is intensifed when societies compete, since religion can be effectively harnessed tothe purposes of warfare and economic exploitation. “The enduring paradox of religion is that so much of its substance Man: From Sociohislogy to Sociology sa is demonstrably false, yet it remains a diving foree in al soeities, ‘Men would rather believe than know, have the void 48 purpose, as [Nitasche said, than be void of purpose. Ar the turn ofthe century Durkheim rejected the notion that auch force could realy be ex tracted from "a tse of illusions” And since thit time social sien tists have soughe the psychological Rosewa stone that might clanfy ‘the deeper tiths of rlinious reasoning na penetrating analysis of this subject, Rappapore (1971) proposed that virtually all forms of sceed rites serve the purposes of communication. In addition to inssrutionabizing the moral values of the community, che ceremonies fan offer information on the suength and wealth of tribes and fami lies. Among the Maring of New Guinea there are no chiefs or other leaders who command allegiance in war. A group gives ritual dance, and individual men indicate thei willingness to give military support by whether they auend the dance or not. The strength of the com sortium can then be precisely determined by a head count In more Advanced societies military parades, embellished by de paraphernalia, tnd ritual of the state religion serve the same purpose. The famous potatch ceremonies of the Northwest Coast Indians enable individ uals to advertise their wealth by the amount of goods they give away, Riess also reguleize relationships in which chere would otherwise bbe ambiguity and wasteful imprecision. The best examples of this ‘mode of communication are the nites de pasage. As a boy matures bis wansition from child to man is very gradual in a bilogieal and paychological sense. There willbe times when he behaves lke a child ‘when an adult response would have been more appropriate and vice versa. The society has dificulry in classifying him one way or he other. The rite de pasiage eliminates this ambiguity by arbivaily changing the classification from 3 continuous gradient into a dichot. ‘omy, Ie alo serves to cement che des of the Young person to the due group that aeceps him, ‘To sanctify a procedure or a statement is to certify it as beyond ‘question and smply punishment for snyone who dares co coneadice 1 So removed isthe steed from the profane in everyday le chat simply to repeat itn the wrong circumstance isa transtresion. This, fexareme form of cerifeation, the heart ofall religions, is granted fo the practices and dogmas that serve the most vital interests of the group. The individual is prepared by the sicred rituals for su preme effort and self szriiee. Overwhelmed by shibboleths, special, ostumes, and the sacred dancing and music so accurately Keyed t9 his emotive centers he has a religious experience." He is ready to reausert alletnce to his tribe and femily, peform charities, conse cate his lif, leave forthe hunt, join ehe battle, die for God and country. Deus vult was the rallying cry of the Fist Crusade. God ‘wills it but dhe summed Darwinian feness ofthe tribe was the ul mate if unrecognized beneficiary, Te was Henet Bergson who fist identified a second force leading562 Par th to the formalization of morality and religion. The extreme plasticity Df human social behavior is both a great strength and a real danger. If each family worked out rules of bebavior on is own, the resul would be an intolerable amount of tradition drift and growing chacs ‘To counteract selsh behavior and the “dissolving power” of high inrellgence, each sociery must codify itell Within broad mits ‘virwally any st of conventions works better than none at ll. Because arhiary codes work, owanizatins tend to be inefficient and mareed Dy unnecessary inequities. As Rappaport succinctly expressed it, “Sanctification transforms the arbitrary ino the necessary, and regu. latory mechanisms which are arbitrary are likely to be sanctified.” ‘The process engenders criticism, and in che more literate and self ‘conscious societies visionaries and revolutionaries see out to change the system, Reform meessrepresion, because to the extent that the ruleshave been sanctified and mythologize, the majority ofthe people regard them as beyond question, and ditapreement is defined a5 Dlsphemy. This leads us othe esentally biological question of the evolution of indoctrinablity (Campbell, 1972), Human beings are absurdly casy to indoctrinate—they seek if we assume for argument that indoc: teinaility evolves, at what level dos natural selection take place! One extreme posiblty is that the group isthe unit of selection. When, conformity becomes too weak, groups become extinct In this version Selfish, individualistic members gain the upper hand and multiply tthe expense of other. But thei ising prevalence accelerates the vulnerability of the society and hastens its extinction. Societies con- taining higher frequencies of conformer genes replace those that disappear, thus rasing the overall frequency of the genes In the ‘metapopulation of societies. The spread of the genes will ccur more rapidly if the metapopulation (for example, a tbal complex) is si smultuneously enlsping its range. Formal models ofthe proces, pe sented in Chapter 5, show that ifthe rate of societal extinction 18 high enough relative eo the intensity ofthe counteracting individual selection, the aleisic genes ean rise to moderately high levels The tenes might be of the kind thit favors indoctrnabilsy even at the expense ofthe individuals who submit. For example, the wilinness to risk death in bette can favor group survival atthe expense ofthe nes that permitted the ftal military discipline. The groupselection hypothesis is suffeient to account for the evclution of indoc. inability, “The competing, individualeve hypothesis is equally sufficient. It states that the ability of individuals to conform permits them to enjoy the benefits of membership with 2 minimum of energy expend fnure and tsk, Although their selfish evals may gain a momentary skivantage, is losin the long run ehrough ostracism and repression. ‘The conformistspesform altistic ats, perhaps even to the extent ‘of risking their lives, not because of selfdenying genes selected at ‘The Social Speces the group level but beeause the group is occasionally able to take advantage of ee indoctrinabiity which on other oeeasions i favor: ble tothe individ The two hypotheses are not mutually exclusive. Group and ind- vidual selection can be reinforcing. If war requires spartan viruse and climinates some of the warriors, victory can more than ade (quately compensate che survivors in land, power, and the opportunity to reproduce, The average individual will win the inclusive ess tame, making che gamble profitable, because che summed eforts of the patcipants give the average member a more than compensatory edge Ethies Scientists and humanists should consider together the possibility that the time has come for ethics o be removed temporsiy from the hhands of the philosophers and biologcized. The subject at present consists of several daly dihunet concepruaizations, The Bist ethi- ‘al intuitionism, the belief that the mind has 2 direct awareness of true right and wrong that it can formalize by logie and translate into res of social aetion. The purese guiding precept of secular Western thought has been the theory ofthe socal contract as formated by ‘Locke, Rousteau, and Kant In our time the precept as been rewoven, {nto slid philosophical system by John Ras (1971). His imperative fs that justice should be not merely integral to system of government but sather the object of the orginal contract. The principle called by Rawls “justice a5 fairness” are those which free and rational pee sons would choose if they were beginning an asseciation from a positon of equal advange and wished to define the fundamental rules ofthe association. In judging the appropriateness of subsequent laws and behavior, it would be necessary to tet thelt conformity to the unchallengeable starting position ‘The Achilles heel of the intuitionist postion is that it relies on the emotive judgment of the brain as though that onan must be treated as a Back box. While few wil disagree that justice a fairness {san ideal state for disembodied spi, the conception isin no way explanatory or predictive with reference to buman beings Conse ‘queney does not consider the ultimate ecological or genetic eonse ‘quences of the rigorous prosecution ofits conclusions, Perhaps expla nation and prediction will not be needed for the millennium. But ‘this i unlkely—ehe human genotype and the ecosystem in whieh ic evolved were fashioned ut of extreme unfairnes. In either case ‘the fll exploration of the neural machinery of euhical judgment i esiable and already in progress. One such effort, constituting the second mode of conceptualization, can be called ethical behaviorism, Its basic proposition, which has been expanded mor flly by J. F Seott (1971), holds that moral commitment is entirely lszned, with(Chapter 27 operant conditioning being the dominant mechanism. In othee words, children simply internalize the behavioral norms of the society (Opposing this theory is the developmental genetic conception of thea behavior. The bese-documented version has been provided by Lawrence Koblherg (1969), Kohiber’ viewpoint is sruceuralist and specifically Piagetian, and therefore not yet elated co the remainder tt biology. Piaget has used the expression "genetic epistemology” and Kohlberg “cognitivedevelopmental” ro label the general concept Hiowerer, the results will eventually become incorporated into a broadened developmental biology and genetics. Kohlberss method is, to record and elasity the verbal responses of children to moral prob lems He has delineated six sequential sages of ethical reasoning through which an indiidual may progress as part of his mental rmaturition, The eild moves from a primary dependence on external conto snd sanctions t an increasingly sophisticated st of internal lzed standards (see Table 27-4). The analysis has not yet been directed to the question of plsticity in the basic rules. Inuaculcual variance thas not been measured, and hertablity therefore not asessed. The Table 27-4 The clasicetion of moral ludgment ino levels and stage of development (Buted on Kohibes, 1962) Level Basis of mora jdgment ‘Stage of development T Moral value is defined by 1 Obedience conus and Pnihmest and reward authority t9 avoid punish Conformity to obain svands a to exchange favors Tl Mor value resides ta fll. 3. Goodboy oxieatauion: con Ing the correct roles,informity to avoid dislike maintaining order snd and re}etion by others mmeettagthe expectations 4 Duty onentation conform of others ity to avoid censure by Authority, dispeion of oF fer, and resulting guile I“ Moral value rendes in con- $. Leyalticonentation’ ree formigy to shared stand. ogution of the value of, stds, Habs, and duties contracts, some arbitra fess i re formation ‘maintain the common ood Conscience or principle ‘vietation: primary alle since to principles of Choice, which ean over fle ave in eases where the la 5 judged to do nore harm than good. ‘Man: From Soeibiology to Sociology 563 Aitference between ethiesl behsviorism and the current vesion of developmental genetic analysis is thatthe former postulates a mecha- nism (operant conditioning) without evidence and the later presents ‘evidence without postulating mechanism. No wrest conceptual df. culty underlies this disparity. The study of moral development is only 4 more complicated and les tractable Version of the genevie variance problem (ee Chapters 2 and 7). With the accretion of data the evo approaches can be expected to merge to form a recognizable exereise {in behavioral genetics. Even if the problem were solved tomorrow, however, an important piece would stil be missing, Ths is the genetic evolution of ethics. [In the fist chapter of this book {argued that ethical philosophers, {ngue the deontlogcal canons of morality by consulting the emotive centers oftheir own hypothalamictlimbic system. This is also tue of the developments, even when they ae being their most severely objective. Only by interpreting the actviy of the emouive centers 48 biologics! adaptation ean the meaning of the eanons be deiph ‘ered, Some of the activity is likely to be outdated, a rele of adjust. ment to the most primitive form of tribal organization. Some of it may prove to be im ster naicendi, consieuting new and quickly ‘changing adaptstons o agrarian and urban life. The resulting conf sion willbe reinforeed by other factors. To the exten tbat unilaterally altruistic genes have been established in the population by group Selection, they willbe opposed by allelomorphs favored by individual, selection. The confit of impulses under their various controls is likely to be widespread in the population, since curcent theory pre- dics thatthe genes wil be at best maintained in a state of balanced polymorphism (Chapter 5). Moral embivaleney will be further in tensed by the cicumstance that a schedule of sex: and age depend tent ethics can impart higher genetic fitness than a single moral code ‘which is applied uniformly to all sexage groups. The argument for this statement isthe special eae of the Gadgl ossert distribution in which the eontibations of socal interactions to survivorship and fertlty schedules are specified (Gee Chapter 4). Some of che dife fences inthe Koblberg stages could he explained in chis manner. For ‘example, it should be of selective advantage for young children to be self centered and relatively disinclined to perform aleuistic acts, based on personal principle Similar, adolescents should be more tightly bound by agepeer bonds within cheir own sex and hence ‘unusually sensitive to peet approval. The reason is that at this time greater advantage accrues to the formation of allances and nse in status chan laee, when sexual and parental morality become the paramoune determinants of fimess. Genetically programmed sexual, {nd porentoffspring conflict of the kind predicted by the Thivers ‘models (Chapters 15 and 16) ae also Ukely to promote age differences in che kinds and degrees of moral commitment. Finally, the moral standards of individuals during early phases of colony growth shouldsea vee tt ior in muany dais for thos of individuals ax demographic eu lubaium or during episodes of overpoplation, Metapopulations sub- ject to high levels ofr extinction wil tnd to diverge genetically from ‘other kinds of populations in ethical behavior (Chapt 5) I there is any truth t this theory of innate moral pluralism, the requirement for an evolutionary approach to ethics is self-evident Tt should abo he clear that no single set of moral stindards can be appli to al human populations, let alone all sexage classes within fich population, To impose + uniform cade is therefore to create complex, intractable moral dilemmas--thes, of course ae the cus ‘ent condition of mankind Esthetics ‘Artiste impilses ate by ao means imited to man. In 1962, when Desmond Mortis reviewed the subject in The Biology of Are, 22 ‘individual nonhuman primates had produced drawings and paintings in capeivity. Twenty-three were chimpanzees, 2 were grils, 3 were frangutans, and 4 wete capuchin monkeys. None received special tualoing or anything more than acces tothe necesary equipnient In fact, atemps to guide the efforts of the animals by inducing Imitation were slays unsuccessful, The drive to use ehe palstng and drawing equipment was powerful, requiring no reinforcement from the human observers Both young and old animals became so engrossed with the activity that they preferred it co being fed and sometimes threw temper tantrame when stopped. Two of the chin panaees studied extensively were highly productive. “Alpha” pro- duced over 200 pictues, while the famovs “Cong,” who deserves to be called the Picaso of the great apes, was responsible for nearly 400. Alehough most of the efor consisted of senbbling, che pattems ‘were far from Yandom. Lines and smuges were spread over blank page oueward from a cenually located figure. When 2 drawing was fared on one side ofa blank pase the chimpanzee usually shifted to the opposite side t offset i. With time the ealigraphy became bolder, starting with simple lies and progressing to more complicated rultiple scribbles, Congo's paters progressed along approximately the same developmental path as those of very young human children, yielding fonshaped digziras and even complete cicles. Other chim anzees deve crosses ‘The arstic activity of chimpanzees may well be a special manifes: tation of their wolusing behavior. Members of the species display 4 total of about ten technigues, all of which require manual ski Probably all are improved through practice, while at lease a few are passed as uaditons fom one generation to the next. The chimpan- eee have a considerable focility for inventing new techniques, suck 438 the use of sticks to pull objects through cage bars and to pry open bores. Thus the endeney to manipulate object and to explore their ‘uses appeats to have an adaptive advantage for chimpanzees ‘The Soci Species The same reasoning applicsw fortiori to che origin of ae in man AAs Washburn (1870) pointed out, human beings have heen hunter {atheres for over 99 percent oftheir history, during which time each ‘man nade his own tools. The apprasil of form and skill in execution were necessary for survival and they probably broughe social approval 238 well Both forms of success pald off sn greater generic fitness. If ‘the chimpanee Congo could reach the stage of elementary diagrams, i ts not to0 hard t0 imogine primitive man prowressing to repre sentation izes. Once that stage was reached, the transition co the ‘use of artim sympathetic magic and ritual must have followed ‘uickls, Are might then have played a reciprocally reinforcing role Inthe development of culture and ment capacity. Inthe end, wat ing emerged as the idiographic representation of language. ‘Music ofa kind is alo produced by some animals. Human beings consider the elaborate courtship and temitonal songs of birds to be ‘eaueiul, and probably ultimately for the same reasons they are of use tothe birds. Wieh clarity and precision they identity che species, ‘he paysiological condition, and the mental setof the singer. Richness of information and precise transmission of mood are ae less the Ssundacds of excellence in human musi. Singing and duncing serve to draw groupe together, direct the emotions ofthe people, and pre pate them fOr joine action, The carnival displays of chimpsnzces described in eater ebapters are remarkably ike human celebrations in this respect. The apes nin, leap, pound she tunks of tees in Arumming motions, and call loudly hack and forth. These actions serve at lest in part to assemble groups at common feeding grounds, ‘They may resemble the ceremonies of ealest man. Nevertheless, fundamental differences appeared in subsequent hurnan evolution ‘Human music has been liberated from iconic representation in the same way that que language has departed ftom the elementary eval. ‘ation characterising the communication of animals. Music has the capacity for unlimited and arhieary symbolzation, and it employs rules of phrasing and order thit serve the same function 28 syntax Territoriality and Tribalism ‘Anchopolgists often discount teritoral behavior as a general ‘human atenbute. This happens when the narrowest concept of the ‘Phenomenon is borrowed from zoology—the “stickleback model,” ta ‘which residents meet along fixed boundaries eo threaten and dive fone anocher back. But earlier, in Chapter 12, 1 showed why it i necesary to define tentory more broadly, as any area occupied ‘more or less exclusively by an animal or group of animals through overt defense or adveriement. The techniques of repulsion ean be as explicit 452 precpicousalloue atsck or as sble a8 the deposit ‘of a chemical seeretion a a seent post. Of equal imporeance, animals, respond to their neighbors in a highly variable manner, Exch species is characterized by its own particular behavioral sale. In extremeChapter 27 ‘eases the cele may run from open hostility, say, during the breeding season oF when the population density is high, eo oblique forms of idversisement of no teritorial hehvior ae all, One seeks to chars terize the behavioral seale of the species and ro identify the parame ters that move individual animale up and dosen these qualifications are accepted tis reasonable to conclude that ‘errtrilty i general trait of huntergatherer societies. In a percep tive reriew of the evidence, Edwin Walmsen (1973) found that hese relatively primitive societies do not difer Ssically in the suategy of land tenure fom many mammalian species. Systematic overt af iression has been reported in s minority of buntergatheree pepe, for example che Chippews, Sioux, and Washo of North America and the Murngin and Tiwi of Australia Spacing and demographic balance ‘were implemented by raiding parties, murder, and threats of wit craft The Washo of Nevada aetvely defended nuclear portions of {helt Rome ranges, within which they maintained their winter resi- ences, Subeler and less direet frm of interaction can have the same result The Kung Bushmen of dhe Nyae Nyac area refer to themselves as "perfect" or “clean” and other Rung people as strange” murderers ‘who use deadly poisons “Human tertoril behavior is sometimes parculrized in ways that ate obviously functional As recently as 1930 Bushmen of the Dobe fares in southwestern Africa recognized the principle of exclusive family landholdings during the wet season. The rights extended only to the gathering of vegetable foods, other bands were allowed to hunt snimals throw the area (R.B, Lee in Wilmsen, 1973). Other hunter: fatherer peoples appear to have followed the same dual principe: ‘more oF less exclusive use by tebes or families of the richest sources cof veactable foods, opposed eo broadly overlapping hunting ranges “Thus the original suggestion of Sarebolomew and Birdsel (1953) chat, Austalopithgcus and the primitive Homo were tersitoral remains 2 vishle hypothesis. Moreover, n obedience tothe rule of ecological efficiency, the home ranges and territories were probably lage and population density correspondingly low. This rl, i will be recalled, Sates that when a dit consist of animal food, roughly ten times f= much area is needed to gain the same amount of energy yield ‘when the diet consists of plant food. Modern hunter gatherer bands ‘containing about 25 individuals commonly oeeupy between 1000 and 000 square kilometers. This ates is comparable to the home range fof a wolf pack but as much ss a hundred times grester than that fof woop of gorilis, which are exclusively vegetarian Hans Kummer (1971), reasoning from an assumption of territo lity, provided an importa additional insight about human behav for. Spacing benwcen groups is elementary in nature and can be achieved by a relatively mall nimber of simple aggressive techniques, Spacing and dominance within group i vastly more complex, being tied coall che remainder of the social repertory. Part of man’s problem fs that bis intergroup responses are stll crude and primiive, and ‘Man’ From Sociobiology to Secioloxy 565 Inadequate for the extended excraerioral relationships that eivl ation has thst upon him The unhappy result is what Garett Hardin (1972) has defined as erbalism in the modern sense [Any woup of people that porceives isl as distinc group, and which iso perceived by the outside world, maybe ealed a sre The Rou fright he race, sp orinally defied, bur i need ot be; 1 ea ast 35 wall be a telgious sect apolitical group, or an cecupationsl oun. ‘The esenil eharacentic ofa tbe tothe should follow a double tandard ot moralty—one kind of behavior for i grp relation. other for out up. Teisone of the unfortunate and inescapable characteristics of ebalism shat eeventully evokes counter tbslie (or to use # ferent gue fof speech, tpolurzs” society). Fearful of the hostile groups around them, the “tribe” refwes to concede tothe common good. Ie is less likely co voluntarily cub its ‘own population growth, Like the Sinhalese and Tamils of Ceylon, compentors may even race to outbreed each other. Resources are sequestered, Justice and liberty decline. Increases in rel and image ined threats congeal the sense of group identity and mobilize the tribal members. Xenophobia becomes a politcal virtue. The treatment of nonconformist within the group slows harsher. History i replete with the escalation ofthis process tothe point thatthe society breaks Alown or goes to war. No tation has been complctely iatmune, Early Social Evolution “Modern man can be sid to have been launched by a twostage accel tation in mental evolution, The Ast occurred during the tansiion from a larger arboreal primate to the fist man apes (Austalopithe- ‘c.f the primitive hominid Ramapiehecus isin the direct line of ancestry, as current opinion holds, che change may have required as ‘much as ten million years. Austraopithecus was present ve million year go, and by three milion years a. it had specited into several forms, including possibly the fst primitive Homo (Tobias, 1973). As shown in Figure 27-1, the evolution of these intermediate hominids eas marked by an ateelerating increase in brain capacity. Simulta- neously, exe posture and a striding, bipedal locomotion were per fected, and the hinds were molded to acquire the precision grip ‘These early men undoubtedly used tools to a much greater extent than do modern chimpanzees. Crude stone implements were made by chipping, and rocks were pulled together to form what appear to be the foundations of shelters. ‘The second, much more rapid phsse of acceleration began about 100,000 years ago. It consisted primanly of euluzal evolution and ‘must have been mostly phenotypic in nature, building upon the _enetic potential inthe brain that had aecurnulated ovr the previous millions of years. The brain had reached a threshold, and a wholly new, enormously mote rapid form of mental evolution took over.ge ut TIME (MILLIONS OF YEARS BEFORE PRESENT) rags Ano ‘aN The Sova! Species 6 Avan [Hownos| [Figure 27-4 This simplited phylogeny ofthe Old Word higher primates shows that only three existing groups have shifted from the forest the savanna. They are the baboons (Papi), the gelada monkey (Theropithects selada), and man. (Based oa Napier and Napier, 1967, and Simons and Exel, 97D) ‘This second phase was in no sense planned, and its potential is oly now being revesie. “The study of man's origins can be refered to ewo questions that correspond to the dual stages of mental evolution: ‘What features of the environment caused the hominids to ‘adapt dfferenly from other primates and started them slong the ‘unique evolutionary path? ‘Once started, why did the hominids go so far? ‘The search for the prime movers of ealy human evolution hss extended over mote than 25 yeas. Participants in the seach have Included Dar (1989, 1956), Bartholomew and Birdsell (1953), Edin (1958, Washburn and Avis (958), Washbum et al. (1961), Rabb et al, (1967), Reynolds (1968), Schaller and Lowther (1969), C.J Joly (1970), and Korelande (1972), These writers have concentrated on two {indisputably important faces concering the biology of Ausralopithe- cus and eatly Homo. Fist, the evidence is strong that Australopithe- us africanus, the species most likely to have heen the direc ancestor ‘of Homo, lived on the open savanna. The wear patern of end grains taken from the Sterkfontein fossils suggests a dry climate, while che pigs, antelopes, and other mammals found in estociation with the hominids are of the kind usualy specialized for existence in gras lands. The austalopithecine way of life came asthe result ofa major Ihsbtar shift The ancestral Remapithecus or an even more ante: cedent form lived in forests and was adapted for progression throughChapter 27 tuees by arm swinging. Only 3 very few other large-bodied primates have been able to oin man in leaving the forest w spend most of, thet lives on the ground in open habsess (Figure 27-4). This isnot to say that bands of Auctrdlopithecus africanus spent al of thelr Lives running about in the open. Some of them might have eared cheit fame into eaves and even lived there in permanent residence, al ‘hough the evidence pointing to this often quoted trait ssl far from ‘conclusive (Kurtén, 1972) Other bands could have retreated at night tothe protection of groves of tres, n the maner of modern baboons. “The important poi is thst much or all of che foraging was conducted ‘on the savanna "The second peculiar feature of the ecology of early men was the “degree of their dependence on animal food, evidently far greater than in any ofthe living monkeys and apes, The Austraopithecus were catholic in their eboice of small animals. Their sites contain the femains of tortoises, lizards, snakes, mice, rabbits, porcupines, and ‘other smal, vulnerable prey that must have abounded on the savanna ‘The manapes also hunted baboons with clubs. From anslyss of 58 buboon skulls, Dare estimated that all had been brought down by blows tothe head, 80 from the front and the remainder Irom behind “The Austalopiehecus aso appear to have burchered larger animals, Including the sant swatheres, or homed gintfes, and dinotheres, ‘lephantike forms with tusks that curved downward from the lower jaws In early Acheulean times, when Homo erectus began employing stone axes, some of the species of lage African mammals became ‘extinct [es reasonable to suppose that this impoverishment was due to excessive predation bythe increasingly competent bands of men (Martin, 1966), ‘What can we deduce from these facts about the life of ealy man Before an answer is attempted, it should be noted that very ltde ean be inferred diectly from comparisons with other living primates Geladas and baboons, the only open-country forms, are primarily vegetarian They representa sarapleof at most six species, which difer 00 much from one another in socal oreaniztion to provide a bate- line for comparison, The chimpanzees, the most intelligent and so- cially ropbisticsted of the nonhuman primates, are forest dwelling fand mostly vegetarian. Only during their occasional ventures into predation do they display behavior that ean be direciy corelated with ecology in a way thse has meaning for hursan evolution, Other notable features of chimpanzee social oranization, including the rapidly shifting composition of subgroups, the exchange of females ‘erwcen groups and the ingiate and lengthy process of socialization (Gee Chapter 26, may or may not have been shared by primitive man We cannot argue either way on the basis of ecological corelation, Itis often stated in the popula icerature that dhe feof chimpanzees reveals a great deal about the origin of man. This is not necessarily true, The mankike tits of chimpanzees could be due 10 evolutionary Man: From Sociobiology € Sociology ser convergence in which case their use in evolutionary reconstructions would be misleading “The best procedute t follow, and one which I believe s relied fon implieily by mast students ofthe subject, i to extrapolate back ward from living huntergatherer societies. In Table 27-5 chis ccc rigue is made explicit. Utizing the synthesis edited by Lee and DeVore (1968, se especially J. WM. Whiting. pp. 3363835), Ihave listed the most peneral teats of huntergatherer peoples. Then Ihave cvaluated the ibility of each behavioral category by noting the ‘mount of variation in the eatery that occurs among the nonbuman primate species, The les labile the category, che mor likely that the trac displayed by the living buntergatherers was also displayed by carly man, ‘What we can conclude with some degree of confidence is that primikive men lived in small tervitrial groups, within which males ‘were dominant over females, The intensity of sggressive behavior and the nature ofits sealing remsin unknown. Maternal care was pro- longed, and the relationships were at least to some extent matrilineal Speculation on remaining sxpecs of social fe isnot supported either way by the lability data and is cherefore more tenuous. Ie is likely tha the erly hominids fraged in groups. To judge from the behavior fof baboons and geladss, such behavior would have eonfered some protection from large predators. By the time Australopithecus and fatly Homo had begun to feed on lage mammals, group bunting lmest certainly had become advantageous and even necessary, asin the African wild dog. But there is no compelling reason to conclude that men di the bunting while women stayed 2t home, This oceurs today in huntergatherer societies, but comparisons with other pri sates offer no clue as to whem che trait appeared. Iti certainly not essential fo conclude a poe that males must bea specialized hunter las, In ehimpanaees males do the hunting, which may be suggestive. But in lions, i willbe recalled, the females are the providers, often ‘working in groups and with cubs in tow, while the males usualy hold back, In the African wild dog both sexes participate. Thi rot to suggest chat male group hunting was not an early wait of hominids, only that there is no stong independent evidence to sup. port the hypothesis, "This bring us to the prevallng eheory of the origin of human sccality, It eonsts ofa series of interlocking models that have been fashioned from bits of fossil evidence, extrapolations back from ex: tant huntergatherer societies, and comparisons with other living primate species. The core ofthe theory ean be appropriately termed the autoeutalyois model. i holds that when the earliest hominids became bipedal a part of their terestral adaptation, their ands were fed, the manufacture and handling of artifacts was made easier, and intelligence grew a: part of the improvement of the took using habit With mental capacity and the tendency couse artifacts nereasure HL The Social Species Table 27-5 Social sits of living hunterzitherer groups and the likelihood that they were ko possessed by early man. Traits that occur accerally en ving Reliability of| hhuntergatherer {oeal group sce ‘Most 100 or less Highly variable bue within vnge of Variability of concluding eaty eat entegory san had the same ‘among nonburman ‘iat though ‘mates ‘homology Very prbiy 109 or 100 less but otherwise sot reliable Family as the nuclear unit Highly variable Not reliable Sexaal division of labor ‘Women gather, men hut Limited to man among living primates Not reliable [Males dominant over females Widespresd although not universal Relatle Longeerm sexual honding (mariage) Highly variable Not reliable ‘nearly universal, poiyayny general Exopimy universal, sbeted by marriage Limited co man among living primates Not reliable ‘les Subgroup composition changes often Highly variable Not reliable (sion fusion principle) “Teorality general, eopecially marked in ich gathering areas (Occurs widely, but variable in pattern Probably occurred pat 5 tern usknows Game playing especialy games that en- Occur generally, atleast in elementary Very reliable tal phpiesl skill bu not sestegy ‘ora, Prolonged maternal ate; pronounced _Oecus generally in higher cercpithe- Very reliable ‘ocidization of young, extenéed rela» coids tionships between mother and ebldsen, especially mothers and daughters {ng through mural reinforcement, the entite materiak-based culture expanded, Cdopertion during hunting was perfected, providing a new impetus for the evolution of inteligence, which in turn permit ted sill more sophistication in tol using, and so on through eycles fof causation. Ar some point, probably during the late Austalopithe- us period or the transition from Australopithecus to Homo, this sutocatalyss carried the evolving populations toa certain threshold fof competence, at which the hominids were able co exploit dhe ante. lopes, elephants, and other large herbivorous mammals tceming round them on the African plains. Quite possibly the process began ‘when the hominids earned to drive big cas, hyenas, and other ear nivores from ther kis (see Figure 27-5) In time they became the primary hunters themselves and were forced to protect their prey fom other predators and scavengers. Te autoeatalyss model usually Includes the proposition that the shift w big game accelerated the process of menu evolution. The shife could even have been the Impetus that led to the origin of early Homo from their austalo pithecine ancestor: approximately two million years ago. Another proposition is that males became specialized for hunting Child care ‘was failitated by close social honding between the males, who left the domiciles to hunt, and ehe females, who kept the children and conducted most ofthe foraging for vegetable food. Many of the peew liar details of human sexual behavior and domestic Ife dow easly fom this basic division of labor. But chese details ate not exsential tothe autocatalyis model. They ace added because they are displayed by modem hunter gatherer societies ‘Although internally consistent, the autocatalysis model contains 2 ‘curious omission—-the triggering device. Once the process stated, it Iseasy to see how could be selfsustalning But what stared i Why did the earest hominids become bipedal instead of running on all, fous like baboons and gelada!Cliford Jolly (1970) has proposed that the prime impetus was a specialization on gass seeds. Because the carly premen, perhaps as far back 2s Remapithecus, were the largest primates depending on grain, « premium was set on the ability toChapter 27 manipulate objces of very stall size selatve to the hands. Man, in shor became bipedal in order to pick seeds, This hypothesis is by ‘ho mesns unsupported fantasy. Jolly poins toa number of convergent features in skull and dental snuceure between man and the gelada, ‘which feeds on seeds, insects, and other small objects. Moreover, the ‘ela is peal among the Old World monkeys and apes in shar the folowing epigamic anatomical eraits with man: growth of hair around the face and neck of the mule and conspicuous feshy aor ment on the chest of the female. According to Jolly’s model, che freeing ofthe hands of the early hominids was a preadaptation that permitted the inereate in tool use and the autoesalyie concomitanss (Of mental evolution and predatory behavioc Later Social Evolution ‘Autocatalyti reactions in living systems never expand to infinity. Biologia! parameters normally change in a ate-dependent manner to slow growth and eventually Bring ito halt. But almost miracu- lously, this has not yet happened in human evolution, The increase in raise and the refinement of stone artifacts indicate a gradual improvement in mental capseity throughout the Pleistocene. With the appearance ofthe Mousterian too culture of Homo sapiens neon derthalenss some 75,000 years ago, the tend gathered momentum, tiving way in Europe to the Upper Paleolithic culture of Homo =. Sepiens about 4000 years Re. Starting about 10,000 years ago agricul ture wat invented and spread, populations increased enormously in ‘ensty, and the primitive buntergatheret bands gave way locally to the relenlese growth of tes, eefdoms, and state. Finally, after ‘x. 1400 Europeairbased civilization shifted geas again, and knowl tage and technology grew not just exponentially but superexponen sally (see Figures 276, 277), “There is ao reason to believe that during this final sprint there has been a cessation in the evolution of either mental capacity oF the prediction coward special social behaviors. The dheory of popu lation genctics and experiments on other organisms show that sub. stantal changes can ceur in the span of Jess than 100 generauons, which for man reaches back only tothe time of the Roman Empire “Two thousand generations, oughly the period since typical Homo sapiens invaded Europe, is enough time to create new species and to mold them in major ways. Although we do not know how much ‘mental evolution has actully occurred, i€ would be false to assume that moderaeWilisations have been built entirely om eapial accumu lated during the long haul ofthe Pleistocene. Since genetic and cultural tracking systems operate on parallel racks, we can bypass their distinction forthe moment and return to the question ofthe prime movers in later human socal evolution {nits broadest sense. Seed eating ia plausible explanation to account Man: From Sociobiology to Sociology so for the movement of hominids onto the savanna, and the shift 0 biggame bunting might account for their advance tothe Homo erec tus grade, But was the adaptation co group predaion enough 0 cary cvolution all the way to the Homo sipiens grade and tanher, 0 Sgsculture and eiviization? Anthropologists and Biologsts do not Consider the impetus to have been suffeient, They have advocated the following series of additional factors, which can act singly oF in combination, Sexual Selection Fox (1972), fllowinga suggestion by Chance (1962), has argued hat sexual selection was the awulary motor that drove human evolution all che way to the Homo grade, His reasoning proceeds as follows Polyayny i general ai in hunter gatherer bands and may also have ‘been the rule in the eatly hominid Societies. fo, a premium would have been placed on Sexual selection involving both epigamic display toward the females and intrasexual competition among the males. ‘The selection would be enhanced by the constant mating provocation that arises from the female's nearly continuous sexual receptivity Because of the existence of a high level of cooperation within the ‘band, a legacy of the original Australopithecus adaptation, sexual seleetion would tend to be linked with hunting prowess, leadership, ‘kil at tool making, and other visible auributes that contribute £0 the success of the family and the male band. Aggressiveness was ‘ontrained and the old forms of overt primate dominance replaced by complex social skill, Young males found ie profitable to it into the group, conwolling their sexuality and aggression and awaiting their tim at leadership As 2 eesult the dominant male in hominid Societies was most likely to posses # mosaic of qualities chat reflect the necessities of compromise: “controlled, cunning, cooperstive, actactive to the ladies, good withthe children, relaxed, tough, eo (quent, skilful, knowledgeable and proficient in seltdefense and Inunting” Since postive feedback occurs between these more sophis ‘cated soca traits and breeding succes, social evolution ean proceed Indefiniely without additional selective presses ftom the environ Multiplier Effects in Cultural Innovation and in Network Expansion ‘Whatever its prime mover, evolution in cultural capacity was imple rented by 4 sowing power and readiness to learn. The network of contats among individuals and bunds must also have grown. We can postulate a entcal mass of cultural capacity and network size in ‘whieh it Became advantageous for bands acuvely to enlarge both. In ‘other worls, the feedback became positive, This mechanism, Ike sexual selection, requites no additional input beyond the limits ofFigure 27-5 At the dheshold of autocataly ilion yeors ago, band of ealy men (Homo hat fn the act of driving rival predators from a newly ‘Beat elephaneike erate had succumbed from exhaustion or disease, Eo'cad perhaps hastened by attacks from the animals closing in on i "The men have just entered the scene. Some drive may the predators by vaciusl shouting, saving thei ums, brandishing sick, and crow ie socks while few seals, catering from the left, prepare to join the fray. To the right a female sabertoath cat (Homothetium) ad her feo piown cuts have Been at lees temporaly intimidated and are Dicking awey. ‘Ther theca faces ceveal the exranrdinary gape of thet fawn be left foreground, «pack of spoted hyenas (Crocut) bas also ‘ehreated but is ready tra Back the moment an opening is provided“The men ate quite small es han 1S materi height, and indvideally hho match for the lage carnivores. According to prevaling theory, 2 high degre of cooperation was therefore required to exploit such prey, and fe evolved in conjunction with higher ineligeace 2nd the supetor {blliry to use tools tn the background can besten the environment ofthe Olduval region of Tanzania as It may have looked at ths ime, ‘The area was covered by rolling parkland and rimmed to the eas by voleanic highlands The herbivore populations were dense and varied, 45 they are today. In the lft backgtound are seen thee‘oed horses (Ceippaion, while co the right are herd of widebeest and giant homed ‘ilflite creature celled svatheres, (Drawing by Saab Landry, pre aed in consolation with F Clark Howell The recanstroction of Homo- therium was based in part on an Aurigncian seulpnure, see Rousse, 1o71)sn Pe social behavior inelt But nlike sexual slcetion, it probably reached the autocatalsie threshold level very Late inhuman prehistory. Increased Population Density and Agriculture ‘The conventional view of the development of civilization used 0 be hut ingovations in farming led to population growth, the securing of leisure time, the rise of a leisure elas, and the contevance of civilized, less imeditely functional pursuits. The hypothesis has been considerably weakened by the discovery that [Kung and other hhuntergatherer peoples work les and enjoy more les time than most farmers. Phmitve agricultural people generally do not produce surpluses unless compelled todo so by politcalor religious authorities (Carneiro, 1970). Ester Boserup (1965) as gone so far as to sugnst ‘the reverse causstion: population growth induces societies to deepen, their involvement and expertise in agriculture, However, this expls nation docs not account fr the population growth in the Bist place Humergatherer societies remained in approximate demographic cquilibrium for hundreds of thoussnds of years. Something ese tipped afew of them into becoming the ist farmers. Quite possibly “The Suet Specs ‘the crucial events were nothing more than the atuinmentofa certain level of intelligence and icky encounters with wild-eowing food plants Once launched, agricultural economies permited higher pop ‘lation densities which in turn encouraged wider neeworks of social contact, tchnolagiel advance, and further dependence on farming ‘A few innovations, such a irigation and ehe whee, incensifed the process to the point of no return Warfare ‘Throughout recorded history the conduct of war has been common among tnbes and neatiy universal among chiefdoms and states. When. Sorokin analvzed the histories of LI European countries over periods ‘of 275 to 1025 years, he found that on the average they were engated In some kind of military action 47 percent of the time, or above one ‘year out of every two. The range was from 28 percent of the years inthe case of Germany to 67 percent in the ease of Spain. The early chiefdoms and states of Europe and the Middle Eat armed over with ‘rest rapidity, and moch of che conquest was genocidal in nature ‘The spread of genes has always been of paramount importance. For mann | awnnmnowdamonn aS Ea crate fon” [Scot sae g|ocuesd me (mower overooM come. [eunaee noone | essen co Maree [tart . Banlevee mee Ra |e, pepe 0 asm |i, smo |igpesy ee Seon [ERs Figure 27-6 The four principal types of societies ip ascending order of sociopolivis! com plenty, with ving and extinct examples of each A few of the socopolitis!istittions are Shown, lathe approximate order in which they ate iuerpretedt have asen. (Hom Hannery, 1972 Reproduced, with permission, ttom "The Cultural Evolution of Civilizations." Annual Review of Ecology and Spstematics, Vo. 3, p. 4. Copyuight © 1972 by Annual Reviews, le All nigh reserved}‘Chanter 27 8888 3 é Z 5 Bu 2 : o 8 8 8 8 100d Noo go>" 1300" 1400-1500 1600" 17OO- 600" 10% 1198 1259 Isso leap 1550 1699 1799 aso igure 27-7. The number of imporane inventions and discoveries, by century, fom A. 1000 A. 1900. (From Lensk, 1970, after Osburn and Nimkof, 1958. Compled from L. Darmstedter and R. DuBois Reymond, 4000 JabrePionierArbeit in den Bxaeten Wixenschafen, Benin, |. Sugar, 1904) ‘example, ater the conquest ofthe Midianites Moses gave instructions ‘identical in result to the aggression and genetic usurpation by male langue monkeys: [Now ull every mule dependent, and kil every woman who has had intercourse with a man, tut spare for yourselves every woman among them who pas not had intercourse, (Numbers 3). ‘And centuries later, von Causewite conveyed to is pupil che Pus. sian crown prinee a sense of the tru, biological joy of warfare: Re audacious and cunning in your plans, im and persevering in their ‘execution, determined to finds sloious end, and fae will erown your yourhful brow witha shining ory, which is the ornament of princes, And enrave your image in the hearts of your last descendents ‘The possibilty that endemic warfare and genetic usurption could be an effective force in group selection was clearly recognized by (Charles Darwin. In The Descent of Man he proposed 2 remarkable ‘model that foreshadowed many of the elements of modem group- felecton theory: Now; if some one man in a eibe, more saacious than the others, in- vented a new share oF weapon, cr other means of atack of defence, Man: From Sociobiology to Sociology sm the planest selineerest, without the asitance of much reasoning powcr, would prompt the other mernbers eo imitate hit and il would thus prot. The habitual practice of each new art mus likewise in some Slight depos steneten the sntellct lf the invention wete an portant fe, the tbe mould fpereate in number spread, and supplant other tmbes, In a enbe thus rendered tore numerous there woud aways be {nother greater chance of the birth of other superior and inventive ‘members Uf such men left children to inher hele meatal superonty, the chance of the bint of sil more ingenious members would be ‘omcwhat beter, angina very al embe decidedly beter. Even they lef no children, che tbe would sil include thei blood relations, and iehas been ascertained by ageculerists tha by preserving and breeding from the family of an animal, whieh when slaughtered mas found 10 be valuible, the desved characer as Seen obtsned Darwin saw that not only can group selection reinforce individual Selection, But it can oppose t—and sometimes prevail, expecially i the size of the breeding unit is small and average kinship core sponding close, Essentially the same theme wa later developed in increasing depth by Keith (1945), Bigelow (1969), and Alexander (1971), These authors envision some ofthe “noblest” waits of man- kind, including tem play, altruism, patriotism, bravery on che Bld fof battle, and so forth, as the genetic product of warfare By adding the additional postulate ofa threshold effect, i is post ‘le to explain why the process has operated exclusively in human ‘evolution (Wilson, 19724) I any social predatory mammal ataing a certain level of intelligence, a5 the early hominids, being large pr mates, were especially predisposed to do, one band would have the ‘capacity to consciously ponder the significance of adjacent socal ‘groups and to deal with them in an intelligent, organized fashion. ‘A band mighe then dispose of 4 neighboring band, appropriate its territory, and increase its own genetic representation in the mets population, reining the enbal memory of this succesful episode, repeating it increasing the geographic range ofits occurrence, and quickly spreading i ivluenee still further in the metapopultion, Such primitive culeual capacity would be permitted bythe possesion of eertain genes. Reciprocally the cultaraleapacity might propel the spread of the genes through the genetic constitution of the mets ‘population Once begun, such a mutual reinforcement could be fnreverble, The only combinations of genes able to confer superior fitness in contention with genocidal agyrescors would be those that produce either a more effective technique of aggression or else the ‘capacity to preempt genocide by some form of pacific maneuvering. Either probably entails mental and eultral advance. In addition to being autoeatlyic, such evolution har the interesting property of requiring 2 celection episode only very occasionally in order to pro- ceed as swify as individual level selection. BY current theory, geno- «ide or genosorption strongly favoring the aggressor need take place ‘only ance every few generations to diet evolution, This alone couldom area ‘push truly alist genes toa igh frequency within the bands (see Chapter 5). The turnover of tribes and chiefdoms estimated from atlases of early European and Mideastern history (for example, the atlas by McEvedy, 1967) suggests suticient magnitude of differentia, ‘group flness to have achieved this eece Furthermore, i€ isto be ‘expected that some isolated cultures will escape the proces for gener- ations ata time, in effect reversing temporarily to what ethnographers classify a8 a paeiie state, Multifactorial Systems Each of the foregoing mechanisms could conceivably standalone as 4 sifcient prime mover of social evohution, But i is much more likely that they contributed joindy, in differene suengths and with ‘complex imeraction effets Hence the most realistic model may be fully eybernetie, with cause and effect reciprocating through sub- cycles that possess high degrees of connectivity with one another ‘One such scheme, proposed by Adams (1966) for the rise of sates and urban Societies, is presente in Figure 27.8, Needless to say, the ‘equations needed to ranslae this and similar models have not been written, and the magnitudes of the coefcients cannot even be guessed atthe present tine. In both the unifactrial and muliactorial models of soeial evolu ‘ton, an increasing internalization of the contol is postulated. This shift i considered to be the basis ofthe two-stage acceleration cited ceatie. At the bepioning of hominid evolution, the prime movers ‘were external environmental pressures no different from those that Ihave guided the social evolution of other animal species. For the ‘moment, it seems reasonable co suppose chat the hominids underwent to adaptive shifts in succession: first, to opencountry living and seed eating and second, after being preadapted by the anatomical and meaull changes associated with seed cating, co the capture of ~ hein mon ate waar pom cm [Figure 27-8 A multifactorial model of the origin of the sae and urban society From Fannery, 1972, based on Adana, 1966 Reproduced, with permission, from “The Cultural Evolution of Civilizations," Annual [Review of Ecology and Systematics, Val. 3, p. 408 Copyright ©) 1972 by Annual Reviews, Inc.All rights reserved) ‘The Social Species lange mammals Biggame hunting induced further growth in mental ley and social organization chat brought the Rominids across the threshold into the auroetalytic, more nearly internalized phase of «evolution. This second stage is the one in whieh the most distinesive ‘human qualities emerged, In stressing this distinction, however, I do ‘not wish to imply that soca! evolution became independent ofthe environment. The iton Lis of demography sill clamped dawn on the spreading hominid populstions and the most spectacular cultural advances were impelled by the invention of new ways to contol the environment. What happened was that mental and social change came to depend more on internal reorganization and lesson diet responses to features In the surrounding environment. Social evolu: tion, in short, had acquired its own motor ‘The Future ‘When mankind has achieved an ecological steady state, probably by the end ofthe veny-ist century, the internalization of social eval: tion will be nearly complete. About this une biology should be at its peak, with the soeal sciences maturing rapidly. Some historians of sience wil ake issue with this projection, arguing thatthe accel ‘erating pace of discoveries in these elds implies « more rapid devel ‘opment But historical precedents have mised us before: che subjects ‘we ae talking about are more dificult than physies or chemistry by at least evo orders of magnitude Consider the prospects for sociology. This science is now in the Matural history stage ofits development. Thete have been atempts at system building bur, jut a in psychology, they were premature and came to litle. Much of what pases for theory in sociology today Js rally labeling of phenomena and concepts, inthe expected manner ‘of natural history. Process is diicult ro anayze because the funda mental units are elusive, pethaps nonexistent. Syntheses commonly consist ofthe tedious cross referencing of difering sets of definitions and metaphors erected by the mote imaginative thinkers (oe for example Inkeles, 1965, and Friedrich, 1970), That, too, i typical of the natural history phase ‘With an increase in the richness of descriptions and experiments, sociology is drawing closer each day to cultural anthropology, social peychology, and economics, and will soon merge with them. These disciplines are fundamental to sociology sensu lato and are most likely to yield it fist phenomenological ws. In fact, some viable ‘gualitative laws probably already exist. They include rested sate ments about che following relationships: the effects of hoslisy and stress upon ethnocentrism and xenophobie (LeVine and Campbell, 1972) the postive correlation between and within cultures of wat and combucive sport, resulting in the elimination of the hydraulic model of aggressive drive (Sipes, 1973), precise but sil specializedChapeer 27 ‘models of promotion and opportunity within professional guilds (hie, 1970), and, far from least, the most general models of eco- “The transition ftom purely phenomenological to fundamental the ory in socology must awit a fll, neuzonal explanation ofthe human brain. Only when the machinery ean be em down on paper atthe level ofthe cell and put toetier again wil the properties of emotion and ethical judgment come clear. Simulations can then be employed tavestimate the fll range of behavioral responses and the precision oftheir homeostatic controls. Strese willbe evalnated in terms oF the reurophysiologieal pereurbations and their relxation times. Cogn tion will be eransated into circuitry. Lesrning and creaiveness will be defined as che alteration of specie portions ofthe cognitive ma chinery reulated by input from the emotive centers. Having cam hibalized peychology, the new neurobiology will yield an enduring eof fist principles for sociology "The role of evolutionary sociobiology in this enterprise will be ‘wofold. fe wil attempt to reconstruct the history of the machinery and to identify the adaptive signifeance of each of its functions. ‘Some of the functions are almost certainly obsolete, being directed toward such Pleistocene exigencies as hunting and gathering and inerrbal wartare, Others may prove eureenay adapeive atthe evel ‘of the individual and family bue maladaptive at the level of the |roup—or the reverse. If the decision fp taken to mold cultures to Ft the requirements of che ecologial steady state, some behaviors can be altered experientialy without emotional damage or loss in creativity. Others cannot. Uncertainty in this matter means that Skinner's dream of a culture predesigned for happiness will surely nave t wait forthe new neurobiology. A genetically accurate and hence completely fair code of ethics mus also watt “The secoad contribution of evolutionary sociobilogy will be to _monitr the genetic basis of social behavior. Optimum socioeconomic systems can never be perfect, beeause of Arzow's impossiilicytheo- rem and probably alsa because ethical standards are innately plural late. Moteover, the genetic foundation on which any such normative system is built ean be expected to shift continuously. Mankind fas never stopped evolving, bur in 2 sense his populations are drifting ‘The effect over a period of + few generstins could change the identity of the socioeconomic optima. In partculas, the rate of ‘Man: Fom Sociobiology to Sociology srs zene low around the world has risen to dramatic levels and is acceler Shing. and the meen coefficients of relationship within lol com: ‘munives ate correspondingly diminishing. The result could be an eventual lewening of alesse behavior cough the maladaption and dose of eroup elected genes (Haldane, 1932, hel, 1972). Ikwas shown, cater that behavioral waits tend co be selected ou By the principle fof metabolic conservation when they are suppressed or when thei brginal Function becomes neutral in adaptive value. Such waits ean langely disappear from poplations in as few as en penerstions, only ‘ovo oF thre centuries inthe esse of human beings. With our present inadequate understanding f che human bran, we do not know how ‘many of the mow vakied qualities are linked genetically wo more obsolete, destructive ones. Cooperacivenes toward groupmates might ‘be coupled with agsessivty toward strangers, creativeness with a desi wo own and dominate, athletic zeal witha tendency to violent response, and so on. In exteme cases such paiings could stem from pleotopism, the contol of more chan one phenotypic character bY the same set of genes. Ifthe planned society—the creation of which seems inewtable in the coming century—were to deliberately steer its members past those sreses and conficts that once gave the destructive phenotypes their Darwinian edge, the ther phenotypes right dwindle with them In this, the ultimate genetic sens, social contral would rob man of his humanity Teseems that our sutocatalytic social evolution has locked us onto «4 parucular course which the early hominids sll within us may not ‘welcome, To maintain the species indefinitely we are compelled to rive coward tou knowledge, right down tothe levels ofthe neuron tnd gene. When we have progressed enough fo explain ourselves in these mechanistic terns, and the social seiences come to full lower, the result might be hard to accept. It seems appropriate therefore to close this book at st begin, with the foreboding insight of Albert Camus ‘Avword that canbe explained even with bad seasons is familiar world But on the other hand, in. a univene diverted of ilusions 30d lights, man feels an alien, a stange: His exile Is without remedy since he ‘leprived of the memory of ont home or the hope of promised nd, ‘This, unfortunately, rue, But we sll have another hundred years.