Hutnan Ethology Bulletin VOLUME 12, ISSUE 2 ISSN 0739-2036 JUNE 1997 © 1997 The International Society for Human Ethology what is natural and what is unnatural (both RESPONSE TO AN have evolved), how can Dawkins claim he INTERVIEW wants to do such a, ",. very un-Darwinian" thing as contribute to a socialist world? How can he abandon ruthless capitalism that favors only Bill Charlesworth self and kin and opt for socialism that supports P. O. Box 18 both nonkin as well kin? How can he even Stockholm, WI 54769 USA conceive of such a thing with a mind shaped by evolution to serve his genes only? No gene In his March 1997 Human Ethology recipe for chocolate eclairs will culminate in Bulletin interview of Richard Dawkins, Frans potato pancakes. Roes asked some very incisive questions concerning slavemaking in ants. In response, Of course, some processes of naJural Dawkins, as expected, gave well-articulated selection result in maladaptive phenotypes, but answers which, however, would have been the conscious decision-making of an ardent more compelling if he had also alluded to evolutionist well-saturated with Darwinian empirical data to back them. After a question memes can certainly alter such phenotypes... on manipulative signaling, Roes probes into less unless one learns early that an excellent scientific issue'S with queries about religion, strategy in certain circles is to openly speak social manners, politics and morality, areas in socialist but covertly act capitalist which is which Dawkins has many firm opinions. surely not the case with Dawkins. A general epistemological issue raised Entertaining such dichotomies as body by Dawkins' answers to the latter questions and mind and gene and meme must be by concerns the possible disjunction between such evolutionary biologists as a Cartesian error of labels as natural and unnatural, genes and enormous magnitude. Material monists are memes, body and mind. I assume most, ifnot all obligated to have no part of such a heresy. I evolutionists, maintain there is no disjunction. feel fortunate I do not feel this obligation. The nqtural i:ln_d unnatural, genes and memes, Being trained in world literature, and even the body and mind are at bottom comparative/experimental psychology, human ultimate products of evolution, seamlessly development and cognition, as well as connected in one way or other in very ethology, has cured me from early tendencies to complicated but causally necessary ways to be be a m9nistic reductionist. It has also stifled sure, Why? Because all things have material tendencies to extrapolate or generalize freely origins and therefore can never be causally across content areas and species. Actually, the dissociated from them --even memes and the cure makes me feel I am a better scientist since mind. Disjunctions in the biological world just every time I look at phenomena I don't feel don't exist. obligated to defend a theory. Also, such freedom allows me to disqgree with Darwin's Now, if there indeed is no disjunction, if claim that "He who understands baboon would there is a perfectly smooth continuum between do more toward metaphysics than Locke." 2 (Darwin's M notebook). I wish a primatologist From the Editor would take Darwin up on this--in cooperation, of course, with 'members of the metaphysical society. '. After 17 years, the journal Ethology and Sociobiology ceased publication with the One does not have to be a end of the 1996 volume. It may be appropriate supernaturalist to raise the issue of disjunction. to suggest that we reflect on what the founding Alfred Russel Wallace posed the disjunction of the journal meant to those of us conducting question concerning human intelligence when he research in these disciplines in the early days. noted that some human cognitive traits may have escaped natural selection in Pleistocene Ethology and Sociobiology was one of environments because 'they appear to have no the first journals, perhaps the first, to utility value contributing to fitness. I am aware specialize in publishing research on humans of speculations about how music may attract from an evolutionary perspective. Before its members of the opposite sex or appease enemies advent, researchers found it very difficult to and how smart people may compete better in publish work that alluded t'o evolutionary acquiring resources. But where's the' empirical theory. Some journals, notably in proof to support such speculations? developmental psychology, 'published work employing observational methods. However, While not as socially favored as reference to the theory behind using these Darwin, Wallace certainly was no less methods was often taboo. Even today, it goes insightful and no less experienced in the ways without saying, opposition to evolutionary of nature. If I remember correctly, Wallace theory remains entrenched in the social spent much more research time than Darwin sciences. with a wide range of cultures. Such experience must count for some insights on cognition as an E & 5 provided not just a forum but a adaptation that Darwin may have m.issed, or widely respected one. It was carefully and not missed but felt he had to ignore to keep critically edited, and its articles included some dangerous disjunctive gaps out of the theory. of the most widely cited in the behavioral sciences. Many academic libraries subscribed to it. Because of its success, it eventually In my opinion, Dawkins has embarked, expaIlded from quarterly to bimonthly in several respects, on a potentially unfruitful publication. Occasionally, an issue was rather course as exemplified in his interview. Several thin due to the flagging performance of us of his books (e.g. The Selfish Gene, The Blind contributors, but Michael McGuire persevered Watchmaker, River Out of Eden) consist of and without lowering editorial standards. He exciting, often brilliant speculations about the served as editor-in-chief for the entire life of implications of Darwinian theory for every the journal, providing essential continuity to living thing. However, frequently much of the field of human ethology and sociobiology. what Dawkins says has become repetitive (there is no evidence of intelligent design in E & S was tolerant of varied nature) and dogmatic sounding (so give up the theoretical and methodological approaches, idea of a designer). but rigorous in its standards. It fostered respect for our nascent discipline, and did not bend to With all respect to his brilliant the political winds to do so. Polemics and achievements, Dawkins, in my estimation, other ideologically-tinged pieces were not would do best by elaborating on scieFlce's welcome, but solid data and well-grounded uniquely exquisite, labor-intensive, objective, theoretic.al essays could always find a home. self-corrective methods that, when used Michael maintained good relations with the collectively, separate science from other human various societies of ethologists and cognitive activities. With such elaboration, he sociobiologists in Europe as well as North could more persuasively show how vital science America, and the journal received submissions is for understanding the natural order. from numerous countries. 3 Due in no small measure to Ethology Heimat-Attachment and Return and Sociobiology, biological approaches to the to the Native Place: Experiences study of human behavior have gained in respectability. The solid work of behavioral with the Behavioral Biology of geneticists, endocrinologists, neuroscientists, Migrants primatologists, ethologists, and sociobiologists has drawn the attention of much of the By Elieser G. Hammerstein educated public, to some extent bypassing our Kurfiirstrasse 97 resistant colleagues in academia. As never 12705 Berlin, Germany before, ethology and sociobiology constitute major approaches to the study of human "Heimat" means more than just behavior. For example, an unusually large homeland and/or native place: nobody can number of papers on humans are to be presented choose his native land, but one can choose at this ye.ar's International Ethological another home or even a spiritual "Heimat". Congress in Vienna, and the American According to Ina-Maria Greverus, "Heimat" is Psychological Association convention in a socio-culturally structured space of reference Chicago will feature a symposium by human and satisfaction. Few languages possess a ethologists on observational methods; both special noun for this concept (among those that meetings are in August. do are German, Hebrew, Arabic, Chinese, Japanese and Serbo-Croatian); in most others it Now that ethological and is circumscribed, as in English. The "Heimat" sociobiological research is finally being term thus is culture-specific, while house, published by many mainstream social science home and the connotations warmth, journals, we may lapse into forgetting the belongingness, shelteredness are universal. pioneering role of E & S. But the toehold we have finally gained is due in large measure to Basically, however, "Heimat" is the institutional sustenance and moral support usually referred to as the place where one grew provided by that journal. up and to which one is emotionally attached. This attachment is similar to habitat It is time then to express our thanks to imprinting in animals, arising by way of Michael McGuire and his associate editors, continuous, emotionally loaded association Nick Blurton Jones, Bill McGrew, and Peter K. learning. Later in life, people can acquire Smith, as well as to the consulting editors, emotional bonds to other places;