Jan 12 2009
God Commands: Stay in Line
Do not be stiff-necked, as your fathers were; submit to the LORD. Come to the sanctuary, which he has consecrated forever. Serve the LORD your God, so that his fierce anger will turn away from you. (2 Chronicles 30:9)
“People from many nations will pass by this city and will ask one another, ‘Why has the LORD done such a thing to this great city?’ And the answer will be: ‘Because they have forsaken the covenant of the LORD their God and have worshiped and served other gods.’” (Jeremiah 22:8-9)
In primate hierarchical relations, the dominant will make threat displays: not to chase away subordinates but to establish and maintain rank. The more direct forms of threat resemble angry attacks. And yet they work – even with humans. In a very interesting paper, “Anger and Advancement versus Sadness and Subjugation: The Effect of Negative Emotion Expressions On Social Status Conferral,” the author points out just how effective expressions of anger are. “Expressions of anger result in the conferral and thus attainment and maintenance of status. The relationship of anger to status conferral may contribute to the bad reputation of hierarchies.” (1) Interestingly, even in the workplace and in politics, we expect and tolerate anger more from dominants than subordinates. We also expect it more from men than women, which may hamper a female’s efforts at “climbing the ladder” of success. (2)
In hierarchical relations, displays are not unilateral.
There is a relationship, and in that relationship the higher tends to behave in ways that accentuate greater power, the lower, lesser. In monkeys, the more dominant will threaten aggression, the subordinate will do its best to avoid the attention and potential ire of the dominant. (3)
Much of power relations can be observed and perhaps even measured in terms of personal space. The greater has more, the lesser less. The greater will freely and even intentional invade the space of a lesser. While the lesser must be careful not to invade the space of the greater. Think of office politics. Who has the spacious penthouse office with four walls and a door? Who the small, open-sided cubicle?
This observation by noted primatologist Frans de Waal is relevant: “If, in a drinking test, a dominant rhesus monkey approaches the water hole with a threat face, subordinates obediently leave the hole 96 percent of the time. Rhesus monkeys punish unresponsive subordinates without mercy.” (4)
When subordinates do not show awareness of their lesser rank, the subordinates face reprimands – reminders of where they stand. As we shall see, the Bible is full of instances of a god reminding his people who is greater and who is lesser.
Immediately, because Herod did not give praise to God, an angel of the Lord struck him down, and he was eaten by worms and died. (Acts 12:23)
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(1) Tiedens, L., “Anger and Advancement versus Sadness and Subjugation: The Effect of Negative Emotion Expressions On Social Status Conferral,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, January 1, 2001, Vol. 80 #1
(2) More than one social scientists has shown that angry expressions are more tolerated in both boys and men than in girls and women. The angry expressions of men in power tend to be more favorably viewed than the expressions of anger of women in power. The men are viewed as showing a form of passion and exerting power, while the equivalent act from a woman is likely to viewed as evidence she is out-of-control and/or vindictive.
(3) Harvey, N. C., “Social and Sexual Behavior During the Menstrual Cycle in a Colony of Stumptail Macaques” in Hormones, Drugs & Social Behavior in Primates, New York, SP Medical & Scientific Books, 1983, p. 147
(4) de Waal, F., “The Chimpanzee’s service economy: Food for grooming” in Evolution and Human Behavior, Volume 18, Issue 6 , November 1997, Pages 375 386, p. 157
