5 posts tagged “anthropology”

In an era when many many moral rules seem to be arbitrarily based on culture we need a deeper foundation.

Simple observation shows that humans are motivated by various and often different interests and desires. We know now that these interests are a combination of genetic, cultural, and upbringing factors. Initially one can not say one interest or motivation is inherently better than another. To do so is to arbitrarily value one interest or motivation more than the others then use that one as the rule by which others are valued.

If all individual interests and motivations are equally valued then society as a whole must maximize the expression of these interests. Consequently this maximization process thus should be the source for all moral guidelines because  the expression of certain interests by individuals will inhibit the expression of other interests by other individuals. In addition immediate expression of certain interests by a single individual can inhibit the expression of a greater number of their interests or some more highly valued interests over a longer term.

Since this morality involves working well with others in groups one should not be surprised that its core has been provided by our own evolution.

The maximization of the group experiential requires that each human develop wisdom which involves a deep understanding of how human emotions work within oneself and others combined with a knowledge of how the world works (its causal flows). All religions value wisdom yet wisdom never seems to be at the primary concern.

Wisdom stands upon three legs. The first leg is the development of one's spirituality, the understanding of oneself in the fullest sense realizing one's emotions and motivations are some unknown mix of genetics, culture, upbringing, and immaterial conscious sensations. In practice this requires the development of a certain level of emotional detachment so one can investigate ones own motivations and (often unexpected) emotional responses. This requires one seek out and explore emotion laden experiences. Our brains will inevitably put our experiences into some sort of mental framework that most closely matches what we feel depending on which frameworks we have run across in our life. To suppress this  direct experiential "natural" framework in preference to a framework that is supposed to be true based upon culture or rationality is to inhibit one's spirituality. Rationality and emotions are handled by two different regions of the brain so one should not expect them to be coherent. There is an appropriate time for each.

The second leg for developing wisdom is the understanding the motivations and emotions of others. This requires the development of empathy (love) in preference to a quick judgment. The key here is the realization that everyone may have a different spirituality, only some of which you may directly understand for unless you have experienced something similar you will really not understand it. Yet the maximization of the group experiential means you must accept it unless it is inhibiting to the long term experiences of everyone. Those with similar spiritual experiences will tend to group together to form various religions or spiritual movements so freedom of religion is a basic moral issue.

The third leg is the understanding causal flows, the cause and effect of everything. Like the development of spirituality this also requires the development of a certain level of emotional detachment so that one can analyze worldly evidence without having one's judgment blinded by one's own cultural biases. The scientific method with its mathematical theories that describe causal flows is a method that has proven itself successful at this. If one must make decisions that affect others one had better understand causal flows well for the road to Hell is paved with good intentions. One should not try to convince others to believe a certain way unless one is prepared to present evidence of causal flows. Often various religions revert to immoral coercion or propaganda methods to gain converts instead of allowing each human to discover their own spirituality in their own time. One can never have too much education although such education does not need to be formal.

Good Natured: The Origins of Right and Wrong in Humans and Other Animals

Frans B. M. de Waal

This is a great book on the evolutionary origins of morality in primates. The core concept is that any genetic trait that does does a better job at reproducing itself over time will become a characteristic of that particular species to which it belongs.

The benefit of a group cohesion trait such as aid in finding food, collective knowledge, and added security are obvious. Yet this trait also must compete against more selfish, non-group, traits. The resolution of this conflict ranges from strict hierarchical dominance behaviors (Baboons) to more egalitarian reciprocal exchange behaviors (Bonobos). Humans and Chimps are somewhere in the middle. This middle ground includes individual concern about the general state of relationships in the group. In Chimps this results in the dominant male breaking up fights with the females and adolescent males seeking peaceful reconciliation between high ranking male rivals. Only humans though seem to value altruistic behavior on a group wide basis and reward contributions to the quality of the social environment (page 34).

This book take the reader through all the stages towards morality with various and detailed examples of observed behavior including those from intelligent non-primates.

Chimp groups will enforce their will against individuals. When two chimps stayed outside at a zoo thus delaying the feeding of the rest of the group they were beaten the next morning when the group could get at them (page 89). Yet the fear of punishment is not the best way for a group work together. A better way is to internalize the submission to the group rules so that the group does not have to expend time and effort to keep each other in line which also risks destabilizing the group if revenge attacks start to occur. Rule internalization is exemplified by a need to please as shown in dogs and wolves leading the famous ethologist Konrad Lorentz to call dogs the animals with a conscience. In humans rule internalization is motivated by the desire to belong to, and be accepted by, a group. In return one will play by the group's rules.

Chimps mostly group conform due to fear of punishment but even then they do seem to have sense of guilt. When the ranking male is away low ranking males will seek to copulate with the females. If successful and the high ranking male returns a low ranking male will exhibit wide submissive grins and avoid the high ranking male. (page 110). Chimps are great at deception and trickery working to get their selfish way within the group rules.

Yet chimps also exhibit compassion to other group members when reciprocity can be expected. This compassion also only occurs as long as the behavior of the one needing help is not too different from the norm in which case compassion turns to fear and ostracism (as shown in the polio outbreak among the wild chimps at Gombe). An example of compassion is when a chimp will lower a rope to its mate trapped in a moat (page 82). Another example is when a chimp will keep a friend away from an angry higher ranking member (post page 88 pictures)

Yes chimp juvenile will even test group rules by teasing their elders just to see what happens as when one throws a stick at a resting elder. (post page 88 pictures)

Chimps have a sense of justice as indicate by their emotional responses when an expected  reciprocity is not forthcoming. If it is a lack of food sharing a temper tantrum will result (page 93). In the case of help against a rival where the helper is not protected against a revenge attack the helper will then angrily chase the one it previously helped (page 97).

After conflicts chimp males often reconcile with a formal display of the loser bowing and then receiving a kiss and an embrace from the winner. (page 104).

This book shows that the basic morality of getting along derives from our evolutionary inheritance and that appeals to some god for authority is not needed for moral rules. The rule are within us with behaviors that benefit the group considered good and those that harm the group as bad.

(Personal opinion of reviewer) Yet humans go one step further. Humans add culture to groups, which are completely arbitrary beliefs and patterns of behavior that signal group identification. While hints of pre-culture exist in chimps and bonobos in terms of certain patterns of tool use and gestures they do not seem important in terms of group identification. That is chimps are not hostile to chimps that do not exhibit these traits, in contrast to humans. Culture allows evolution to work at a higher level of organization. Those cultures with ideas that promote better group survivals relative to others will tend to expand. This in turn lead humans to evolve strong emotional attachments to these cultural rules and consider upholding these cultural rules as morally good, on par with earlier pro-group behaviors.

The Structure of Scientific Revolutions

Thomas S. Kuhn

Science like any other form of human mental activity works within a certain cultural context, a certain world view of how things work, or in other words it works within a certain paradigm.

Thomas Kuhn states that "normal science" is essentially a puzzle solving profession since it works within the paradigm of existing theories. Things may not be known such as the function of a certain DNA sequence or how many planets orbit distant stars but these facts do not contradict any existing theory. Data that does not fit any theory is often ignored. Data that contradicts a theory may also be ignored unless the experiment is very clear (a rarity). These the author labels as anomalies.

Thomas Kuhn says this about paradigms:

"... one of the things a scientific community acquires with a paradigm is a criterion for choosing problems that, while the paradigm is taken for granted, can be assumed to have solutions. To a great extent these are the only problems that the community will admit as scientific or encourage it members to undertake. Other problems,  including many that had previously been standard, are rejected as metaphysical, as the concern of another discipline, or sometimes as just too problematic to be worth the time." (page 37)

Since this book was first written in 1962 this situation has become much worse, especially in the natural sciences. The fields have further specialized with their own journals and funding champions. Graduate students must specialize quickly and that means narrowly in order the reach the frontiers of knowledge so they can establish their career. In addition, too many qualified students are chasing too few academic jobs which is making science highly political and ruthless. It leads to conservative normal science studies mixed with hype claiming discoveries are much more than they are in order to get fame and funding. Academic institutions today are really quite tribal and certainly suitable for investigation by modern day anthropologists.

Yet at least, science makes progress because all theories must answer to controlled experiments. Old "experts" die leaving younger scientists who do not have as much vested in the status quo to make the case for new theories. More often than not these theories are created by people outside or at least not completely inside the "establishment" since they are most likely to see the "crisis" as it is called by the author. Their minds have not yet been trained enough, or emotionally committed enough by money and status concerns to be blinded by the existing paradigm. Einstein was a young patent clerk when he developed his first ideas of Relativity. Aeronautics was developed by two young bicycle mechanics named Wright.

Theories are important and paradigm defining because they tell us what is possible and what is not in a compact way. The goal of modern scientific theories is unification with the underlying objective reality given by the information processing described by quantum mechanics. At no other time in human history has such a unification even been in view. Yet we are still stuck with religions that ignore and even insult science out of ignorance.

 Compare this with nonscientific fields of human inquiry. The ideas (I hesitate to raise them to the level of theory) may get more complex as time goes on but nothing really advances. Nonscientific paradigms in religion and spirituality are solely based upon how well they satisfy one emotionally. What one wants to believe does not necessarily make them true. Yet having said that not everything is accessible to scientifically controlled experiments, especially when it comes to mental states and conscious sensations. In this case the best we can do is come up with ideas that are intellectually plausible in that they do not contradict any scientific theory.

The apocalyptic heaven on earth ushered in by a future messiah in Judaism and ushered in by the second coming of Christ in Christianity is not unique to those two groups although the other examples presented here could have been inspired by the Bible. This idea is called Millenarianism and it seems to develop when any society experiences oppression. A weaker form occurs when a society comes into contact with another society it perceives as more desirable in some way.

Some examples of the strong form of Millenarianism are:

The Native American Ghost Dance Movement. This movement started in the 1890's around the visions of a charismatic shaman. The main version was peaceful co-existance among all peoples but a form popular among the Lakota Sioux promised the removal of all white Americans from their land.

The Moslem Shi'ite Belief that Muhammad al-Mahdi will return sometime in the future and save humanity. The minority Shi'ites have always felt oppressed by the Sunni Muslim empires.

Some examples of the weak form of Millenariansim are:

The south seas Cargo Cults: Most of these cults originated shortly after WWII due to the encounter of the south seas island cultures with the wealth of the modern world during WWII. These cultists used sympathetic magic (building runways) to bring back the time when cargo and wealth were abundant. Also see this and this.