Re: Yet more anthropological explanations for "male violence"

From: offshore eddie (eddie_at_nospam.com)
Date: 07/28/04 

Date: Wed, 28 Jul 2004 08:57:35 GMT

"James Michael Howard" <jmhoward@anthropogeny.com> wrote in message
news:sbori0hosrc3eq1ta1i549h7a5hgmot36b@4ax.com...
> I suggest this type of violence results from effects on the antenatal
brain.
> That is, women of high testosterone adversely affect the brains of their
> fetuses. The result is decreased intelligence, impulsiveness, and
aggressive.
> The end result in behavior may include the type of incidence described in
this
> post, that is, impulsive aggression without reason.
>
> The reason evolution "selects" these women is that they are more sexual,
> impulsive and aggressive. Over time, they make more babies than women of
lower
> testosterone. Hence, where these women are concentrated, we see high
levels of
> decreased intelligence, impulsiveness, and aggression.

A very interesting theory. It certainly would explain a lot.

> James Michael Howard
> www.anthropogeny.com
>
> On Mon, 26 Jul 2004 08:21:03 GMT, "offshore eddie" <eddie@nospam.com>
wrote:
>
> >In this article an anthropologist insists that "male violence" is
hard-wired
> >by centuries of evolution. He has a lot of good reasons for taking this
> >view and not the feminist men-are-just-the-product-of-their-culture view.
> >He cites male-on-male violence, violent behavior among other primates,
for
> >example, to conclude:
> >
> > "On a purely biological level, the youths involved in
> > Toews' killing may unknowingly have been acting
> > out a primal instinct by weakening or killing potential
> > rivals and thereby enhancing their own chances of
> > survival. This, and not the specter of "evil," as some
> > would have it, Wrangham says, lies at the root of
> > almost all violence, including warfare."
> >
> >But he is still too scared by his politically correct academic culture to
> >mention that females must have selected the most violent and aggressive
> >males as mating partners, without regard to their criminality, in order
for
> >such traits to have won out in a Darwinian environment. Thus, we see
many
> >women today seeking out the most "violent" and aggressive males, and
there
> >is no condemnation of women for doing so. There is condemnation of
sports
> >teams for condoning "violent" males, especially males who are "violent"
> >toward women, but no condemnation of the women who consort with such
males.
> >Although not handsome, Donald Trump is a man of status, power and wealth,
> >but his aggressive business tactics are certainly not something women
hold
> >against him. He could impoverish a hundred men and suffer no
condemnation,
> >but if he slapped a woman he would be a pariah.
> >
> >
> >- (Offshore Eddie, 2004)
> >
> >*********************************************************
> >
> >March 22, 2002
> >Are our genes 'wired' for violence? Expert thinks it's a primal instinct
> >By Alex Tizon
> >Seattle Times staff reporter
>
>http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/134424186_wrangham22m.html
> >
> >No single theory can explain why a roving gang of boys descended on
Tacoma
> >resident Erik Toews as he walked home from work one night in August 2000.
> >The boys, ages 11 to 19, beat Toews into a fatal coma. Police called it a
> >random attack. The oldest of the eight assailants was sentenced last
month
> >to 26 years in prison. When given the opportunity to make a statement,
he,
> >like the others, offered no explanation for the killing.
> >
> >Invariably, after such crimes, social commentators lament the rise of
youth
> >alienation or the glamorization of violence in the media. Community
> >activists blame the prevalence of deadly weapons. To the usual
post-mortem
> >theorizing, add this controversial perspective: It's genetic.
> >
> >Harvard author and anthropologist Richard Wrangham, in Seattle this week,
> >says that human beings, particularly young men, have a biological
> >predisposition for violence and that such behavior stems in part from a
> >primal survival instinct. This predisposition, he says, "is written in
the
> >molecular chemistry of DNA," which is a technical way of saying it's
> >hard-wired into us.
> >
> >On a purely biological level, the youths involved in Toews' killing may
> >unknowingly have been acting out a primal instinct by weakening or
killing
> >potential rivals and thereby enhancing their own chances of survival.
This,
> >and not the specter of "evil," as some would have it, Wrangham says, lies
at
> >the root of almost all violence, including warfare. Wrangham says the
Sept.
> >11 attacks and the subsequent war on terrorism can be explained through
the
> >prism of this theory, which arises from the nascent field of evolutionary
> >biology. Violence, such as the kind visited upon Toews and the warfare
> >witnessed today in the Middle East, has been a constant throughout
history,
> >occurring across race, culture and nationalit and even across species. In
> >fact, Wrangham's theories come from studying great apes, whose genetic
> >makeup nearly mirrors our own.
> >
> >Tracing behavior
> >Wrangham is also a primatologist. He's in town this week to lend
Ivy-League
> >weight to a chimpanzee-protection conference sponsored by the Glaser
Family
> >Foundation (of RealNetworks' Rob Glaser) and attended by scientific
> >luminaries such as Jane Goodall and Stephen Wise. Wrangham's ideas,
> >presented in his book, "Demonic Males: Apes and the Origins of Human
> >Violence," are based on studies of chimpanzee communities in the wild.
> >Although released several years ago, the book continues to make its way
> >through scientific and academic circles, and not without loud dissent.
One
> >critic called the book's thesis "titillating and simplistic." Others
deemed
> >it dangerous, opening the way for a legal defense of ruthless killers.
After
> >all, how can society blame any individual if violence is a genetic
> >imperative of our species?
> >
> >The Harvard professor is part of an increasingly influential web of
> >scientists who trace all aspects of human behavior to evolutionary
> >selection. Their basic premise: People behave the way they do because
their
> >ancestors made behavioral adaptations to survive that then were passed
on.
> >Wrangham writes that modern humans are "the dazed survivors of a
continuous,
> >5 million-year habit of lethal aggression."
> >
> >"Demonic Males," co-authored by evolutionary biologist Dale Peterson,
argues
> >that on the most basic level, primate (and therefore human) violence is
> >driven by the need to survive and procreate. The best fighters, the ones
who
> >wield violence most successfully, are the most likely to reproduce.
> >
> >Because humans and chimpanzees share nearly the same genetic package -
their
> >DNA are 99 percent identical - Wrangham and a growing number of
scientists
> >see chimpanzees as windows to the origins of human behavior. How chimps
> >behave, the theory goes, is probably how early humans behaved. But this
is
> >exactly where many scientists disagree.
> >
> >Jonathan Marks, an anthropologist at the University of North Carolina,
says
> >Wrangham and Peterson make an incredible - and ultimately unscientific -
> >leap by linking the behaviors of chimps and humans. Marks says the
> >"connection," upon which the whole book is based, should be seen as
merely
> >an "imaginative projection" by Wrangham and Peterson of human
> >characteristics onto chimpanzees. The authors, Marks says, never prove
the
> >connection.
> >
> >Waging war
> >Nevertheless, chimps, like the other great apes, have been widely shown
to
> >have the capacity to feel and communicate complex thoughts and emotions,
to
> >exhibit loyalty and affection as well as cruelty. Only in the past three
> >decades have researchers documented the kind of violence among chimps
> >traditionally ascribed only to humans - namely, waging war. Wrangham and
> >Peterson contend that homicide committed by roving bands of young males
can
> >be seen as a primitive form of war, one that humans have practiced for
eons.
> >The scientists refer to it as "raiding." It's committed by one group as a
> >way of weakening a rival community. In scenes eerily similar to the
attack
> >on Toews in Tacoma, "Demonic Males" describes in vivid detail raids by
> >groups of young chimpanzee males who randomly select and beat to death
> >isolated members of other bands.
> >
> >The Sept. 11 attacks, Wrangham says, conforms to the definition of a
raid.
> >They occurred by surprise, made no immediate material gains and killed
> >members of the enemy. The goal was to weaken the United States. Wrangham
> >disparages as "naïve" attempts by U.S. leaders to characterize the enemy,
in
> >this case Osama bin Laden and al- Qaida, as "evil."
> >
> >"It is to a large extent just name-calling," he says. "Each side calls
the
> >other evil. Both sides invoke their own gods. This explains nothing about
> >the roots of the conflict."
> >
> >From an evolutionary biologist's point of view, the conflict is a
> >consequence of resource competition and power balances (and imbalances):
> >Each side wants to secure more resources and more power.
> >
> >Make love, not war
> >Wrangham does offer a way out of our genetic bind by citing the example
of
> >another primate, the bonobo, also known as the pygmy chimpanzee. The
bonobo
> >is the make-love-not-war sibling of the primate family. This primate
rarely
> >fights with its own kind or with other animals but instead makes love
> >constantly and freely with friends, family and strangers. Food was more
> >abundant in the areas where bonobos lived, allowing the species to evolve
> >into a life of less struggle and isolation. In addition, females are
equal
> >in stature and status to males, creating a more egalitarian society, and
> >tempering testosterone-driven (read: male) impulses toward aggression.
> >
> >The hope lies in that primate societies, including our own, have the
ability
> >to structure communities in a way that effectively checks violent
behavior.
> >Some examples of human success: early 17th-century New England, early
> >20th-century Iceland and mid-20th century Malaysia among Semai tribal
> >members. All of these societies experienced strikingly low levels of
> >violence. Besides having great uniformity in genes and ideology, the
other
> >main key was "controlling the young males" and not allowing them to
become
> >emotionally and socially detached from the rest of the community. These
> >examples, Wrangham says, have been rare exceptions.
> >
> >Alex Tizon can be reached at 206-464-2216 or atizon@seattletimes.com
> >
> >Copyright © 2002 The Seattle Times Company
> >
>