Theories of Biological Instinct

To theories of the biological instinct that primates have for sexual gratification and reproduction have been added theories of biosocial operations that can explain and/or govern observed patterns of social behavior in nonhuman primates that has a good deal of the complexity found in human societies. The commonplace that social shape and content are fundamental to human life as a highly evolved species and to the psychological and physical well-being of Homo sapiens persists even amid radically materialist conceptions of mind and the perpetual metaphysics of mind-body dualism. There is no equivalent discourse of the role of social organization in nonhuman primate evolution even though social structures have been observed and analyzed in primate populations.

This research argues that the role of social organization and telos in the evolution and survival as well as the functioning and operation of nonhuman high primate species has not been sufficiently appreciated. Biosocial evolutionary theory, plus studies of nonhuman primate reproductive and other modes of social behavior in different social structures inform a hypothesis that these primates are far more likely to further the project of species survival in an ecosystem characterized by both ample genetic diversity and complex social organization, and conversely far less likely to cooperate in the project where the ecosystem lacks genetic diversity and species-specific social complexity. The research suggests meth

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ps that have social norms. Galen and Heyes (1996) survey a number of studies of various species that indicate that many animals, including though not limited to primates, learn by observing behavior of the members of their social systems. Critical Analysis What is most significant about theories that essentially connect nature and nurture is what they imply: that if behavioral norms can be learned by instinct or trial and error, they can also be transmitted. That is, indeed, the underlying premise of evolutionary human psychology, but the evidence of maternal nurture in higher nonhuman primates seems analogous to a view that, in general, social praxis is a learnable skill. Nichols specifically deemphasizes the role of genes in determining evolved human psychology and emphasizes the learning process. In any case, the difficulties of declining genetic diversity associated with nonhuman primates such as the mountain gorillas do not obtain for humans. Similarly, if social behavior norms are transmissible and learnable, it is not by instinct alone--although of course instinct is important--or by the vicissitudes of individual encounters, that animals "behave." And if they can be transmitted in a cogent way, one effect may be to fost

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