It’s always puzzled me that evolutionary psychologists only seem interested in relating human social behavior to that of other apes, and therefore can only see the alternatives cited of monogamy or polygyny.
Looking more broadly at animal social systems, there are many other taxa that typically form strong pair bonds, with biparental care, complex social networks outside the pair, jealous mate-guarding males, occasional threesomes where the alpha shows varying degrees of tolerance for the beta, and numerous secret affairs by both sexes. It’s called social monogamy, and it’s associated across species with evolution of extraordinarily large brains, creative problem solving, tool use, and language-like behaviors. Many people think this happens because the social monogamy situation creates intense social selection, which becomes a runaway process until countered by natural selection.
The animals that do this are mostly birds, though, and I guess psychologists are not interested in them. It’s hard enough to get acceptance for comparing humans to apes; comparing humans to sparrows isn’t going to win you any friends.
It’s always puzzled me that evolutionary psychologists only seem interested in relating human social behavior to that of other apes, and therefore can only see the alternatives cited of monogamy or polygyny.
Me, citing Ryan and Jethá:
Among chimpanzees, ovulating females mate, on average, from six to eight times per day, and they are often eager to respond to the mating invitations of any and all males in the group.
While gorillas are polygynous and gibbons are monogamous, the other apes (which are, as has been pointed out, more closely related to humans) do not fit either description in the slightest. The problem isn’t that evolutionary psychologists look at apes and use them as models of human behavior; the problem is that they look at apes and come up with implausible reasons why humans are different.
A bit off topic:
What I’m really confused about is why Bonobos and Chims evolved so differently despite living in similar environments, being closley related and they aren’t that isolated from each other either.
Does anyone know of any interesting papers on this?
The best I can come up with is this article identifying the timeframe of divergence; I too would be interested in scholarship on the evolutionary pressures responsible. The only factor I’m aware of is the Congo River, which divides the habitats of the two species and may have split their populations. (Neither can swim.)
You’ve got a good conversation going here. Thanks. Primatologist Richard Wranham has proposed that two related factors contributed to the diverging bonobo/chimp behavior:
— far more plentiful food in the bonobo range than in the chimp range and,
— chimps compete with gorillas for some of their food sources, while bonobos are isolated from gorillas (and chimps).
This hypothesis would seem to support our argument, in that we find that food supply was generally plentiful for prehistoric populations (with occasional crises), whereas for post-ag populations, food scarcity was a constant problem (as demonstrated by skeletal evidence).
Pedantic correction: his name is Richard Wrangham with a ‘g’. The book is “Demonic Males: Apes and the Origin of Human Violence”, co-authored with Dale Peterson. I have a post on it here.
Wrangham has another book, “Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human”, which theorizes that the increased calories resulting from food (particularly meat) preparation allowed us to reduce our gut size and increase our brain size, along with introducing pair-bonding. He discusses it in this diavlog.
It’s always puzzled me that evolutionary psychologists only seem interested in relating human social behavior to that of other apes, and therefore can only see the alternatives cited of monogamy or polygyny.
Looking more broadly at animal social systems, there are many other taxa that typically form strong pair bonds, with biparental care, complex social networks outside the pair, jealous mate-guarding males, occasional threesomes where the alpha shows varying degrees of tolerance for the beta, and numerous secret affairs by both sexes. It’s called social monogamy, and it’s associated across species with evolution of extraordinarily large brains, creative problem solving, tool use, and language-like behaviors. Many people think this happens because the social monogamy situation creates intense social selection, which becomes a runaway process until countered by natural selection.
The animals that do this are mostly birds, though, and I guess psychologists are not interested in them. It’s hard enough to get acceptance for comparing humans to apes; comparing humans to sparrows isn’t going to win you any friends.
You:
Me, citing Ryan and Jethá:
While gorillas are polygynous and gibbons are monogamous, the other apes (which are, as has been pointed out, more closely related to humans) do not fit either description in the slightest. The problem isn’t that evolutionary psychologists look at apes and use them as models of human behavior; the problem is that they look at apes and come up with implausible reasons why humans are different.
A bit off topic: What I’m really confused about is why Bonobos and Chims evolved so differently despite living in similar environments, being closley related and they aren’t that isolated from each other either.
Does anyone know of any interesting papers on this?
The best I can come up with is this article identifying the timeframe of divergence; I too would be interested in scholarship on the evolutionary pressures responsible. The only factor I’m aware of is the Congo River, which divides the habitats of the two species and may have split their populations. (Neither can swim.)
You’ve got a good conversation going here. Thanks. Primatologist Richard Wranham has proposed that two related factors contributed to the diverging bonobo/chimp behavior: — far more plentiful food in the bonobo range than in the chimp range and, — chimps compete with gorillas for some of their food sources, while bonobos are isolated from gorillas (and chimps).
This hypothesis would seem to support our argument, in that we find that food supply was generally plentiful for prehistoric populations (with occasional crises), whereas for post-ag populations, food scarcity was a constant problem (as demonstrated by skeletal evidence).
Chris Ryan (co-author of Sex at Dawn)
Welcome to LessWrong!
I hope you decide to stay a while.
Pedantic correction: his name is Richard Wrangham with a ‘g’. The book is “Demonic Males: Apes and the Origin of Human Violence”, co-authored with Dale Peterson. I have a post on it here.
Wrangham has another book, “Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human”, which theorizes that the increased calories resulting from food (particularly meat) preparation allowed us to reduce our gut size and increase our brain size, along with introducing pair-bonding. He discusses it in this diavlog.