Dec 01 2008
Seeing and Being Seen by a God
Stares are threats to most monkeys and apes. -Stewart Guthrie (12)
To observe chimpanzees in the wild up-close and personal pioneering primatologist Jane Goodall quickly discovered that she could not look directly at them for any length of time. Our chimp cousins did not like to be stared at. (13) Have we come a long way, sapiens ? Imagine you are picnicking at the beach with your family and a just short Frisbee toss away a man sits, facing you and your loved ones, staring. Would you call out, “Do you mind?!” because you do mind? Consider yourself an ape.
In her book, The Dynamic Dance: Nonvocal Communication in African Great Apes , Barabara King noted that, “Like the bipedal swagger, the glare may be used also in threatening situations.” (14) The rhesus monkey uses staring as one of its primary forms of threatening others. It is “commonly used be well established dominants.” (15) But an individual need not be a dominant member of a group to use eye gaze threateningly. It can be used in the context of a relationship dyad or even between members of differing groups.
People don’t like to be stared at, and we can point a finger at evolution for a reason why. This innate dislike of intense, unwelcome visual attention is manifest in the notion of the “evil eye” found in numerous civilizations. Individuals believe that real harm can come to them by the simply act of being stared at, and being stared at will incite feelings of alarm. (16)
A dominant human being rarely makes charging displays at others, shakes tree branches and swaggers (with the possible exception of the football player who has just made a crushing tackle). How is dominance displayed? The dominant individual employs nonverbal gestures including “intrusive” hand movements and maintaining eye contact. (17)
So important to our kind — an extremely visually-oriented species — is eye gaze that we have evolved noticeable white areas to emphasize the aim of our pupils. Why? The better to read where others are looking.
Complicating the matter is that some visual attention is actually welcome. Although subordinates generally don’t like to receive too much visual attention from dominants, they do like to keep tabs on the dominant. Better to stay out of its way, etc. And dominants strive to be the focus of the group’s attention. “Pay attention . . . to me.”
Among chimpanzees, the “rulers” receive the lion’s share of attention. Although that attention is sometimes paid by physical grooming, visual attention is more efficient, for an alpha can be physically groomed by only one or two subordinates at a time. (18)
Human rulers are no exception. Where do they generally place their thrones, palaces and podiums? In a prominent location. They build vast squares and speak from high places so they may bask in the visual attention of their subordinates. “Look at me.”
Being seen, being the center of attention, is important to dominants. And so is seeing. “Look at me” and “I can see you” are both messages that leaders, starting with parents, like to convey.
Being seen/watched is something innately importance to us. Yet being watched can be good or bad. It depends on the intentions of the watcher. In a romantic film, the pretty 18 year-old wants to be watched, admiringly, by the captain of the football team. In a thriller, the pretty 18 year-old does not want to be watched by the guy with a hideous face, dagger-like teeth in his mouth and perhaps a real dagger hidden behind his back.
Imagine this scene in a thriller flick: A girl is in her room at night and a murderous monster outside her window. How scary is the scene? If she sees him – scary. If she doesn’t see him – scarier. If she suddenly sees him and he’s looking right at her – scariest.
In predator and prey relationships, the predator is the one doing the staring. The gaze of prey is more furtive, for they must be on lookout. Prey generally poses no danger; they may be in danger. In cinema you will find that the hunted/subordinate/guilty person, the one potentially in danger, doesn’t stare. Their gaze is down or from place to place to place.
Our eyes “say” so much.
As for mythological top dogs — the Almighty Alphas invented and worshipped by millions worldwide — these agents are typically portrayed as seeing all, allowing their followers to feel intimidated by the notion of being closely watched.
“In social interaction, as I said above, we always assume that other people are agents with limited access to strategic information (and we try and evaluate the extent to which they have access to that information). In interaction with supernatural agents, people presume that these agents have full access to strategic information.” (19)
From Sumerian clay tablets dated at 3000 BCE we learn of a deity capable of killing simply by looking. (20) In the Judeo-Christian Bible, God tells Moses, “No man shall see me and live.” In the book of Leviticus, a book largely about laws, a slew of commandments — including the top ten and more — outlining what you are not to do. And you better not, for the great alpha is monitoring the behavior of his troop. In a number of verses the Lord vows to set his face against those who step out of line (17:10, 20:2,3, 26:17, etc.). What about a face most persuades? The eyes.
Finally, in Psalms 39:13, King David pleads of his God, Look away from me, that I may rejoice again before I depart and am no more.
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(12) Guthrie, S. E. Faces in the Clouds: A New Theory of Religion, Oxford University Press, New York, 1993, p. 74
(13) Goodall, J., My Friends the Wild Chimpanzees, National Geographic Society, Washington, D.C., 1967.
(14) King, Barabara, The Dynamic Dance: Nonvocal Communication in African Great Apes, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 2004, p. 148
(15) de Waal, F. Peacemaking Among Primates, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1989, p. 101
(16) Burkert, W., Creation of the Sacred: Tracks of Biology in Early Religions, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1996, p. 43, 86
(17) Carli, L., LaFleur, S., & Loeber, C., “Nonverbal Behavior, Gender, and Influence,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 68(6), 1995, p. 1032
(18) de Waal, F., 1989, p. 15
(19) Boyer, P. Religion Explained: The Evolutionary Origins of Religious Thought, Basic Books, New York, 2001, p. 156
(20) Vertegaal, R. & Ding, Y., “Explaining Effects of Eye Gaze on Mediated Group Conversations: Amount or Synchronization?” Proceedings of CSCW 2002 Conference on Computer Supported Collaborative Work, New Orleans: ACM Press, November, 2002,
p. 41
