Sep 21 2009
Grooming and Favors Owed
When a person does something nice for/to us, we tend to feel indebted to them. Their “tit” results in either an immediate “tat” response, or the tacit holding of a tat-I.O.U.(35) It’s human nature. And it’s apparently chimpanzee nature, too.
Frans de Waal, in his book, Peacemaking Among Primates, writes -
“After a long grooming session among the males, a subordinate male may invite the female and enjoy a copulation without interference by others. These interactions give the impression that males obtain permission for an undisturbed mating by paying a price in grooming currency. The phenomenon has been dubbed sexual bargaining.” [bold mine](36)
In the above case the tit of grooming results in the immediate tat of sex. Do human males give women flowers and/or take them out for an expensive meal with a similar motive somewhere in mind?
The tat response, however, need not be immediate. As it often is not the case with human gifts of flowers and chocolates. Instead, the receiver feels indebted to the pleasure provider. In her book, The Chimpanzees of the Gombe: Patterns of Behavior, Jane Goodall notes -
“Chimpanzees, without doubt, gradually learn the calming effect that their own grooming behavior is likely to have on others. Grooming can then be used with intent as a manipulative tool. Over and above this, chimpanzees at times show some understanding of the significance of grooming interactions between others.” (37)
When two chimps groom it “means” something to them. It’s a bit of a promissory note. And when two other chimps groom, individual chimps notice. The grooming chimps might have something going on socially. They have a relationship, which is a valued resource. Others notice and may even become jealous. As it is with humans.
The behavior of pleasing others is not what I would call Machiavellian — involving ruthless cunning — but it can be. In terms of an ultimate intent, this may reside outside of conscious awareness. Often, to be pleasant toward others is a way to signal peaceful intentions and an interest in creating/sustaining a relationship. That, in itself, is one whopper of a tat.
William McCrew, author of The Cultured Chimpanzee: Reflections on Cultural Primatology, more overtly addresses the issue -
“Reciprocal grooming allows for social accounting (debt, interest, risky investment) in the primary currency (grooming itself) or in other services that can be exchanged at a rate. (How many minutes of grooming equals a leg of freshly killed monkey?) Grooming is likely to be the basic currency, since it is universal and everyday, but some ledgers may last a lifetime, and some may not balance (Dunbar & Sharman, 1984). Thus, politics may explain social grooming between adults, whether this relates to sex or power, or both. [bold mine](38)
Pleasing others — via physical grooming, verbal grooming, or some other means — is a social currency. Because belief in an invisible, great being who cares about us is a form of social behavior, we can find quite a bit of tit-for-tat relationship-concerns in many if not most religions.
“Hey buddy, thanks for helping me out. I owe you one.”
Do primates keep an unconscious social ledger of favorable gestures and acts received and owed? (And the converse: a tally of red-ink transactions to be repaid in kind? Individuals and groups of people can hold grudges for years, generations, and even centuries. They believe the ledger has yet to be balanced. The opposite, a social indebtedness, is likely true.)
Rather than tats immediately following tits after-the-fact, an internal ledger is kept. Who do I owe and who owes me? We invest in people and likewise feel indebted to them.
Do imaginary relationships with deities show evidence of primitive (primate-ive) tit-for-tat behavior? I think so. First question: What kind of tits do you provide a god, how do you please it? Second question: What kind of tats can a god provide you?
How to please a god [an incomplete list] -
1) Make sacrifices
The LORD smelled the pleasing aroma and said in his heart: “Never again will I curse the ground because of man, even though every inclination of his heart is evil from childhood.(Genesis 8:21)
Tit for tat: provide him with a pleasing aroma; he calls off off hostilities directed toward you.
He shall remove all the fat, just as the fat is removed from the fellowship offering, and the priest shall burn it on the altar as an aroma pleasing to the LORD. In this way the priest will make atonement for him, and he will be forgiven. (Leviticus 4:31)
Worship him and he will forgive you and otherwise act favorable toward you. Praise him and show respect and deference. Of course, not arousing anger in an individual can be considered negative reinforcement (removing an unpleasant stimuli). Staying “out of the hair” of an angry individual is sometimes the best you can do to please him/her.
You shall have no other gods before me. (Exodus 20:3, Deuteronomy 5:7, etc.)
2) Offer him nice things
Food and livestock are nice things, yet fall under the category of sacrifice (a life has been taken). What about offering other valued commodities (something you have sacrificed/struggled to attain)?
In the Bible you can find numerous verses outlining the finery followers believe their head honcho deserves.
Make a plate of pure gold and engrave on it as on a seal: HOLY TO THE LORD. (Exodus 28:36)
Solomon also made all the furnishings that were in the LORD’s temple: the golden altar; the golden table on which was the bread of the Presence; the lampstands of pure gold (five on the right and five on the left, in front of the inner sanctuary the gold floral work and lamps and tongs; the pure gold basins, wick trimmers, sprinkling bowls, dishes and censers; and the gold sockets for the doors of the innermost room, the Most Holy Place, and also for the doors of the main hall of the temple. (1 Kings 7:48-50)
That’s a lot of gold.
You might say that to please a god is to get on his good side. When on an agent’s good side he/she is more likely to act favorably toward you.
What do you get from pleasing your god [an incomplete list] -
1) Rain/food/prosperity/kingdom
I will confirm my covenant between me and you and will greatly increase your numbers. (Genesis 17:2)
Children = numbers. A workforce and army.
It is a good land that the LORD our God is giving us. (Deuteronomy 1:25)
No, the ancient Israelites didn’t wander into a land and call it their own. It was given to them. As a thank you, they worshipped.
If you follow my decrees and are careful to obey my commands, I will send you rain in its season, and the ground will yield its crops and the trees of the field their fruit. (Leviticus 26:3-4)
Obedience is the tit in the above verse, crops (food) the tat.
Jotham grew powerful because he walked steadfastly before the LORD his God. (2 Chronicles 27:6)
Ask of me, and I will make the nations your inheritance, the ends of the earth your possession. (Psalms 2:8)
Frequently, the “blessings” a god can provide are referred to generally. Like a receiving a gift card for Christmas.
Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, [Jesus] gave thanks and broke the loaves. Then he gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the people. They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over. (Matthew 14:19-20)
In a sense, miracle stories are provided as evidence of power. Power that could help you.
2) Health/life/extended life/everlasting life
Now Jehoiada was old and full of years, and he died at the age of a hundred and thirty. He was buried with the kings in the City of David, because of the good he had done in Israel for God and his temple.(2 Chronicles 23:15-16)
God rewarding Jehoiada with a tat of long life for his tit of doing good for him. While this type of bargaining seems innately reasonable to us social primates, when talking religion we are talking about supposedly supernatural entities and their behavior. Why their behavior and motives should confirm to human patterns is an important question.
Listen, my son, accept what I say, and the years of your life will be many. (Proverbs 4:10)
Why must people obey an almighty entity?
Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on him. (John 3:36)
Belief in him = tit, eternal life = tat.
3) A pipeline/link to authority
Theirs are the patriarchs, and from them is traced the human ancestry of Christ, who is God over all, forever praised! Amen. (Romans 9:5)
Though fully imaginary, a relationship/alliance with the greatest alpha ever provides a huge benefit. Perhaps the biggest. For if you are aligned with such an entity you can speak with authority. Borrowed authority, but authority. Sociological speaking, this is tremendously important.
[T]hey praised God, who had given such authority to men. (Matthew 9:8)
In the following post or two of my Almighty Alpha series I will take a closer look at the appeasement function of social grooming. In that case, the tat clearly involves negative reinforcement — the removal of something unpleasant. To put it bluntly, bribe the bully and you are less likely to get beat on. Which is a good thing.
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(35) “Tit for tat” has the common meaning of “this for that.”
(36) de Waal, F. Peacemaking Among Primates, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1989, p.82
(37) Goodall, J. The Chimpanzees of the Gombe: Patterns of Behavior, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1986, p. 406
(38) McCrew, W. C., The Cultured Chimpanzee: Reflections on Cultural Primatology, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2004, p. 134
