Irenäus Eibl-Eibesfeldt

Human ethology: concepts and implications for the sciences of man

Human ethology is defined as the biology of human behavior. The methods it employs and the questions it poses are elaborations of those generally used in the various fields of biology, but especially adapted to the study of man. Observation and experimentation in the natural and seminatural setting as well as the comparative method derived from morphology play important roles in human ethology, and the exploration of phylogenetic adaptations constitutes one of its focal interests. On the basis of observations on experientially deprived and nondeprived children, comparative primate and animal behavior studies, and cross-cultural investigations, certain universal phylogenetic adaptations (in terms of fixed action patterns, innate releasing mechanisms, releasers, innate motivating mechanisms, and innate learning dispositions) have been found to occur. However, human ethology does not restrict itself to the investigation of phylogenetic adaptations. The question as to how a behavior pattern contributes to survival can be posed with respect to cultural patterns as well. Similar selection pressures have shaped both culturally and phylogenetically evolved patterns. Through cross-cultural studies a number of universal social interaction strategies have been discovered.

A universal constant in temporal segmentation of human short-term behavior

Human time perception is characterized by an integrative mechanism [1] that relates successive mental events in such a way that a perceptual pattern is formed as in a melody or a verbal utterance. The temporal limit of this integrative mechanism has been found to be of the order of 3 s [2]. A necessary consequence o f sequential integrations of events with the same time constant is a quasi-periodical structure of perception and, possibly, mental activity in general [2, 3]. We have obtained evidence now that not only perception but also overt behavior is characterized by a similar time constant [4]. Human behavior appears to be organized in such a way that short-term movement episodes with an obvious segmentation are embedded within 3-s temporal windows. Thus, both perception and action appear to be controlled by a universal temporal principle. The behavioral data analyzed were taken from four different cultures, i.e., Europeans, Trobriand Islanders, Yanomami Indians, and Kalahari Bushmen. The scenes filmed were unstaged

Communication Patterns in Adult-Infant Interactions in Western and Non-Western Cultures:

The purpose of this study is to analyze the early communication structure in adult-child interactions with 2- to 6-month-old babies in Western (West Germany, Greece)and non-Western (Yanomami, Trobriand) societies. The occurrence of positive and negative infant vocalizations was analyzed during the dyadic states of eye contact and non-eye contact, and the dialogic states of adult talking and nontalking. Adult tactile, vestibular, and verbal responses to infant vocalizations were coded. The results confirm the assumption of universal interactional structures. Positive vocalizations are performed mostly during eye contact; during adult talking, infants do not produce vocalizations; adults respond to positive and negative vocalizations differently; and verbal reactions are found after positive and negative vocalizations, whereas negative vocalizations elicit more bodily behaviors, such as movement and touching. These adult behaviors are interpreted as intuitive parenting programs.

Evolution of Destructive Aggression

Aggression is defined as a mechanism of spacing by means of force or displays. It has evolved independently in different animal groups. The mechanisms underlying it are therefore not homologous throughout the animal kingdom. The phenomenon of aggression is so widespread, however, that strong selection pressures must be responsible for its development along analogous lines. Its most obvious functions are in competition for mates, natural resources, and territories, and in the preservation of group identity in many gregarious species. Aggression is often ritualized so that no damage is done to conspecifics. This ritualization may appear as modification of fighting into a tournament, or as the development of submissive postures which block further aggression in the opponent shortly after the onset of a potentially damaging fight. Animal aggression is preprogrammed by phylogenetic adaptation in well-defined ways, but can be modified by experience. The inborn programs involve motor patterns, innate releasing mechanisms, releasers, motivating mechanisms, and learning dispositions specific for the species. Aggression on this biological level can be observed in humans as intragroup aggression. Certain motor patterns and signals which lead to the release of aggression are universal. Some can even be found in deaf- and blind-born people, proving their innateness. A number of patterns of aggression in man are highly ritualized and - in a way analogous to that found in many animals - mechanisms of control have evolved inhibiting the killing of a conspecific. There are strong indications of the existence of motivating mechanisms within the brain, e.g., in the form of neuronal circuits, that show a degree of spontaneity. The type of destructive aggression which we call war, is a product of cultural evolution. War takes advantage of the given motivational structure of man, including his fear of strangers, which develops in every baby independently of experience and makes men inclined to form closed groups and causes them to be wary of or hostile to strangers. Based on these tendencies, man underwent a process of cultural subspeciation. Groups demarcated themselves from others by custom, erecting communication barriers. The development of languages demonstrates how fast and efficient this process is. Members of the same group, during this process, were defined as the “real man,” outsiders often were to be valued less -or even considered nonhuman. On the basis of this self-indoctrination, cultural codes of conduct developed, which allowed members of other groups to be killed when groups competed for resources. A cultural fiiter of norms was established which demanded killing under defined conditions, and was superimposed upon the biological filter of norms which inhibits the killing of a human being. This results in a conflict of norms, which is universally felt as guilt, since the biological filter of norms, though superimposed, is nonetheless working, particularly in the circumstance of a personal encounter. The more advanced the technique of armament, which allows fast and distant killing, the less the inhibitions are activated. Nonetheless, ritualizations occur on the cultural level. Warfare is sometimes ritualized and conventions are developed to prevent escalation into massacres, or the wholesale destruction of the subjugated enemy. To a great extent, this is certainly a result of our inborn moral code, If nothing like this were given to man our situation would be disastrous indeed. Whether cultural evolution will, in the future, be guided by moral maxims in accord with our human nature is a deeision men must make rationally. Although a ruthless ethnocentrism may bring advantage to a warring group, this may eventually prove fatal to mankind as a whole. In the escalating competition mankind runs the danger not only of exhausting its resources, but of destroying itself with its new weapons. If the outcome were not selfdestruction but domination by one group it would impoverish the diversity of human cultures, and thus seriously cut down mans spectrum of adaptability. War fulfills certain functions, similar to those found in animals. It is mainly a mechanism for preserving and extending ones territory, and a means of getting access to scarce resources. It is therefore dangerous to consider war merely as a pathological form of human behavior because this may distract our attention from the fact that, h order to overcome war, the functions of war have to be fulfilled by nonviolent means. Cultural evolution phenocopies biological evolution, due to similarities in the selection pressures shaping its course. This allows us to define the point of the evolutionary spiral we are at currently and to predict our future course.

STRATEGIES OF SOCIAL INTERACTION

Emotions have an observable and a subjectively experienced dimension. Ethologists deal with observable behavior following a tradition which has been largely established by Charles Darwins book: The Expression of Emotions in Man and Animals. Evolution, function and physiological causation of the expressive patterns of emotion are their primary concern. The present analysis based on the cross-cultural documentation of unstaged human behavior reveals that phylogenetic adaptations determine mans social interactions in a variety of ways. Many of his expressive movements can be considered as innate motor patterns (fixed action patterns). They trigger certain behaviors and thus act as signals or releasers of innate releasing mechanisms. Systems of friendly approach as well as the agonistic system (ranging in expression from aggression to flight) are activated in human interaction. By antithetic combinations of display and appeasement patterns encounters are managed in such a way as to achieve friendly relations without endangering ones rank position. Expressive patterns control human relations and the cross-cultural comparison reveals the existence of basic strategies of social interactions which occur universally. Whereas children act these strategies out in nonverbal motor patterns, adults verbalize many of these events. However, in doing this, they still obey the same rules which govern the nonverbal strategy. The discovery that a variety of nonverbal and verbal behaviors can substitute for each other as functional equivalents bridges the gap between nonverbal and verbal behavior and opens the way for the study of a grammar of human social behavior covering both verbal and nonverbal behavior.

Patterns of Parent-Child Interaction in a Cross-Cultural Perspective

The patterns of parenting, in particular early mother-child interaction, have been a focal point of interest for psychoanalysts, anthropologists and psychologists, who all agree that early in childhood the foundation is laid for the development of personality traits.

Angeborenes und Erworbenes im Nestbauverhalten der Wanderratte

Der A n g r i f f s p u n k t des L y c o c y n s m u g also an einer ande ren Stelle der g e s a m t e n R e a k t i o n s k e t t e l iegen als der der Thioha rns to f fe : e iner d u t c h diese ausge l6s ten Hyperp la s i e der Schilddrfise s t e h t die du rch L y c o c y n he rvo rge ru fene R u h i g s te l lung gegenfiber. An den der T hy reo i dea zugeo rdne t en Erfo lgsorganen bzw. d e m i m B l u t k re i senden Schi lddrf isenhorm o n sche in t das L y c o c y n n ich i anzugre i fen : Setz t m a n z. ]3. u n t e r der H a u t ein L y c o c y n d e p o t d u t c h I m p l a n t a t i o n yon Wi rks to f i getr~inkten Agars t f ickchen, so mf ig t en die du rch T h y r o x i n ausge l6s ten cha rak te r i s t i s chen Ver~inderungen der H a u t ausble iben, was jedoch in den b isher igen Ve r suchen n ich t der Fall i s t (Fig. 2 a n n d b). Es bleibt d e m n a c h als Angriffsort : der H V L bzw. das T S H se lbs t oder die Schilddrfise m i t K o m p o n e n t e n ihrer kompl iz ie r ten H o r m o n p r o d u k t i o n und -able i tung. Zoologisches Insti tut der Universit~t, K61n. O. KUHX und E. KAS~E~. Eingegangen am 26. September t955.

The fighting behaviour of marine iguanas

The Marine Iguana (Amblyrhynchus cristatus) is a species endemic to the Galapagos Islands. It lives in large aggregations along the rocky shore lines throughout the archipelago. It is the only iguanid specialized for feeding on marine algae, which they crop at low tide from the exposed rocks or even by diving down to the bottom of the sea. The animals are extremely gregarious and sometimes hundreds of iguanas bask on the lava rocks in bodily contact with each other. Besides this mutual attraction, however, no specific forms of social interaction like grooming, mutual feeding rituals, etc. are to be observed. This is in striking contrast to the social behaviour of birds and mammals which use such patterns for bond formation. These bond-forming behaviour patterns are mainly derivates of maternal behaviour, which seem to be preadapted for this purpose. Reptiles lack maternal behaviour and this may in part explain their inability to form a closer bond between adults.

The Otariidae of the Galapagos-Islands

Recently Lindt (Jour. Mamm. 37: 287, 1956) published a note on the underwater behaviour of sea lions that he observed in the area of the Galapagos Islands. He referred to this animal as Otaria jubata (Gmelin), which is the southern sea lion and …

Der anthropologische Diskurs über Aggression

Vielleicht ist es ein besonderes Merkmal der Konflikttheorie, das sich in ihrem Feld starker als in anderen gesellschaftstheoretischen Traditionen interdisziplinare Bezuge ergeben. Nicht zuletzt waren da biologische und psychologische Verbindungen mit soziologischer Theorie zu nennen. Als prominenteste und einflusreichste Versuche einer solchen Verbindung gelten zum einen die sozialdarwinistischen Entwurfe von Spencer und Gumplowicz, die Ethologie von Konrad Lorenz und die neodarwinistische Soziobiologie, zum anderen die psychoanalytischen Konflikttheorien von Freud bis Marcuse Ihnen gemeinsam ist eine grundlegende Struktur der Beobachtung von Konflikten, weshalb sie hier als eine Diskursart der Konflikttheorie gelten. Es handelt sich um den anthropologischen Diskurs uber die Aggression, der in zwei verschiedene Perspektiven und Begrundungsstrategien auseinanderfallt, namlich in die biologische und die psychologische. Anthropologie wird hier verstanden als das Unterfangen einer Beschreibung der grundsatzlichen Struktur menschlichen Verhaltens unter Ruckgriff auf naturalistische Argumentationsmuster, die sich entweder auf wesenshafte Annahmen uber die Spezies oder gesetzmasige Verlaufe der gesellschaftlichen und naturlichen Entwicklung beziehen. Die Konfliktbeobachtung fuhrt in diesem Zusammenhang auf eine spezifische Verhaltensdisposition des Menschen, das heist der Konflikt wird als Ausdruck eines ohnehin schon vorhandenen Potentials gesehen, das dem Menschen naturhaft zukommt.