the evolving mind

In some circumstances the application of evolutionary-psychology thinking can be as silly as trying to find the primate precursor to the behavior of a piloting an airplane. Did swinging from trees help prepare humans for steering a Boeing 747 through 3-dimensional skies? Isn’t it obvious that peeling a banana is the antecedent to opening a flight log?

In future posts I will address questions about just how scientific evolutionary psychology is and can be (section titles: “Science and the Educated Guess,” and “Indirect Evidence and Possible Tests”). But putting that very-important issue aside right now, there is an essential question begging to be asked: Why the heavy focus on chimpanzee behavior?

There are a couple reasons for this.

First, chimpanzees are the most and best studied of the non-human primates. Second, DNA analysis has found that of any species, Pan troglodytes is most genetically similar to Homo sapiens.

But wait. The bonobo, or Pan paniscus, is as closely related to us as are chimps. It seems. While chimps and humans have a between 1 and 2% dissimilar genetic material, chimps and bonobos — a cousin species of the chimp, previously called the “pygmy chimp” — have approximately .3% non-shared genes. Because bonobos are usually lumped in with chimps, it is difficult to determine whether one or the other is a closer genetic kin to us. At least one biologist, Alison Jolly of the University of Sussex, has concluded that the bonobo is “no closer” to the human than is the chimpanzee.(1) Triglodyte or paniscus: Will the truer proto-human please stand up?

It is my present belief that chimpanzee behavior provides greater insight into human behavior. The late Roger Gould saw it this way, too:

“Inasmuch as morphologies can be interpreted correctly as reflections of behavior, therefore this suggests that the common ancestor was likely to have been more chimpanzee-like than bonobo-like in aspects of its behavior that were correlated with cranial development.” (2)

Of course, human beings are ultra-adaptive, if ultra-anything. I have previously argued that human nature could be compared to a Swiss Army knife. What is our true nature? Well, it depends upon the task at hand. Under some conditions we may be more triglodyte-like, in others, paniscus-like.

But wait. Recent research has suggested that the better primate to use as a guide to human nature is . . . the orangutan.

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Technorati Links: evolutionary psychology, primatology

Always chanting My glories, endeavoring with great determination, bowing down before Me, these great souls perpetually worship Me with devotion. – Bhagavad Gita (83)

Why do believers praise their god? To please it and assure favorable treatment. And to assure it’s status — by way of their elevating words. (84)

“Bhagavad Gita,” by the way, means Song of the Blessed One. This Vedic book was composed between the 5th – 2nd centuries BCE.

To sing to a blessed one is to praise it. Invisible entities are praised via complimentary words spoken, chanted, and sung in a pleasing manner, or at least non-threateningly. Song in particular highlights the emotional element of language. And that element frequently most directly manifests an attitude of deference. To a greater.

Some songs of praise unambiguously transmit an emotional message that might be worded this way: Have mercy, be good to us. Like a nest full of hungry baby birds, mouths open, humans chirp in unison, Bless us, bless us, please continue to bless us!

Other religious songs can give the impression that the singers view themselves as a pack of individuals readying themselves for a unified offensive against the opposition, like dogs howling in unison as they chase a quarry. Let’s go! Let’s spread the word of your power. Let’s battle the unbelievers.

In either case, Walter Burkert’s inference applies: “Praise serves to stabilize the system of rank and power.” (85) For system read “social group with an overt and/or implicit power structure.”

I have observed, first-hand, religion’s hierarchy-speak numerous times over the years. The most recent occasion was a funeral for one of my wife’s co-workers. The opening hymn was “How Great Though Art.” And no, they people weren’t singing about the recently deceased, but about the invisible entity they believed controlled the fate of the beloved member of their group.

This behavior isn’t new. In fact, it is ancient.

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Technorati Links: belief, religion, status

Sing to the LORD, all the earth; proclaim his salvation day after day. Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous deeds among all peoples. For great is the LORD and most worthy of praise; he is to be feared above all gods. (1 Chronicles 16:23-25)

Human grooming is a verbal affair. And, in terms of religion — it’s a good thing. How could a person possibly groom a non-corporal entity?

How do human beings groom their god or gods? They pray to them; they sing to and about them; they speak about them.

It has been said that the pen is mightier than the sword. In terms of invisible beings, what good is a sword, or even attempts at physical touch? And so we use words, we speak. Words can cross gaps in space. Why couldn’t they also cross into an invisible realm?

To we humans, the spoken word has great power. In many origin mythologies, speech itself generates the physical universe.

“The god Ptah was said to have brought forth the world through thought and creative speech.” 13th-12th century, BCE. (78)

And God said, “Let there be light.” (Genesis 1:3, NIV)

“God said.” Words are indeed powerful. With or without the emotional information customarily combined with the expression of overt information. Speech is symbolic behavior with the power to motivate and move us.

In the most Hellenistic of the Gospels, John, we encounter perhaps the complete idealization of verbal behavior, spoken or written.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. (1:1)

Religious scholar Karen Armstrong has noted, “In the ancient world, to know somebody’s name meant that you had power over him. God was not to be controlled and manipulated in this way.” (79) And thus the Jewish use of “LORD” and “GOD” vs. Zeus or any other specific name.

Tangentially, titles are still used today in ways relevant to control and status. Those who control others have titles such as president. Titles set people apart. Frequently above others. Word use matters to us.

Imagine a public debate over vaccines. One side refers to the work of Dr. Joseph Expert. The other drops the Dr. and criticizes Joe as just another guy with an opinion. We honor individuals by recognizing their status. We dishonor them by failing to speak highly of them. This is especially true for deities.

So no, “God” is not your average Joe.

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Technorati Links: psychology, religion

As mentioned in previous “Almighty Alpha” posts, small talk plays a huge role in human social behavior. On the most fundamental level, our vocalizations transmit basic emotional messages: I like you; I am fearful; I am angry, etc. Beyond the non-verbal elements of our seeming non-purposeful chit-chat, there is the exchange of information.

“Language has an additional benefit invaluable in these circumstances. It allows us to exchange information about other people, so short-circuiting the laborious process of finding out how they behave. For monkeys and apes, all this has to be done by direct observation.” (70)

A sizable portion of human small talk consist of overt or implied statements like, “So-and-so is really nice,” or, “So-and-so is a complete jerk.” The unspoken response might be, “Well thanks for the heads-up.”

Of course, we now live in outrageously large social circles, so any information exchanged, on, say, the behavior of Michael Jackson’s family post-MJ’s death will strike many as small talk to the tritest degree. Yet our current social world — of knowing about people who we will never encounter in real life — is a relatively new one. How odd. To exchange information about the behavior of individuals you don’t really need to know about. But you don’t need to be in-the-know simply because you will never encounter them. You will never need clues about how they might behave and relate to you. For individuals in your immediate social environment — that can be pretty handy information. And the cost of acquiring that information is very small, relative to the potential payoff. And so we habitually exchange it.

If, for example, I hear that Bob double-crossed someone, the next time I encounter Bob I will be on the lookout for deceit.

But here we are highlighting only one aspect of small-talk, or what I would call verbal grooming. As Christopher Boem, author of Hierarchy in the Forest: The Evolution of Egalitarian Behavior, has noted:

“Gossiping . . . . amounts to a covert exercise in information processing–as well as a satisfying and recurrent social activity.”(71)

It is my assertion that the attractively satisfying element of small talk is hugely important. Think of the good feelings generated by spending time with friends. Is the enjoyable chit-chat the result of strong pair-bonding, or do they give pair-bonding its strength? It seems to me that small talk serves the following three functions (at least):

1. It helps people form and maintain harmonious relations. Rather than physically grooming other individuals, we say pleasant things about them and/or respond agreeably to statements about third parties. It brings good feelings.

2. It allows for the potentially important exchange of information about others. Whether the subjects are inside your present social circle or outside it, you learn about the experiences and character of others. These are important as they may relate to what you can expect from that person, would you encounter them and/or consider entering into a relationship with them.

3. Small talk plays a role in determining the status of group members. When an individual gets complimented and “talked up” within a group, their status rises. When they are criticized and “talked down” within a group, their status falls.

It is this third element that is particularly essential to many religious behaviors and rituals. Via their talk about their god, about their most high alpha — lessers attempt to establish and maintain the position of their greatest.

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Technorati Links: psychology, religion

“The capture of grooming’s motivational system seems to correlate in each case with the evolution of relatively large groups and the invasion of a more terrestrial, open habitat.”
-Robin Dunbar (61)

Among chimpanzees and other primates, grooming serves as a social glue that keeps intra-group relations harmonious and stable. The greater the group size, the more complex, dynamic and varied the relationships, the greater the need for mechanisms for bond formation, maintenance, and repair.

Human beings generally live in large and very complex social groups. What behaviors do we have for forming and maintaining relationships with the many people in our communities? We talk. Yes, mere chit-chat has high value to our kind.

It’s funny. We recognize the play of children as superfluous in the short term, but potentially helpful in the long. Via play, human youth get exercise, improve their coordination, and learn how to get along. Is there no adult equivalent? I think so. For chimps it is obvious.

“Goodall observes that during a young ape’s adolescence, the proportion of time spent in social play slowly decreases while time spent in social grooming . . . increases.’” (62)

Social grooming. What does it accomplish? Not much, really. Maybe we ought to view the behavior as making investments in relationships. And relationships are a very important resource to a social species.

As for human beings, what takes the place of play? Oh sure, we “play” throughout our lives. But it doesn’t take a genius to notice that most forms of play involve others; play activities usually involve a social element besides the physical and/or cognitive challenges.

The women in a quilting bee, the men playing cards: are these activities fully about making bedding and winning spare change? No. Talk accompanies human play from an early age. Beyond the relatively superfluous form play takes, it is often the talk that really matters. In fact, the same sort of talk can take place over a backyard fence or adjacent to a water cooler. Blah, blah, blah. Yah, we’re cool.

Verbal grooming, whether we compliment another person directly (“Don’t you look nice.”, “Good job on that project.”) or indirectly via agreement over third-party developments (“Yes, so-and-so is such a blank.“), is a huge part of human social life. It is a glue that helps us form and maintain relationships.

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Technorati Links: evolutionary psychology, religion

Lord my God! When I in awesome wonder
Consider all the works thy hand hath made,
I see the stars, I hear the mighty thunder,
Thy power throughout the universe displayed;

Refrain:
Then sings my soul, my Saviour God, to Thee,
How great Thou art, how great Thou art!
Then sings my soul, my Saviour God, to Thee,
How great Thou art, how great Thou art! (56)

To please, placate and perhaps find favor from an alpha: groom him. But what are humans to do? We don’t finger through the fur of others. What fills this void in our social-behavior repertoire? Kissing ass, to use the colloquial term. Or, in other words, praise.

Much of the praising behavior humans engage in, however, is not directed up the hierarchical social structure (and very rarely is it directed down). Instead, we praise those of similar status with whom we have alliances. Or those we simply want to be “on friendly terms with,” keeping alive the possibility of a future working relationship, should we need it.

Don’t you look nice today! This type of human talk is the human equivalent of grooming. It helps to establish and maintain relationships.

Among primates, lip-smacking often precedes and/or accompanies grooming — as if signaling intention to pick off fleas with lips. Lip-smacking likely evolved into a purely auditory gesture of friendliness when emitted on its own. Emitting words while gum-flapping became a natural elaboration.

In terms of grooming, the difference between human apes and non-human apes is that humans using words to pleasurably stroke others, while non-human apes must position themselves closer and physically reach out.

Robin Dunbar, in his book, Grooming, Gossip, and the Evolution of Language, has made great headway into an understanding of that class of human behavior we might call “chit-chat.” He wrote, “We suggested that, as group sizes began to drift upwards from the numbers to which apes are currently limited, vocal grooming began increasing to supplement physical grooming.” (57)

Who has time to physically groom all the important and potentially important members of their social groups? Fortunately, we can do it across space. And with a few quick words.

Yes, it can be difficult to see the social intent behind the symbols we speak. It helps to envision what words mean in terms of behavior. For example, a “Yes, sir” voiced by recently disciplined son to his father is akin to a bow. Sir certainly doesn’t mean bow semantically. But there is a whole lot more to language than semantics. (58)

Consider the current fad of calling someone or his/her deed as “stupid.” It’s actually high praise. To say “that was stupid!” is to mean, “what you just did was awesome!” Words are highly plastic. One element to language that is not plastic, however, is tone. While one lover can coo to another, “you’re a babe,” or some such thing, and have it welcomed, I would advise against changing the emotional tone to an utterance and expecting it to be understood. “YOU’RE A BABE” spoken with in a dismissive sneer growl will never please a lover. Not among normal human animals.

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Technorati Links: psychology, religion

A crucial element of my Almighty Alpha thesis is grooming behavior. Namely, is it manifest in religion? Does a “grooming instinct” play a role in the formation and persistence of religious ideation and ritual? Furthermore, how might we account for the transition from the primates’ physical grooming behavior to the uniquely human variant of vocal grooming?

Dogs and cats, and other species lacking opposable thumbs, will use their tongues to literally groom conspecifics. We humans use our tongues, though not applied directly to the body of others. Instead, we use our larynx and tongue to generate and shape the atmospheric vibrations we breathe toward others, aiming to stroke not their fur favorably, but their brains by way of what their auditory nerves perceive.

Many species vocalize. Non-verbal vocalizations are likely the bridge to verbal grooming. How is this possible? Grooming vocalizations initially accompanied primate grooming behavior. Of the physical kind. They then become the primary behavior itself. Somewhat like Pavlov’s bell:the audible ringing was first an accompaniment to the salivation-inducing presentation of meat. And then the sound of the bell alone did the trick.

Among primates, grooming is “generally accompanied by lip-smacking” (46). As William McGrew has written in his book on the chimpanzee culture, “Chimpanzees are well known to accompany social grooming with specific noises, e.g. lip-smack, tongue-click, teeth-clack, the Bronx cheer’, or raspberry, etc.” (47)

Nearly half a century ago, in an essay about primate allogrooming, John Sparks explored the evolutionary origins of the lip-smack, concluding it was derived “from a licking or lip-moistening movement, and is functionally related to grooming behaviour, but it has undergone some evolutionary change and appears even in the grooming context to have evolved a typical intensity.” (48) From there, how many steps led from non-verbal vocal “grooming” to verbal grooming?

Frans de Wall — a heavyweight in the primatology field, if there ever was one — has already documented the first step in the evolutionary pathway to grooming at a distance (beyond arm’s reach):

“Lipsmacking is a series of rapid lip and tongue movements carried out by an individual with brief glances at the partner. Rhythmic smacking is most commonly heard after grooming, but it may also be performed at a distance, accompanied by raised eyebrows, as a visual signal of friendly intentions.” (49)

Maybe it isn’t so crazy to postulate that via soundwaves primates can groom one another at a distance. Yet perhaps “groom” isn’t the perfect term. At least for what humans do. But what shall we call it? Small talk? Gossip? Those don’t work either. Consider this hypothetical example of a telephone conversion between a husband and wife post-conflict:

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Technorati Links: religion, sociology

“It has already been shown that allogrooming can be used as an appeasement gesture in lower primates, and this incident [among chimpanzees] seemed to reflect a currying of favour with the leader by a subordinate.”
- John Sparks (39)

To appease means to pacify and/or satisfy, to please by putting an individual at ease. Less stress means relatively more pleasure. Yet human beings don’t physically groom higher ranking individuals. So how do they put the relatively greater at ease? Maybe much like the chimpanzee sometimes does.

“Apparently, subjects inferred that their former opponent was more likely to renew aggression if she had not grunted to them than if she had. Grunts seemed to serve a reconciliatory function.” (40)

Grunts. Nonverbal vocalizations “say a lot.” Verbal ones say even more. As we will see in subsequent posts, grooming among primates frequently entails a vocal element.

Sing praises to God, sing praises; sing praises to our King, sing praises. (Psalms 47:6)

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Technorati Links: primatology, psychology, religion

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.

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Technorati Links: belief, bible, primates

“A monkey or ape is most likely to select as a grooming partner an individual with who he (or she) already has a close, supportive relationship, or with whom a better relationship would be advantageous. And the chosen partner will reciprocate, or not, for similar reasons.”
- Jane Goodall (29)

Reassuring touch is a potent social tool. Physical touching of this type we call “grooming.” Humans, however, don’t do much of this; yet we do use words to reassure others. We assure them that they are loved, that help is near, that we care, that they are number one to us. Often it is not the actual words that count, but the delivery, the non-verbal elements. What do we call this sort of behavior?

“You look nice today.”

Gossip? Chit-chat?

Grooming, whether physical or vocal, forges and maintains relationships. Among chimpanzees, it is an essential social tool.(30) Primates in general forge and maintain important relationships with grooming. It is a preeminently social activity.(31) Of all the great apes (besides ourselves) chimpanzees and bonobos alone — our closest genetic kin — engage in mutual grooming.(32) An individual can please and reassure another while being pleased and reassured itself. Brilliant. Fear and anxiety is diminished; trust is built.

Jane Goodall, in The Chimpanzees of the Gombe: Patterns of Behavior, made a number of observations about chimpanzee social behavior, as it pertains to grooming.(33) These include:

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