Re: might be of interest--a biologist on sociobiology

Here we go again?

Well, bad eye sight can have an impact on human behavior. So can diabetes.
(both genetically influenced.) And having an opposable thumb -- definitely a
biological evolutionary factor.  And on another level, AIDS. And hunger. And
having an annoying fungus infection on one's foot or somewhere else.  I've
known people whose behavior was definitely affected by those biological
influences. So I guess I agree with Richard Hutchinson that there are some
biological influences on human behavior.

I just don't believe in doing what many who call themselves sociobiologists
do -- use some unspecified, unidentified "soul-like" construction that is
defined as biology but is never biologically identified, but instead
"deduced" from analogy and metaphor with attempts to explain the Balkan War,
and the next Persian Gulf War, and racism, and rape, and capitalism as being
the natural result of our DNA.

 Now THAT'S what I call "social construction" of a theory! Or more
accurately, the "political-economic" construction of a theory which serves
well certain political-economic interests.

Alan Spector
==========================================
----- Original Message -----
From: "Richard N Hutchinson" <rhutchin@U.Arizona.EDU>
To: "Alan Spector" <spectors@netnitco.net>
Cc: "PROGRESSIVE SOCIOLOGISTS NETWORK" <psn@csf.colorado.edu>; "WORLD
SYSTEMS NETWORK" <wsn@csf.colorado.edu>
Sent: Sunday, October 22, 2000 7:53 PM
Subject: Re: might be of interest--a biologist on sociobiology


> I don't know about "Demonic Males," but "Hierarchy in the Forest: The
> Evolution of Egalitarianism" by the anthropologist Christopher Boehm is an
> excellent book that I highly recommend to everyone on the list.
>
> I continue to find it fascinating that there are social constructionists
> of both the right and the left who want to disregard evidence for
> biological influences on human behavior.
>
> RH
>
>