the evolving mind

In chimpanzee societies without exception, and in and human societies with exceptions, the alpha is the highest ranking male member of a community. Dominance and status-seeking is much more of a male thing. (26) Even in our more enlightened age and within societies that value equality, the higher up you go on the rungs of power, the less likely you are to encounter a female. Is leadership, including religious positions both natural and supernatural, related to the primate male’s innate inclination to aspire to dominate?

Among chimpanzees dominance is definitely a male thing. Male chimps instinctively climb the ladder of social stature. When sufficiently mature, every male chimpanzee begins making threat displays at low-ranking female adults. Once his threats are taken seriously – signaled by the female regularly greeting him with submissive pant-grunts – the male progressively moves up the chain of females until all are dominated. Next the male chimp works his way as far up the ladder of the stronger, more aggressive males. And his work continues year after year. Though he may fail to reach the very top, he forever aspires to move up.(27) Primatologist William McCrew has noted, “Even the biggest, healthiest, prime female submits by pant-grunting to the smallest, weakest ageing male.” (28)

Significantly, social psychologists have found that human males are likewise much more concerned with dominance than females. Although humans exhibit far greater variability (with beguilingly less transparency), across the globe and within cultures of all forms, men are much more oriented toward dominance. (29)(30)

As to why human males tend to rapidly establish status hierarchies, one might identify testosterone and its affects on physiology and behavior as a proximal cause. As the distal, or (more) ultimate cause, one could peg reproductive fitness as the driving force. In coming posts I will explore both of these as a means of laying the groundwork for better understanding Bible-based religions.

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(26) In our country we have never had a female president. After the 2004 elections, only 14 % of U.S senators were female (you might say a senator is a co-alpha of their state’s federal representatives); 14.5% of the congress female. How long a way have we really come, baby?
What was the status of women in the Bible? For an unbiased clue I conducted a keyword search of the New International Version (http://www.biblegateway.com/keyword/). I found a total of 8251 gendered terms. For woman, women, female(s), wife/wives, mother(s), grandmother(s), daughter(s), girl(s) the result was 1590 combined hits. For man, men, male(s), husband(s), father(s), grandfather(s) + son(s) + boy(s) the result was 6661. Of all the gendered “hits,” 80.7% were male, 19.3% female. One could conclude that the Bible is primarily about men. Perhaps more tellingly, of 40 books in the NIV with gendered names (Job, Joshua, John, etc.) only 2 (Ruth and Esther) are female. That’s 5%.
(27) Boehm, C., Hierarchy in the Forest: The Evolution of Egalitarian Behavior, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA., 1999, p.24
(28) McCrew, W. C., The Cultured Chimpanzee: Reflections on Cultural Primatology, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2004, p. 153
(30) Sidanius, J., Pratto, F., & Bobo, L., “Social Dominance Orientation and the Political Psychology of Gender: A Case of Invariance?” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, December 1, 1994, Vol. 67 #6
(31) Anderson, C., John, O., Keltner, D., & Kring, A., “Who Attains Social Status? Effects of Personality and Physical Attractiveness in Social Groups,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, July 1, 2001, Vol. 81 #1

[July hiatus automated re-post.  First appeared here: http://almightyalpha.blogspot.com/2007/11/hierarchy-male-thing.html]

Technorati Links: chimpanzees, psychology, status

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