BOOK PRESENTATION / ΠΑΡΟΥΣΙΑΣΗ ΒΙΒΛΙΟΥ

IN SEARCH OF HUMAN NATURE

By Mary E. Clark

©2002 Mary E. Clark 

First published 2002 by Routledge 11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE

Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group

This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2005.

What is wrong with the West’s ‘scientific’ picture of what and who we are? Was Thomas Hobbes right to sum up human life as ‘solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short’? In this magisterial new work, biologist Mary Clark delves deep into the roots of human nature, offering a timely re-evaluation of the basic attributes all humans share.

In Search of Human Nature offers a wide-ranging and holistic view of human nature from all perspectives: biological, historical and sociological. Clark takes the most recent data from disparate fields – paleontology, primatology, ethology, genetics, neurosciences, physiology, anthropology, linguistics, ecolog­ical psychology, archaeology, mythology, fine arts, history and conflict resolution – and weaves them together with clarifying anecdotes and thought-provoking images to challenge outmoded Western beliefs with hopeful new insights. Beginning with the distortions intrinsic to analogizing human behaviour with that of ‘intelligent’ machines, Clark tackles an astonishing array of problems, from how environment and experience shape the brain to the ways we think about identity, meaning and conflict, to peaceful processes for healing and adaptive social change.

Ending with modern-day examples of successfully changing communities, In Search of Human Nature offers a firmly grounded reason to be optimistic about humankind’s future.

Mary E. Clark was formerly Drucie French Cumbie Chair in Conflict Resolution at George Mason University. Her previous books include Contemporary Biology and Ariadne’s Thread: The Search for New Modes of Thinking.

critics

‘In Search of Human Nature suggests a major paradigm shift in how we think about human nature and identity ... Clark’s work deserves to be seri­ously considered by a world in crisis.’

Michelle LeBaron,

George Mason University

‘The author performs a truly valuable intellectual service to us all. What she is saying about the “cooperative” basis of human nature is absolutely right. A very readable, well-written book ... Splendid.’

John Ziman,

University of Bristol

‘Mary Clark has created an important synthesis. She has woven together a wide range of disciplines and, with wisdom and savvy, has created a tapestry in which we can see ourselves anew.’

John Todd,

University of Vermont

‘Clark’s book represents a major contribution … Her emphasis on the need to balance the twin human needs for bonding and autonomy sets the stage for a celebration of planet-wide diversity-in-community as humans learn to listen to one another and come up with problem solving behaviour instead of endless power struggles.’

Elise Boulding,

Professor Emerita of Sociology, Dartmouth College

‘Are there things natural about people, immutable aspects of human nature, that destine social violence and preclude harmony with nature? Can we choose our technological and organizational trajectory or have we lost control of our future? Mary E. Clark explores the full range of discipline related theories, pits them against each other, uncovers hidden assumptions, and identifies contradictions. Her thoughtful synthesis keeps the options open for constructively exercising human will.’

Richard B. Norgaard, Professor of Energy and

Resources and of Agricultural and Resource Economics,

University of California at Berkeley

‘Mary Clark has a genius for explaining complex issues in clear and simple terms ... She is, as ever, brilliantly creative and right on the money in her much-needed critique of evolutionary psychology and biological deter­minism.’

Niles Eldredge,

American Museum of Natural History, New York

CONTENTS

List of illustrations xii Acknowledgments xiv A word to the reader xvi

Introduction: framing the problem 1

World views: constructed gestalts 2 The “Billiard Ball” Gestalt 6 The “Indra’s Net” Gestalt 8 A summary comparison 11 Crises in the making 14 America’s social crises 15 The global outlook 26 To change or be changed? 35

I Questioning the “scientized” image 39

Sex and survival: a caution about “just-so” stories 41 Evolution, scientism, and the battle for truth 46 “Science wars”: excessive hubris and its backlashes 47 Backlash I: The impossibility of absolute knowledge 48 Backlash II: The distortion of complex subjects 49 Backlash III: Popular rejection of meaninglessness 50 My philosophy of truth 52 What counts as knowledge? 52 Contrasting views of “human-nature-in-the-universe” 54 Human nature, with feelings 57 Ongoing complications due to our human propensities 59 The good news and the bad news 60 A map of the book 61

II Why we primates are not “game theorists” 65

Game theory and genetic determinism 67 What Darwin said 68 Game theory takes over behavioral evolution 70 Why game theory is inappropriate 72 What, then, is “primate nature”? 80 The ultra-Darwinians’ primate psyche 82 History of the baboon model: a cautionary tale 84 Of course genes matter – but context matters more 87 Stress and social structure 88 The power of reconciliation 93 Other prosocial behaviors 94

III The selecting of Homo sapiens 98

Skeletons in the family bushes 101 The fossil data and their interpretations 103 “Man the Hunter” 104 “Man the Warrior” 105 Imagining the Pleistocene 108 A brief history of climate change 108 The Pleistocene dispersals 110 Possible imprints of the Pleistocene 120 Selection for bonded groups 121 Selection for multiple intelligences 123

IV Brain matters 126

Evolving propensities of the hominid brain 129 Anatomy of the evolved brain 131 The “layer theory” of brain functions 134 Doubts about layered brains 135 The holistic alternative 137 Why such a big brain? 138 How the brain works 140 Processing an experience: the automatic brain 140 Consciousness 144

V A thirst for meaning 160

What and where is “the mind”? 162 An ecological theory of mind 163 Events, episodes, and narratives 165 From displays to speeches 166

The languages of mime and song 168 The floodgates of speech 175 Categories, metaphor, and meaning 175 Culture as meaning 182 Navigation and culture 184 The mythic side of culture 188

VI How experience shapes the brain 192

The amazing plasticity of the developing human brain 194 Genes, behavior, and intelligence 200 Child-rearing in the Pleistocene – and after 202 The need for security 205 The need for experience 208 Brains under stress 213 Physical stressors 214 Psychological stressors 215 Some physiological and psychological changes after prolonged stress 216 On being “sane” in insane places 222 Healing 225

VII “Who am I?” – where biology and culture meet 229

Culture: a living non-thing 230 Identity: the core cultural task 233 Necessity for bonding 233 Necessity for autonomy 234 Necessity for meaning 235 What is sex all about? 237 A few facts 238 An alternative “just-so” story 240 Cultures without “marriage” 240 Origins of marriage 243 Male identity and the problem of aggression 245 Cultures that rank identity and cultures that don’t 250 Egalitarian societies 250 Hierarchical societies 253 Hierarchy and human nature 257

VIII History, the story of meanings through time 263

The nature of the “sacred” 264 The sacred and the profane 265 Aspects of the fanum 266

Conditions favoring fanaticism 270 Was there ever an Eden? 274 How small, egalitarian cultures “go wrong” 276 Trapped in time 276 Theories of causes of violence 278 Cities, “meanings,” and the origins of patriarchy 284 The rise and fall of the “Great Mother” 285 The meaning of “civilization” 295 Religious correctives to abusive hierarchies 297 The dice of history 299 Europe: fast-forward 303

IX Humankind crosses the Rubicon, 1900–2000 305

The technologized megamachine 307 The nature of bottom-line mentality 311 Wrong assumptions have evil consequences 314 Reactions of nation-states to global rejection 317 The history of Germany 318 The history of Japan 323 Colonialism and after 326 Disillusion in the Heart of Africa 326 Damaged youth: a twentieth-century legacy 331 When war becomes a child’s way of life 333 The depth of trauma 335 Lessons learned 336

X Conflict: control or reconciliation? 339

South Africa’s story 346 A very brief history 346 The victims’ stories 348 The perpetrators’ stories 351 The leaders’ stories 354 The “innocent” beneficiaries’ stories 356 A summing-up 356 From control to reconciliation 357 Why coercive power never heals 358 Perceptions of justice 361 The road to peace 364 Rediscovering the biological necessity for dialogue 365 The need for “intervenors” 367 Steps toward reconciliation 368

XI The search for autonomy within community 373 Rigidity and flexibility 377 The coming revolution against megamachines 380 The search for autonomy within community 382 Behavior settings for building strong democracy `

384 Schools are for becoming participants in society 386 Turning neighborhoods into communities 394 Places where people are taking charge 397 Mondragon cooperatives 397 Kerala: India’s singular state 399 DSNI: an American neighborhood’s story 401 Conclusion: we will discover “the roads to Ipswich” as we go 404

Postscript 406

Notes 409 Bibliography 455 Index 489

ILLUSTRATIONS

Tables

0.1 Contrasting two different world-view gestalts         12

II.1 Primate reconciliation behaviors               95

VII.1 Aspects of cultural meanings    261

VIII.1 Religious rhetoric of two universally known twentieth-century political leaders 268

VIII.2 Contrasting visions of order     297

VIII.3 Contrasting early Christian assumptions about human nature 302

Figures

0.1 Spreading of the Western world view      3

0.2 How we frame our world perception        4

0.3 The “Billiard Ball” Gestalt: an individualistic universe             7

0.4 The “Indra’s Net” Gestalt: a connected universe    10

0.5 Shifting gestalts: “young or old?”               13

0.6 The search for default meanings                26

0.7 The diminishing benefits of complexity    27

0.8 The limits to fossil fuel availability              29

0.9          The impact of AIDS in Africa 34

I.1            The evolution of the human breast 44

I.2            The “Lucy” diorama at the American Museum of Natural History 46

II.1 Sequential evolution of levels of interdependence               78

II.2 Evolutionary tree of primates     81

II.3 Primate reconciliation 94

III.1 “The evolution of man”               102

III.2 The fossil record of human evolution       108

IV.1 The human brain          132

IV.2 Parallel distributed processing of information       142

IV.3 Evolutionary stages in the emergence of consciousness 147

IV.4 Interactions between the limbic system and the cortex 151

V.1 The reciprocal interactions that generate meaning systems 178

V.2 The three primary elements of culture 183

V.3 Contrasting perceptions of a sea voyage 187

VI.1 “Enriched” environmental conditions used in a study of developing rat brains 199

VI.2 Child-rearing practices vary with culture 211

VI.3 The “HPA-axis” and stress 218

VI.4 Responses of the brain and adrenal glands to prolonged Stress and to Love 220

VII.1 Up – and down – the modern “ladder of success” 257

VIII.1 Plan of an imaginary early “city” 266

VIII.2 Ancient San rock art from southern Africa 274

VIII.3 Events in prehistoric Europe 287

VIII.4 Examples of a Goddess figurine 289

VIII.5 Goddess of the Double Ax beside the Tree of Life 291

IX.1 A “megamachine” in operation 308

IX.2 The global economic high priest 313

IX.3 Alternative measures of economic welfare 315

X.1 Childhood empathy 343

X.2 Routes to peace: coercion or reconciliation? 362

XI.1 A school in South Africa 393

XI.2 Two views of the Dudley Street neighborhood in 1997 403

Επιλεκτικά αποσπάσματα από το βιβλίο:

In Search of Human Nature,

by Mary E. Clark (Routledge, 2002)

This book came to be written because my students, along with many others, were searching for answers to the seemingly overwhelming problems that we human beings have created on our planet. The psychological exhaustion they experienced at the enormity of these problems was followed by despair at their seeming inevitability. (-Clark, p.XVI)

…

Why is understanding ourselves so important to us that it consumes this much of our attention? Why do we need a “theory” of who we are anyway? And why can’t we all agree on it? Why are there such big differences among groups of humans in their self-perceptions? If we’re all really one species, why don’t we see eye-to-eye about it? This book seeks answers to these questions, especially the last two. It addresses how we think and what we feel. It explores the limits of our minds to comprehend reality and the extent of our control over our feelings. It shows why it is so hard to “change one’s mind,” to see the world from someone else’s point of view. As the twenty-first century begins, gaining this level of self understanding about our nature as human beings seems critical to our species’continued survival. My hope is to persuade people to see that there are other sets of spectacles with which to view the world than the ones they have been taught to see through, and that sometimes these other aids to vision can solve problems in ways they otherwise might never have thought of. (-Clark, p.2)

…

I make no claims as to the picture of human nature I present being the complete story. Very likely, that will forever be beyond our species’ capability. No one mind can grasp and organize all there is to know and say about human nature – which is what makes us such an endlessly fascinating subject. Rather, what I offer here is a more optimistic working model of “Who We Think WeAre”, or perhaps I should say, “Who I Think We Are”. It is one that, while certainly incomplete and imperfect, I believe opens up many new approaches to solving the multiple crises that beset us as the new millennium gets underway. (-Clark, p.XVIII)

…

There is no doubt that, at this time in history, WesternCivilization is suffering from a great sickness of the soul. The West’s progressive turning away from functioning spiritual values; its total disregard for the environment and the protection of natural resources; the violence of inner cities with their problems of poverty, drugs, and crime; spiraling unemployment and economic disarray; and growing intolerance toward people of color and the values of other cultures – all of these trends, if unchecked, will eventually bring about a terrible self-destruction. In the face of all this global chaos, the only possible hope is self transformation. Unless we as individuals find new ways ofunderstanding between people, ways that can touch and transform the heart and soul deeply, both indigenous cultures and those in the West will continue to fade away, dismayed that all the wonders of technology, all the many philosophical “isms,” and all the planning of the global corporations will be helpless to reverse this trend. (-Malidoma Somé (1994: 1–2), quoted in Clark, p.373)

…

One of the fundamental needs of men, as basic as those for food, shelter, procreation, security and communication, is to belong to identifiable communal groups, each possessing its own unique language, traditions, historical memories, style and outlook. Only if a man truly belongs to such a community, naturally and unselfconsciously, can he enter into the living stream and lead a full, creative, spontaneous life, at home in the world and at one with himself and his fellow men. (-Roger Hausheer (1980: xxxvi–vii; emphasis in original), quoted in Clark, p.229, Chapter: “WHO AM I?” – WHERE BIOLOGY AND CULTURE MEET)

…

History focused on powerful men constantlyengaged in violent struggles with each other. It never mentioned peaceful societies, nor the lives of women. Economics painted a world of perpetual scarcity where competition was inevitable – and was also the only route to more efficient utilization of resources. It never explored successful societies that had managed their resources in common, without undue competition. (-Clark, p.XVI)

…

In the course of evolution, natural selection has ensured that individuals are born with the potential to behave not only aggressively, but also cooperatively, acquisitively, assertively, altruistically and in many other ways. But the extent to which individuals actually behave in any of these ways, and the short-term goals to which their behavior is directed, are strongly influenced by social experience. (-Robert Hinde (1990: 172; emphasis added), quoted in Clark (p.229)

…

In terms of fulfilling the intrinsic needs of human nature – belonging to acommunity, having individual autonomy, and experiencing transcendentmeaning in our lives – the ideals of “liberal democracy” on which the Westernworld view is grounded are today failing miserably. As Benjamin Barberexplains, by pitting individual liberty against community, the institutions ofthe West have aimed at satisfying only our need for personal autonomy, leaving in limbo our need to be accepted, participating members in a supportive and meaningful community(*15). After pursuing the internal logic ofthis atomistic, mechanistic, Billiard Ball argument for 200 years, the West has now created a world where the only “autonomous individuals” are the giant, faceless multinational corporations, whose freedom is being protected by rulesarrived at in private and ratified by unwary, even hood winked (sometimes corrupt?), politicians. Ordinary human beings, now wholly without meaningful control over this state of affairs (“voting with your dollars” hardly counts as “meaningful control”), are reduced to seeking their psychological satisfaction as mechanized producers and consumers in a context where eventheir emotions are commoditized. We have all become cogs in a global machine so big even George Orwell could not have imagined it. The world described in his 1984 seems pale by comparison; today’s “Big Brother” is far more subtle and has found his way inside our own heads.

A similar mistake regarding the search for utopia was made by Karl Marx and his followers when they left individual autonomy (the West calls it “freedom”) out of their logistical calculations, assuming people could be physically coerced into forming meaningful, sharing and just communities. The dehumanizing brutality they imposed on their own peoples to conform to the “ideal” was, I believe, far more to blame for their abundant problems and ultimate collapse than their economic system per se. The people never had a real chance to “own” the new society they were trying to create. Thus, neither one of these two twentieth-century rival systems (that led to fifty costly years of Cold War) hasturned out to be sufficiently satisfactory. To assume that they are the only two ways to organize a global family of interacting peoples, nations, and cultures was the gigantic fallacy of the last century. The task of the twenty-first century isto move beyond such limited visions. Not to do so denies out-of-hand the extraordinary creativity our ancestors exhibited for 200,000 years in inventing workable societies adapted to new conditions, some of which survived incredible stresses. (-Clark, p.381-382, chapter: THE SEARCH FOR AUTONOMY WITHIN COMMUNITY)

…

Modernism has cultivated a widespread belief that humans are bynature greedy, individualistic, and aggressive, and that progress depends on a competitive process by which the strong displaceand destroy the weak. Conversely, this belief system suggests that cooperation is not in our nature and if it were, it would be a barrier to progress. Fortunately, we don’t have to look very hard to realize that compassion, cooperation, even love, are the foundation of most human relationships and indeed, are an essential underpinning of civilization. It seems self-evident, therefore, that these capacities are at least as inherent in our nature as is our well-demonstrated capacity for greed, violence, and destruction. It is a matter of which capacities we choose to nurture in ourselves, our children, and the larger society. (-David C. Korten (2001: 51), quoted in Clark, p. XIX)

…

I believe that the social adjustments needed to correct some of the worst of our self-inflicted threats can only come about through a big change in the gestalt with which we view ourselves and theworld. It will only happen successfully through participatory dialogue among a consciously aware citizenry – in every part of the globe – where we mutually discover new ways of “seeing” ourselves that, in turn, open up new directions and goals for human society to pursue in the future. To entice you into this huge tome, I will tell you now that I believe our true natures are far more lovable and positive than we in the West currently believe them to be. There is indeed great hope for us after all. (-Clark, p.XVIII)

…

The experience of democracy is not ultimately about winning but about deliberating and acting together. Clearly, democracy cannot be experienced directly at the remote political reaches represented by state and national institutions. But the possibility of the states becoming more independent of federal control could mean that they would come to reflect the culture of local democracy, provided people are willing to do the work of nurturing that culture. Democracy is not about ideological purity, nor is it simply the recognition of differences of race, gender and ethnicity. It is about how we equalize politically in acting together for shared purposes. (-Sheldon Wolin (1996: 24), quoted in Clark, p.373)

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