What is Ethology?

What is Ethology?“comparative animal behavior”Primary method of study is the

observation and quantification of behavior in the field and lab.

“Human Ethology” ?

Acknowledges unique biological attributes of the human species,

how BOTH human culture and biology evolved to become

inter-dependent

So, how does the “human” part change the field?

In A Word...What is the human part of

ethology? Culture: dependence on tools, symbols,

language and learning for survival…genetic and behavioral plasticity

and capacity for immediate innovation (change)--environmental regulation

Like……here are some examples.. beliefs about how babies should be born..changes the biological

experience of birth..(labor duration) socialization either favoring or discouraging aggression makes it harder

or easier to be aggressive… expectations and beliefs about food, the psychology of food, changes

what we eat and why..affecting our health.. Mead said:” We don’t eat food, we eat ideas about food”;

how and where we sleep, and what we think about a “good nights sleep” depends on our cultural beliefs…

What is it that actually happens when we “psyche ourselves up” or “hit that groove..”

Humans make decisions

What does it mean to evoke evolutionary concepts into our understanding of humanity…

For the sake of the babies50-150,000 years

ago..1500cc’s

Early bipedal hominines

3.5 million years ago, 390 cubic centimeters of

brain to…

Homo sapiens sapiens

Evolutionary Perspectives on…

Human beings…

Changing morphologies andChanging morphologies andChanging behavior over timeChanging behavior over time

130,00

800,000

32,000

400,000 150,000

3mya 3mya 2mya2mya 1mya 1mya .5mya.5mya Today Today

↓ Humans → → → →↓↓

Homo sapienssapiens

The Hominins

Filling in the dots…..

A day in the life of a Pleistocene, early Homo baby, 800,000 years ago.

Any Relevance

to the western

2009 baby? Us?

For the sake of the babies?…How?

Absolutement !

We are a species that invented the phenomenon of “ideas” sometimes referred to as “memes” the culturally-based, functional analog to biologically-constituted “genes”.

Nonetheless, ideas operate and are expressed in relationship to an ever-present, powerful, successful, paleolithic (Stone age) biology.

Still, ideas (or memes) change faster than infant or maternal biology ..

as ideas or memes..are made possible by…

The evolution of the human brain…increasing encephalization relative to body mass..

increasing complex problem solving abilities involving regionalized tools and technologies, enhanced communication and interpretive social- skills, extended, bi-parental care in the context of more enduring male-female sexual relationships, symbolic behavior and belief systems

MODERN HUMAN

MODERN CHIMPANZEE

Stanley Kubrick “2001”: The perfect visual metaphor..for illustrating what anthropology tries to do

We try to fill in the dots between fossil ancestors, connecting hominine fossils with each other through time..and reconstructung the relationship between morphology (brain size, anatomical characteristics ….and social behavior…

From thisTo that

Brain Quality and Volume And the Rise of Human Culture

-------------]ModernHuman sizeRange]

________]

Human Culture and Brain Size

-------------]ModernHuman sizeRange]

________]

Wood? stone choppers, unifacial

flaked toolsl

Fire, shelters, systematic hunting,

clothing, hand axes, flake

tools, migrations

Language, burials,religion? integrated tools,

agriculture, pottery, sedantism

Homo sapiens sapiens-USHomo sapiens sapiens-US

The Indonesian “hobbit”….3.6 ft feet tall, 800 cc brain..late Homo

erectus, up through 300,000 to 15-11,0000

BP years ago…overlapping modern

forms…phyletic dwarphism isolated on ecologically attractive

but competitive environment

“Homo sapiens florisiensis” hunting

large rats and Kokomo dragon

HUMMMM…HOW DID WE DO THIS

How Did We Manage To Afford Such An Expensive Brain, Slow Developing Brain, Needy Brain, With A Relatively Larger Body Size and Reduce Birth Intervals at the same time?

HOW? Increased size of foraging home ranges; Shifted to enormous breadth of food types with high protein

omnivory..coupled with production of tools to harvest and prepare; We cook, too!

Food sharing in social context division of labor; Reduced mass of gut; Loss of sexual periodicity Symbolic communication; Birth to fat babies! Direct male care and other alloparents (Gettler) Tools..fake organs?

Risks?Still, the Risks: second trophoblastic invasion..(eclampsia, pre eclampsia result) as emerging embryo penetrates more deeply into womb for increased oxygen and nutrientsArchitecture of bipedal pelvis diminished outlet complicating labor and delivery;Cultural construction of birth and infant caregiving practices…far from ideal?

On human unique nesses: Bipedal, long labor, woman

attended birth; birth of fattest babies

Extreme Delayed maturity; Largest neo-cortex and relative to

body size..tissue convolutions maximize axonal-dendritic connections and speed;

Long child dependence, food sharing; fat test babies at birth;

Increased parental investment; Concealed ovulation, loss of

estrous; Post reproductive senescence Direct and indirect male care Energetically costly babies, BUT

short intervals between births;

Symbolic (verbal and non-verbal) capacity-language, self awareness, reflection, evaluation; awareness of death;

Retention of breasts; Variable adult male parental

investment; Technology (dependence on

tools)..culture Mind readers..empathic,

tolerant, understanding; Reduced gut mass, efficient

digestion;

Human Population Growth Last 10,000 Years

And what else does culture do? Answer: (Lots)

“Although the biology of human behavior is universal in historic time

how humans perceive what the SHOULD do..or what is..ahhh

“cool”….is socially constructed and subject to historical change.”

(adopted from Sussman 1982)

David Barash: The Tortoise and The Hare (1987)

“ …There would be little if any difficulty exchanging a Cro-

Magnon and a modern infant, but great incongruity in making

the same switch amongst adults of both cultures.”

“Will the Real Pleistocene Family Please Stand Up?” (after Hrdy 2008)

Environment of Evolutionary

Adaptedness??

For the sake of the babies…

what was a day like in the life of an 800,000

year old Homo?

Shortened birth intervals explained by:

Cooperative breeding (Hrdy 2008) ?

Direct male care (Gettler in press) ?

The primacy of cooperation amongst early human beings ….living on the savannah..

Terrestriality..emphasizing omnivory….opportunism!

Food sharing..division of labor? Cooking?

Care of young and transport (Huge)

Lack of clear material record for substantial division of labor until recently;

Predator rich environment-- Loss of estrous..sex as a

social bonding tool? Cooperation a pre-requisite

Life in the savannah and forest

Relevance of Past Selective Pressures to Contemporary Behavior? Meet the “EEA”

Meet the neighbors!

Really, A Central Question For the Class is:

What Is Human Nature?(Or is it, really natures?)

What Aspects of Human Life Constitute a “Nature” ? Emotional and Behavioral “tendencies” ? How we sleep? Why we get fat? Fight? Select Food? Laugh? Give birth? Satisfy Hunger? Own things? Want things? Raise our babies (parent)? Protect our babies? Soothe (or not) our

babies? Stay healthy, trade health for other gains? Look for, look good, and find a mate? Circumstances of having sex

and being sexual? Communication skills (interact successfully…conduct social

business, appease, maintain group cohesiveness, reduce ambiguity, build unity?

Desire to discover? Learn? Explore? Feel? Empathize/ Control? Be “Happy” (a new concept)?

What determines the “nature’ of human nature? genetic, familial, historical, cultural, physical,

economic and environmental processes; “Natures” may be extremely variable, flexible and

diverse: sensitive to the social values, ideologies and overall cultural practices of the groups within which the behavior develops;

Culture plays a huge role….even that we think it important to know what our “natures” are…

Why does your answer to the question--what is human nature

--matter?because

“..the behavior of men is not independent of the theories of

human behavior that men adopt”Leon Eisenberg “The Nature of Human Nature” pg 165

(1972)

How we define people..what you expect of them..i.e. define their natures..becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy Evolution of the concept of mental retardation…

Middle ages..defined as insane..sent to prisons..treated like animals and so like raving maniacs they became..

17th Century….mentally retarded treated like children..juveniles, stripped of adult rights..and so like children they became..barely learn sentences…

21st century USA..”mainstreaming”..full educational experiences..life experiences…opportunities..and so like independent functioning citizens the …mentally slow become

Why Important?

“Pessimism about man serves to maintain the

status quo”.

Leon Eisenberg pg. 167 1997 “The Nature of Human Nature”

A question...Are human emotions the closest we will ever get to understanding our genes, i.e. what you feel, rather

than what you act on, or necessarily do?

Human Ethology: Uses Diverse “Lines of Evidence” Comparative (what kind)

Cross-cultural (other societies) Cross species (other species) Inter-individual (intra-sexual) differences;

Developmental (the life cycle--from blast cyst-embryo-fetus-neonate-infant-child-adolescent-adult)

Evolutionary/Phylogenetic origins/function

Human Etholgists Ask Five Fundamental Questions:

What does the behavior look like? Ahh! observation! What causes the behavior to occur?

proximate cause vs. ultimate causes How does the behavior develop?

Ontogeny: individual life cycle How, why and when did the behavior evolve?

Behavioral Phylogeny--how is it adaptive? How does the behavior function?

Assumptions Underlying Human Ethology successful behaviors evolve; behavior mediates between the organism’s genes

and environment for maintenance --all leading to reproduction;

But what is being “selected” or “favored” genetically is often difficult to say…

is the “trait” “epiphenomenon” (that is, noise) or a real, biological, evolved “adaptation”?

We assume that:

a relationship exists between the degree to which the environment (social or physical) can change genetic expression--and behavior..and the degree of complexity of the animals’s nervous system …(brain size)the larger the neo-cortex--the more the animal depends on learning..greater plasticity in behavior

Human Brain Expansion Over Time

Species with larger brains can alter their behavior quickly to changing environmental demands

Assumptions con’t Organisms use energy resources differently

at different stages of the life cycle..behavior changes with age: growth, maintenance and reproduction (life history theory).

Cultural behavior (learning) changes the degree, form, and expression of genetically based human behaviors…long chain between genes and behavior…

Culture changes much faster than does human biology.(no dependence on genes)…only dependent on human creativity..insight, ideas…

Another Assumption

Memes Vs Genes ?Dawkins (The Selfish Gene)

“memes” refer to non-organic behaviors, innovations, or ideas passed on quickly from one person to another, one generation to another which while not based on biology nonetheless have both biological and cultural significance.

Evolution: change in the genetic structures and general behaviors of organisms through time…achieving adaptation (reproductive success)

Fundamental Concept In Ethology

Concepts/Questions basic to ethology

(human or otherwise):“analogous” traits vs. “homologus”traits

Examples; human smile? hand grasp/shake? Reproductive strategies?

Facial expressions, living in groups? Sleep? Birthing?

What does a “belief” in evolution really mean.. (it’s the wrong word, actually) evolution by way of natural selection makes

no presumptions about the presence of absence of God!!

Religion and Science are not in competition..they depend on different things: science (on evidence) religion (on faith)..They co-exist like apples and oranges

Nobody should “believe” in evolution...no more than you believe in gravity… water….eggs…..air

Useful Intellectual Concepts….

proximate vs. ultimate causation

immediate cause/function how a behavior confers fitness

Social Darwinists ? A Mistaken Application of Darwinian Principles…

Darwin never argued that “aristocratic white English ..men” evolved because they represented the..”survival of the fittest”..nor that “classes” of people nor that certain “superior” cultures evolved…

(Only that successful independent traits evolved…though he knew not what actually passed from one generation to another)

Evolutionary Processes: Kin selection (nepotism rules!)

Sexual selection (why we are so pretty) Natural selection (how to get adapted)

Individual reproductive fitness (how many offspring, relative to others)

reproductive strategies (whatever works) Inclusive fitness (your offspring, plus that of

your relatives)

Ethological concepts Fixed-action pattern FAP (actors vs.

receivers)..species behavioral repertoire Ritualized (species-specific) behavior Signals (conspecific-- same species)

Motivation (underlying “feeling”--hormonal) Meaning (reaction of other animal) Function (what did it accomplish for actor)

Rituals, ceremonies, rites of passage..biology and culture together ? Cultural rituals as social communication:

Birth, death, transformations from one status to another, liminality, fasting, sacrifice, birthdays, holidays;

Puberty, childhod to adulthood, engagement, marriage, ascendancy, graduation…

Religious ceremonies, special clothing, paraphanalia-used, magic and special instruments know only to practitioners; routinization..stereotypical behavior..

At birth the human infant is the least neurologically mature primate of all, and the most reliant on physiological regulation by the caregiver, for the longest period of time.

On our babies….what’s so special about…them/us?

Chimpanzee Infant Human Infant

At Birth3 months

69

1 year24

8-9

45506065707585100

2535455060708095*(100% at 14-17 years)

Percentage of Adult Brain Size

Biology of Mother’s Milk Reflects Evolved Infant NeedsCache Species(Ungulates)

high fat high protein low carbohydrate

(high calorie = long feeding interval)

Carrying Species (Humans) low fat low protein high carbohydrate

(low calorie = short feeding interval)

vs..

Human Evolution Is Not Linear

Note overlapping species through time…

Hominid Phylogeny

(family tree)

Note periods of adaptive radiation

What Made Us Human? A biological systems approach.

Hidden Regulatory Mechanisms a given interaction may be guided and even determined by

processes hidden to observation; nutritional status of infant, heat, smell, touch, vestibular;

repeatedly delivered sensory regulation may have cumulative effects which influence adult roles and behavior by way of:

internal state responses by baby to caregiving behavior (blood pressure, satiation, anxiety, breathing, heart rate) may be altered by specific aspects of their relationships (labile traits) like being touched, spoken to, and fed frequently (neuro-developmental, long -term effects)..

Hidden Regulatory Mechanisms systems involved in regulating internal

states of another especially altricial infant mammals like the human infant include: nutritional, vestibular, tactile, olfactory, auditory, visual;

what is the evidence that they exist for human infants?

The evidence for “hidden”regulation?

low affect of infants born to depressed mothers and (learned helplessness);

failure to thrive, weight gain reduced, increased morbidity, anaclitic depression;

benefits of skin-to-skin contact (Anderson 1991) robust weight gain, more robust breast feeding, reduced

apneas, less crying, warmer skin temperature; shorter hospitalization;

Distribution of Number of Breast Feeds Solitary vs. Bedsharing Infants

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12012345678

# of infants

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

# of Breast Feeding Episodes

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12012345678

# of infants

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12# Breast Feeding Episodes

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 120123456

# of infants

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12# Breast Feeding Episodes

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12012345678

# of infants

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12# Breast Feeding Episodes

RB-SN

RB-BN

RS-SN

RS-BN

Mother and Infant Body Orientations on Bedsharing Night (BN) vs. Solitary Night (SN)..for routine bedsharers (RB) and routine solitary sleepers (RS)

MFI

MFA

IFM

IFA

*FEO

050

100150200250300350400

MFI

MFA

IFM

IFA

*FEO

RB-BNRS-BN

(in min)

From: Richard et al.,Sleep 19 (9) 1996

(Face Each Other)

Sampling Maternal CO2 Contribution: Study 2

1) using the infra red video tapes we converted distances (nares-to-nares) maintained by 12 routinely bedsharing mother-infant pairs (sleeping together on their bed sharing night) to real distances;

2) a mass spectrometer was used to measure C02;

3)mother’s contribution to the C02 environment did not reach 5%

Laboratory vs. Home Breastfeeding Behavior

(Observed vs. Sleep Log)

2.4

1.6

4.7

2.3

00.5

11.5

22.5

33.5

44.5

5

Home Laboratory

RB vs. RS, p<.008, t-test

RBRS

(recall)(observed)

Studies which comparedobserved breast feedingwith mother’s recall show that mothers recall about 50% of her actual breast feeding sessions;

(Mothers consistently overestimate duration of feeds, butunder-estimate frequency,Vitzhum 1994)

Choice of child care “practice” has physiological consequences for infant development

Choice of Routine Sleeping Arrangement

Cosleeping (?) Solitary Sleeping (?)

breastfeeding duration, frequency, infant sleep position,

arousal patterns, sleep architecture,maternal inspections, thermal and CO2 environment, infant crying, heart rate and breathing, emotional

(interactional) expectations from parent, sensitivity topresence of ”other”

--------------------------

choice affects:

140.51

97.81

117.21

179.94

80

100

120

140

160

180

200

BN SN

RBRS

Mean Interval Between Feeds (in min) Per Group Per Night

(routine experience)RS

(routine experience)RB

Infant Sleep Development

Evolutionary

Family Ecology size, SES,ethnicity,beliefs, psychologicalconstellation

ExperimentalEcology..how is sleep

studied?(solitary, bottle fed)

infant needs/characteristics in relationshipto parental emotions, responses

?

Cultural Ecologyphysical settingvalues, ideologymedical viewssocioeconomics

Normal Infant Sleep? Dis-articulated from

mother’s body... Breast feeding? Touch? Olfactory cues/ Movement cues? Rhythms /”zeitgeber” Maternal-Induced arousals

& regulation?