Correction and Additional Comments

Thu, 9 May 1996 16:38:37 -0500 (CDT)
Andrew W. Austin (aaustin@mtsu.edu)

The question "Or that they have not ever been social?" should read
"Or that hominids have not always been social?" Of course hominids have
always been social. The earliest hominid remains showed that they not
only lived in groups but that they took care of their elderly. In a recent
book on primate social behavior entitled Good Natured (can't remember
the author right now; the book is in my home office) primates of all
kinds are shown doing very social things, such as caring for a retarded
sibling. But as the Harlow study showed, nurturing behavior in
primates is learned. The more we learn about primate behavior the more
we recognize socialization into the community. More and more of what was
thought to be instinct or nature is tuning out to be social. Just
because we have always been social doesn't mean this is genetic.

I use this illustration to demonstrate how learned behavior can be
naturalized. It is 2000 years from now. A group of Japanese sailors love to
visit an island to feed a bunch of monkeys that live there. They feed
them rice. It is entertaining because when you throw the rice on the
beach, the monkeys scoop up the sand and throw it in the water so that
the rice rises to the surface. For as long as anybody can remember, these
monkeys have been doing this. So, like the raccoon washing her food, the
sailors assume this is instinct. However, we are not 2000 year in the
future. We know that neither the monkeys', nor the sailors', behavior is
instinctual. A few years ago the monkeys painstakingly picked individual
pieces of rice from the sand. The sailors deliberately threw the rice in
the sand so this would occur, because when they just threw the bags of
rice on the beach, the monkeys dragged the bags of rice into the woods.
So the ripped the bags open and scattered the rice. But one day a female
accidentally threw some sand into the water and found that the rice
floated to the surface. Pretty soon all the monkeys were doing this
(except the old male monkeys--they were set in their ways). Over the next
several year it is expected that the old male monkeys will die out and
all the monkeys will be throwing rice in the water to extract the sand.
Instinct?

I reiterate, a single Homo sapiens raised apart from society will
NOT be human. It will not speak, nurture, think, drive automobiles, fight
wars, or act in self-interest. It will not avoid incest. It will not
drive tankers for Exxon. If it is a male, it will not play football. If
it is a female, it will not desire to play dolls. It will be neither
criminal nor saint. It will, however, eat, sleep, defecate, and probably
ejaculate like other mammals. But this is NOT human nature.

Social being is so much better than the term "human nature." This way we
recognize that we have a natural being and a social being.

Andy