Customer Reviews

That Complex Whole: Culture And The Evolution Of Human Behavior

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This graceful and well written book tries to do two things. First, he reviews an extensive body of modern behavioral ecology. If you've never encountered the treatment of culture in contemporary evolutionary psychology, behavioral ecology, or biological anthropology, this book provides a very nice introduction. Second, Cronk argues that behavioral ecologists have understated the role of culture, and suggests how it be integrated into an overall theory of human behavior.

Towards the first goal, Cronk opposes the traditional notion in cultural anthropology and structural-functional sociology that holds that people's actions and values are reflections of the dominant culture. In Chapter 1, he gives several elegant examples of how people affirm their culture, while at the same time behaving in ways quite contrary to its dictates. In Chapter 2 he reviews the evidence that there is a universal human culture, and that it is rooted in human biology. The evidence is impressive and strong. In Chapter 3 he argues for the unity of the behavioral sciences around the coevolution of human genes and culture, and the marginalization of ethical philosophy that results from increasing scientific knowledge of human behavior. He illustrates this in Chapter 4 with a review on the universalities and particularities of human mating patterns, on which there is much evidence, most of which is quite hostile to the traditional notion that humans are highly manipulable through the proper acculturation. In perhaps the most original chapter in the book, Chapter 7, he argues that traditional cultural relativism is a vicious enemy of freedom, thus turning a traditional critique of sociobiology on its head. I am in complete agreement with him here.

Cronk begins his own approach with a review of memetics, which is an evolutionary model of cultural diffusion. I think memetics is incurably fuzzy and quite useless for analytical purposes (mostly because it provides no theory of when memes spread and when they die out), but Cronk is a bit more tolerant. In Chapter 5, he provides his own theory of culture, which is that culture is a set of tools that people use to achieve their own ends. In this approach, people are active participants in making their lives, not the passive dupes who simply play out their culturally-dictated roles, as in most of traditional social theory. I am partial to this view. Indeed, I wrote a long article on the subject in 1981, and it appears front and center in Samuel Bowles and my Democracy and Capitalism (Basic Books, 1985).

I have two criticisms of the book. First, culture is not merely a tool. It also sets up conventions that give rise to what game theorists call Nash equilibria, in which, given the behavior of others, one's optimal behavior is quite narrowly truncated. This 'conventional' notion of culture must appear along side and instrumental view of culture. Second, I think we need analytical, mathematical models of behavior, without which all the theorizing in the world is just so much talk. Cronk doesn't go into this side of behavioral ecology, and in particular does not do justice to Boyd and Richerson, Cavalli-Sforza and Feldman, and others who try to model gene-culture coevolution.

This short (130 page) book convincingly argues that culture must be taken into account when studying human behavior from an evolutionary perspective. Cronk supports his thesis with well-chosen examples, including references to the Mukogodo, former hunter-gatherers of Kenya with whom he conducts research. His views on the integration of the study of human behavior with the sciences generally, and the role of biology in underlying a universal ethics ("it is not clear that it is a sound basis on which to develop a system of ethics or that it truly offers us any way around the problem of cultural relativism"), should interest many. One issue I wish had been addressed more, however, is the difficulty of comparing human behavior with that of other species (chimpanzees, etc.) if culture is taken into consideration.

This is an intelligent, well thought out defense of integrating evolutionary biology into cultural antropology. Without any apparent ideological ax to grind, Lee Cronk presents a balanced, witty, and ultimately compelling case for a careful combining of these two frequently competing disciplines. The book is short (only 130 pages) so its argumants are condensed into brief, clear paragraphs followed by a wonderful array of delightful examples. Here are few of the examples used by Cronk.

Mukogodo tribes people of Kenya, studied by Cronk and his wife, profess equal affection and value for their sons and daughters but give far better care to their daughters because they are worth cattle and sheep as brideswealth.

Male scorpionflies use dead insects as gift-food for female scorpionflies to gain mating but will use saliva on a leaf or physical force if no dead insect is available.

Cronk and his wife speak Swahili. So when a Nike commercial had a Samburu warrior statement translated as, "Just do it," they understood that he really said, "I don't want these. Give me big shoes." Cronk's correct translation got into the media and he spent a fun week of interviews. Nike gave Cronk a free pair of hiking boots for all the free publicity.

Tanka women of Hong Kong only nurse their infants with the right breast. In their old age, cancer is rare in the right breast but equal to high western rates in the left breast.

I hope I have tempted you to try this book. It has a very serious purpose and makes a strong case for one side of an academic argument that has gone on for 20 years. But it is very well written, accessible to the general reader, and has lots of wonderful stories to boot.

`That Complex Whole' works on several levels both within the field of anthropology and for readers outside of the field. Within anthropology, I can think of at least three levels: as a meaningful springboard for discourse among professional anthropologists, as a tool for graduate students in anthropology who seek to understand the history and complexities of their field, as a resource for undergraduates who are discovering ways to study human behavior. In addition to anthropologists, biologists interested in the evolution of human behavior will also be enlightened by this book. Anyone interested in human behavior will find they can understand the topic as it is described in this book. Cronk uses examples from science fiction and popular culture that illuminate his points in a funny, sometimes laugh-out-loud way. The book invites you to think about science, human behavior, biology, and evolution in new ways. I highly recommend it.

Received this book for Christmas and am trying to decide how many to order for gifts! Not just for scientists or anthropologists, but spellbinding for anyone interested in or sometimes puzzled by human behavior.

Whoa! Has anyone ever read this book? I don't think s