1. By Michael Alan Park, Ph.D. Central Connecticut State University
McGraw-Hill

2. The Evolution of Our Behavior: Putting It All Together
Chapter 14
The Evolution of Our Behavior: Putting It All Together

3. As You Read, Consider:
Within the context of specific cultural systems, what are some of the ways anthropologists attempt to analyze and understand cultural behaviors? How is the discussion of biblical food laws an example of such analysis?
How are dietary prohibitions related in certain cultures where food is associated with cleanliness? How are these prohibitions connected with worldview?
What is the symbolic purpose served by lists of cleanliness that can and cannot be eaten? How are the criteria for cleanliness related to practical matters?
How does Marvin Harris cultural materialism explain dietary laws in terms of cultural systems? Does this explain the reason why some cultures shifted from hunting to agriculture?
What does Harris mean when he says that dietary laws are religious expressions of preexisting practical habits?
Why is it important to distinguish between ritual and secular warfare in highland New Guinea? How does this help us to understand Dani worldview?
How did the cultural system of the Fore react to kuru? In this case, what is the connection between biology and culture?
How can altruistic behavior be thought of as a combination of culture and biology?
In what general ways do culture and biology interact to produce human behavior?

4. Of Their Flesh Shall Ye Not Eat
Jews and Muslims are forbidden to eat the flesh of swine. These religions consider pigs as unclean creatures. Pork is one of a long list of foods considered unclean by the ancient Hebrews. Water creatures are treated similarly as are birds. All but certain kinds of insects are prohibited as well. A general prohibition also includes anything that has already died. How are these prohibitions explained?

5. Of Their Flesh Shall Ye Not Eat
How do we explain these clean and unclean animal food sources? Mary Douglas emphasizes the symbolic functions of cultural practices. Once beyond the obviously practical, the functions of most acts, she feels, are aimed at conforming to and thus reinforcing our basic assumptions about our world, our worldview. The food taboos, she feels, reflect some broader idea, serving an abstract cultural need rather than a practical one. For her, ideas guide behavior.
Marvin Harris, an anthropologist and cultural materialist, offers an alternate explanation. Regarding dietary laws he agrees with Douglas—they are after-the-fact generalizations of already existing habits which revolve around the emphasis on farming as a food source. Pigs are difficult to herd and don’t graze well, while sheep, goats and cattle are not. They’re easily controlled and serve other functions than just a food source. It’s a cost-benefit argument. Other, practical health-related concerns explain some dietary laws.
Douglas argues that dietary laws are symbolic and lie in their organizing value; Harris sees the laws as related to practical matters and religious expressions of pre-existing habits. Each emphasize a different process in a complex feedback loop.

6. Of Their Flesh Shall Ye Not Eat
It makes sense that many, if not most, cultural behaviors originate for practical reasons.
If a society can’t satisfy its basic biological needs, symbolism and meaning become irrelevant.
Once basic behaviors are in place, they become part of an integrated, meaningful, complex cultural system.

7. Peaceful Warriors and Cannibal Farmers
The Dani Live in the western half of New Guinea called West Irian. The Fore Live in the eastern half of New Guinea, now the independent nation of Papua New Guinea.
The Grand Valley Dani are divided into about 12 alliances, which are subdivided into a total of about 50 confederations. There has existed, for how long no one knows, a state of ritual war between various alliances.
The motivation is the placation of ghosts. The ghost of a person slain in warfare demands revenge. This requires that the life of an enemy be taken in return. That death, of course, requires revenge as well, making the cycle self-perpetuating.
The ritual battle is not the only kind of war the Dani fight. They also have periodic secular wars. These are fairly rare, occurring maybe every ten years. These wars take place for secular reasons, usually arguments over wives or pigs.
War in a Western concept, is thus possible within the Dani cultural system and has obviously been part. While these secular wars are few and far between, the ritual wars are continuous. It almost appears as if the ritual war fills in the time between “real” wars.

8. Definitions
Co-wife Resentment: Tension among the wives of one man in polygynous societies, often caused by the differing statuses of those wives.

9. Peaceful Warriors and Cannibal Farmers
Fore cannibalism seems to be practiced for reasons somewhere between ritual and nutrition.
Rather than feeling they are gaining some power from the deceased, they seek to acquire a “fertilizing” effect.
“Dead bodies buried in gardens encourage the growth of crops. In a similar manner, human flesh, like pig meat, helps some humans regenerate.”
We may see this practice as having a more material origin. Taken up by women in the relatively recent past An idea borrowed from some surrounding societies: to supplement their diet in what was fast becoming a protein-poor society And men, who dominate Fore society, had access to the small supply of wild game and pigs that were available.
Cannibalism here does seem to have a nutritional function at its origin.

10. Definitions
Endocannibalism: The eating of human flesh from members of one’s own society.

11. Biology and Culture in Interaction
We may come “pre-programmed” with some general behavioral themes or potentials such as the attraction and bonding between males and females and the avoidance of mating with immediate family members.
In our evolutionary past, these may have been so important adaptively that they channeled and placed strict limitations on our behavior.
That’s why our cultural translations of those behavioral themes-- marriage and incest taboos--are cultural universals
But these cultural expressions may still be seen--in all their rich diversity--as variations on behavioral themes that were selected for before we became the cultural primate.
In this way, biology and some general aspects of cultural systems interact.

12. Definitions
Altruism: Acting to benefit others while disregarding one’s own welfare.
Biological Determinism: The idea that human behaviors have a biological basis with minimal influence from culture.
Cultural Determinism: The idea that human behaviors are almost totally the result of learned cultural information, with few or no instinctive responses.
Kin Selection: Promoting the passing on of one's genes by aiding the survival or reproduction of one’s close kin.
Sociobiology: The scientific study that examines evolutionary explanations for social behaviors within species.
Evolutionary Psychology: A synonym for sociobiology.
Behavioral Ecology: A synonym for sociobiology.

13. Questions for Further Thought
Can you think of any other sets of dietary laws that might be examined using the model from the chapter? How about the Hindu prohibition on eating cows?
Recent extreme acts of violence in the world force us to look again at the question of innate human violence. Most strikingly perhaps suicide bombers and the suicides of the 9/11 hijackers. These bombers and hijackers seem to be ignoring what we think of as the most innate human behavior--self-preservation. Can you analyze these behaviors in light of the discussion in the chapter?