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HUlllan Ethology Bulletin VOLUME 13, ISSUE 1 ISSN 0739-2036 MARCH 1998 © 1998 The International Society for Human Ethology Differences in Human Cognitive Abilities"; and Convention Update: Simon Baron-Cohen, "Evolution, Autism, and INDIVIDUAL PAPERS Theories of Mind." An event will commemorate the 25th anniversary of the awarding of the NOW ACCEPTED Nobel Prize in Medicine/Physiology to AND DEADLINE ethologists von Frisch, Tinbergen and Lorenz. EXTENDED Proposals for symposia should include four copies of a 2S0-word description of the symposium theme and of abstracts of four or There have been two important changes five related papers. Individual papers that in the procedure for submitting abstracts for the are submitted independently of symposia ISHE convention in Vancouver. Individual proposals will, if accepted, be grouped into paper submissions will now be accepted, not just suitable sessions at the convention. Proposals papers that are part of symposia. Also, for evening workshops should be 1-2 pages long; abstracts for all submissions now have a four copies are requested. Poster proposals are deadline of 1 May 1998. also invited, but only from conference registrants. The convention will take place at Simon Fraser University, British Columbia, Abstract format for all papers and Canada, 19-23 August 1998. It will follow the posters (including symposium papers): Line 1: AmericaIl Psychological Association convention authors' names, last name first. Line 2: in San Francisco. If you are considering institutional address(es). Line 3: title of attending, complete the Preliminary presentation in capital letters. Provide one Registration Form contained in the convention camera-ready copy in a 3.5 X 4.5 inch (8.89 X brochure you should have received, and submit 11.43 em) rectangle, plus three additional it by 1 May 1998. You will then receive the copies. Type font should be 10 point Times. detailed Conference Registration and Provide text on Macintosh, Windows, or IBM Accommodation brochure. To have your name disk with the name of the operating system and added to the conference mailing list, contact: word processing program. Conference Services, Halpern Centre, Simon Fraser University, 8888 University Drive, The conference website has been Burnaby, B.c. VSA IS6, Canada, tel. 1-604-291- connected to the ISHE website: 4910, fax 1-604-291-3420, e-mail http://evolution.humb.univie.ac.at/ishe.html [email protected]. or may be reached directly at http://www.sfu.ca/cstudies/conf/humanwww/ The conference focus is "Integrating . The URL has also been posted on the HBE5 proximate and ultimate explanations in the website. The conference organizer is our study of mind and behavior." Plenary speakers President, Charles CraWford: Dept. of include David Haig, "Genetic Imprinting, Psychology, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, Conflicts of Interest, and Development"; Doreen B.c., Canada VSA 156, tel. 1-604-291-3660, fax Kimura, "Biological Contributions to Sex 1-604-291-3427, e-mail [email protected]. 2 Human Ethology Bulletin, 13(1) Housing: participants will be housed in R. I. M. Dunbar, Gtoups, Gossip, and the university townhouses accommodating four Evolution of Language persons in single rooms with kitchen, living room and two bathrooms. Cost per person is Karl Grammer, Valentina Filova, and Martin Can$ 43.70 (US$ 30.59) per night and includes Fieder, The Communication Paradox and Continental breakfast. Accommodation in Possible Solutions: Towards a Radical hotels within driving distance is an option. Empiricism Registration fee is approximately Can$ Thomas J. Bouchard, Jr., Twin Studies of 350 (US$ 245) and includes the abstract book, Behavior: New and Old Findings welcome reception the evening of the 19th, salmon barbeque (worth the price of admission C. Sue Carter, Hormonal Influences on Human by itself), and conference banquet. Participants Behavior will have to forage independently for lunches and the last dinner, the 22nd. R. Robin Baker, Copulation, Masturbation, and Infidelity: State-of-the-Art. The Young Investigators Award competition is open to any graduate student ISHE has ordered 40 copies of the book, whose degree will not have been awarded by 1 which we are selling for the usual purchase July 1998. Applicants are to submit three copies price of $45, shipping included. To order a of a paper not to exceed five double-spaced copy, please send payment, made out to ISHE, pages, plus the usual abstract (marked with a to Glenn Weisfeld (see Editorial Box for "y" in the upper right hand corner). The address). You may pay by check drawn on a US student will present the paper orally at the bank, VISA, Mastercard or Eurocard; please conference. Papers will be judged on substance provide credit card number, expiration date, and clarity. The winner(s) will receive a free and your signature. If you pay by check drawn ISHE membership renewal, free registration at on a non-US bank, please add $10. Please do not the subsequent Biennial Congress, a book, and a order the book directly from the publisher, at certificate. Further details or amendments will least until we sell the 40 copies. If the book is follow as necessary. adopted as a course requirement, a bulk order will be sent on consignment and the extra books may be returned. ISHE Book on Sale A New, Disturbing Late in 1997 Plenum Press published the proceedings from the 1996 ISHE convention Trend for Human held in Vienna. New Aspects of Human Ethology is edited by Alain Schmitt, Klaus Ethology? Atzwanger, Karl Grammer and Katrin Schafer. The 239-page volume includes the 73 abstracts By Bill Charlesworth from the convention, author and subject indices, P. O. Box 18, Stockholm, WI 54769 USA plus these chapters by featured speakers: Ireniius Eibl-Eibesfeldt, Human Ethology: The recent change in the title of the Origins and Prospects of a New Discipline journal Ethology and Sociobiology to Evolution and Human Behavior, along with other Glenn Weisfeld, Research on Emotions and indicators to be discussed below, suggests that Future Developments in Human Ethology human ethology may be in a bit of trouble. The new editors of the journal note that they Peter K. Smith, Play Fighting and Real welcome cross-species comparison and have"an Fighting: Perspectives on Their Relationship unabashedly anthropocentric focus." They also aver that the scope of the journal is "not Karl Sigmund, Games Evolution Plays limited to any single methodological or - Human Ethology Bulletin, 13(1) 3 theoretical approach" (p. 2), despite the fact convincing, the name change has practical that evolutionary theory is the raison d'etre implications for many of our colleagues and for the journal's existence. One wonders if they therefore has to be respected. will welcome theoretical approaches that challenge evolutionary theory, or ethogram- The problem goes deeper, though. For like descriptive studies of human adaptation me, first recognition of it began when I read the that have no explicit relevance to current account of ethology in Richard Milner's The theorizing but could very well be relevant in Encyclopedia of Evolution: Humanity's search the future. for its origins (1990). Ethology was described as a refreshing revival of Darwinian ideas Personally, I am disappointed with the against psychologists' "rats, mazes and puzzle decision to drop the terms "ethology" and boxes" and as quite successful for several "sociobiology," although I don't disagree decades in "studying the interaction between completely with the rationale behind it. Both innate species-specific behavior and learning" labels represent contrasting as well as and as penetrating "animal signal systems to an complementary views of behavior. Ethology is unprecedented extent, gaining new a well-established discipline with a history understanding of animal communication" (p. and rationale of its own that reached a 156). So far so but then in the following produc.tive epitome in the ideas of Tinbergen paragraph: "ethologists got tangled up in their and Lorenz, and evolved into special own theories of 'drive,' 'motivation,' and concentration upon humans under the initial 'releasing mechanisms,' and built an impetus of Eibl-Eibesfeldt and others. intellectual structure that collapsed under its own weight." Okay, that may be so, although I Sociobiology, as we all well known, is am not so convinced about the "collapse." much younger than ethology and a product of E. O. Wilson's audacious ideas expressed in Further down in the description, Sociobiology: The new synthesis (1975). ethology "became discredited by a spate of Wilson's view of ethology, however, may have facile books applying their theories of fish and launched the present trend. He predicted that bird behavior directly to humans," and enjoyed sociobiology and behavioral ecology (on one end "tremendous vogue" through attempts at "pop of a continuum) and neurophysiology and ethology" in the 19602 and 1970s. Milner then sensory psychology (on the other) would concludes that "the concepts of ethology have cannibalize ethology as well as comparative been all but abandoned as investigators of psychology. As can be imagined, many animal behavior re-label themselves ethologists were not impressed by this "behavioral ecologists" (p. 156). prediction. One can agree with parts of this sketch, From what I can gather, one reason for but there is much with which to disagree. The the journal's name change is that the label volume (itself pop sensational in many places) "sociobiology" is perceived by many as a is not· a purely happy publishing event since professional kiss of death--at least for a young inadequate or misleading depictions of a major U.S. investigator applying for a job. As for topic are not scholarly enough for an "ethology," I have been told by some leading encyclopedia. Encyclopedias carry special evolutionary behaviorists that it is an outworn weight, at least for the nonprofeSSIonaL One discipline that has seen its day.
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