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Within the biological sciences, there are theoretical approaches to understanding under what conditions some species live in groups (typically due to the distribution of key food resources and patterns of predation), and in particular, under what conditions significant social behaviors can evolve to become a typical feature of a species (Kin selection theory). Because these characteristics are common to most primates, including humans, biologists maintain that these theories should in principle be generally applicable. The question arises as to how these ideas can be applied to the human species whilst fully taking account of the extensive ethnographic evidence that has emerged from anthropological research on kinship patterns. Early derivations of Kin selection theory and the related field of Sociobiology, encouraged some biologists such as Darwinian anthropologists and evolutionary psychologists to approach human kinship with the assumption that kin selection theory predicts that kinship relations in humans are indeed expected to depend on genetic relatedness, which they readily connected with the genealogy approach of early anthropologists such as Morgan (see above sections). This biological position, coming at a time (the 1970s) when anthropologists were starting to reject the genealogical basis of human kinship patterns provoked criticism from ethnographers including notably, Marshall Sahlins who strongly critiqued the approach through reviews of ethnographies in his 1976 The Use and Abuse of Biology.[full citation needed] Such counter evidence and critiques did not dissuade the program however, and fundamental and heated disagreements between the two sides continued. These early disagreements over the nature of human kinship and cooperative behaviour have formed an important core of the continuing controversies related to evolutionary psychology and sociobiology ever since.[citation needed]. There have since been two approaches that seek to reconcile the anthropological and biological perspectives. Holland in a 2004 thesis argued that biologists themselves have not sufficiently recognised that kin selection theory does not in fact require that genetic relatedness per se is the condition that mediates social bonding and social cooperation in any species. Holland speculates that in ancestral environments, social cooperation mediated through ties of familiarity and attachments would typically have increased the inclusive fitness of genes (the key criterion in kin selection theory) without any form of detection of actual genetic relationships. Kin selection theory in this view is seen as specifying an ultimate cause rather than a proximate cause (See Tinbergen's four questions) of social bonding and cooperation. Holland thus argues that properly understood, the findings of cultural anthropologists and the theories of evolutionary biologists are compatible.[41] Fitting with this approach, Nurture kinship[41][42] emphasizes that social relationships, and the cooperation that accompanies them, are commonly built upon emotional bonds and attachments. This perspective re-unites current ethnographic findings both with the work of earlier anthropologists such as Audrey Richards, and also with John Bowlby and colleagues' foundational work on emotional attachment theory. In this perspective, biological theories are indeed compatible with ethnographic data on human kinship, though their explanatory scope is much narrower than the approaches of sociobiology and evolutionary psychology had typically assumed. Biology's relevant application is limited to theorizing the ultimate causes of the (non-deterministic) proximate mechanisms of cooperation such as emotional attachments. Bowlby himself emphasized the compatibility of his own work with kin selection theory.[43] Anthropological kinship data is also thus considered compatible with current psychological theory of social bonding and relationships. In this perspective, whilst theoretical approaches are unified across biology, psychology and anthropology, for a full account of specific kinship patterns in any particular human society, ethnographic methods, including the analysis of historical contingencies, symbolic systems, economic and other influences, remain central. The other approach, that of Evolutionary psychology, continues to take the view that genetic relatedness (or genealogy) is key to understanding human kinship patterns. A current view is that humans have an inborn but culturally affected system for detecting certain forms of genetic relatedness. One important factor for sibling detection, especially relevant for older siblings, is that if an infant and one's mother are seen to care for the infant, then the infant and oneself are assumed to be related. Another factor, especially important for younger siblings who cannot use the first method, is that persons who grew up together see one another as related. Yet another may be genetic detection based on the major histocompatibility complex (See Major Histocompatibility Complex and Sexual Selection). This kinship detection system in turn affects other genetic predispositions such as the incest taboo and a tendency for altruism towards relatives.[44] One issue within this approach is why many societies organize according to descent (see below) and not exclusively according to kinship. An explanation is that kinship does not form clear boundaries and is centered differently for each individual. In contrast, descent groups usually do form clear boundaries and provide an easy way to create cooperative groups of various sizes.[45] According to an evolutionary psychology hypothesis that assumes that descent systems are optimized to assure genetic high genetic probability of relatedness between lineage members, males should prefer a patrilineal system if paternal certainty is high; males should prefer a matrilineal system if paternal certainty is low. Some research supports this association with one study finding no patrilineal society with low paternity confidence and no matrilineal society with high paternal certainty. Another association is that pastoral societies are relatively more often patrilineal compared to horticultural societies. This may be because wealth in pastoral societies in the form of mobile cattle can easily be used to pay bride price which favor concentrating resources on sons so they can marry.[45] |
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