Social Bonding and Nurture Kinship: Compatibility between Cultural and Biological Approaches is a book on human kinship and social behavior by Maximilian Holland, published in 2012. The work synthesizes the perspectives of evolutionary biology, psychology and sociocultural anthropology towards understanding human social bonding and cooperative behavior. It presents a theoretical treatment that many consider to have resolved longstanding questions about the proper place of genetic (or 'blood') connections in human kinship and social relations, and a synthesis that "should inspire more nuanced ventures in applying Darwinian approaches to sociocultural anthropology".Philip Kitcher comment (book cover), see https://www.amazon.com/Social-Bonding-Nurture-Kinship-Compatibility/dp/1480182001
The aim of the book is to show that "properly interpreted, cultural anthropology approaches (and ethnographic data) and biological approaches are perfectly compatible regarding processes of social bonding in humans." Holland's position is based on demonstrating that the dominant biological theory of social behavior (inclusive fitness theory) is typically misunderstood to predict that genetic ties are necessary for the expression of social behaviors, whereas in fact the theory only implicates genetic associations as necessary for the evolution of social behaviors. Whilst rigorous evolutionary biologists have long understood the distinction between these levels of analysis (see Tinbergen's four questions), past attempts to apply inclusive fitness theory to humans have often overlooked the distinction between evolution and expression.
Beyond its central argument, the broader philosophical implications of Holland's work are considered by commentators to be that it both "helps to untangle a long-standing disciplinary muddle"Robin Fox comment (book cover), see https://www.amazon.com/Social-Bonding-Nurture-Kinship-Compatibility/dp/1480182001 and "clarifies the relationship between biological and sociocultural approaches to human kinship."Sarah Hrdy comment (book description), see https://www.amazon.com/Social-Bonding-Nurture-Kinship-Compatibility/dp/1480182001 It is claimed that the book "demonstrates that an alternative non-deterministic interpretation of evolutionary biology is more compatible with actual human social behavior and with the frameworks that sociocultural anthropology employs"Kirk Endicott comment (book description), see https://www.amazon.com/Social-Bonding-Nurture-Kinship-Compatibility/dp/1480182001 and as a consequence, delivers "a convincing, solid and informed blow to the residual genetic determinism that still influences the interpretation of social behaviour."
Synopsis
The book's form consists of a cumulative argument (using a wide range of supporting evidence) made over nine chapters, with each chapter ending in a brief retrospective summary, and the final chapter containing a recapitulation and summary of the whole,This synopsis is based mainly on the book's chapter summaries and concluding chapter and drawing some wider conclusions.
Continuing debate over 'blood kinship'
Holland begins by tracing transitions in the history of anthropological theories of social behavior and kinship, noting the varying importance with which 'blood ties' have been understood to be a necessary element of human kinship and social relations. He suggests that whilst the mounting ethnographic evidence has led to a move away from the 'blood kinship' concept in recent decades, many sociocultural anthropologists still query the connection between kinship and blood, reproduction or some other apparently biological functions. Meanwhile, many biologists, biological anthropologists and evolutionary psychologists have persisted in viewing human kinship and cooperative behavior as necessarily associated with genetic relationships and 'blood ties'. The current situation has been characterized as "a clash between incommensurate paradigms, holding as they may, completely incompatible ideas about human nature."Philip Thomas comment (book cover), see https://www.amazon.com/Social-Bonding-Nurture-Kinship-Compatibility/dp/1480182001 Holland argues that a clear resolution to these questions is still outstanding, and would therefore be of value. In closing the introduction, Holland writes; "The approach is not reductive. The claim is rather that a thorough investigation of the 'biological facts' can be useful mainly though allowing a change in focus... away from confusion about the place of genealogy in social ties, and onto a reformulated baseline, built around varied processual aspects of social bonding."
Evolutionary biology theory of social behavior
The book reviews the background and key elements of Hamilton's inclusive fitness theory from the 1960s onwards, setting out its significant conceptual and heuristic value. Holland notes that Hamilton acknowledged that his earliest and most widely known account (1964) contained technical inaccuracies. He also notes Hamilton's early speculations about possible proximate mechanisms of the expression of social behavior (supergenes as a possible alternative to behaviour-evoking-situations) contained errors that have nevertheless remained very influential in popular accounts. Specifically, the supergenes notion (sometimes called the Green-beard effect) - that organisms may evolve genes that are able to identify identical copies in others and preferentially direct social behaviours towards them - was theoretically clarified and withdrawn by Hamilton in 1987. However, in the intervening years, the notion that supergenes (or more often, simply individual organisms) have evolved to identify genetic relatives and preferentially cooperate with them took hold, and became the way many biologists came to understand the theory. This persisted, despite Hamilton's 1987 correction. In Holland's view it is the pervasiveness of this longstanding but erroneous perspective, and the suppression of the alternative 'behaviour-evoking-situations' perspective regarding social expression mechanisms, that is largely responsible for the ongoing clash between biological and sociocultural approaches to human kinship.
Sociobiology and kinship
Holland shows that, in the 1970s and 80s, the first wave of attempts (known as human sociobiology or Darwinian anthropology) to apply inclusive fitness theory to human social behavior relied on, and further reinforced, this same misinterpretation (above section) about the theory's predictions and the proximate mechanisms of social behavior. Holland also shows that this period of research was burdened with many misplaced assumptions about universal attributes of the human sexes, sexuality and gender roles, apparently projected from the specific cultural values of the researchers themselves. Holland also shows that, following the perceived failures of this early wave, and particularly its methodological agnosticism regarding proximate mechanisms of social behavior, the evolutionary psychology school grew up in its place. Although this latter school typically avoided engaging with the ethnographic data on human kinship, Holland argues that in the few cases where it did so, it repeated the misinterpretation of inclusive fitness theory that characterized the first wave. Holland also notes that Philip Kitcher, in his 1985 critique of the sociobiological position, suggested that perhaps the expression of social behaviors in humans might quite simply be based on cues of context and familiarity, rather than genetic relatedness per se.
Proximate mechanisms and 'kin recognition'
Chapters four and five investigate further the theory and evidence surrounding the proximate mechanisms of social behavior; specifically the question of whether social behaviors are expressed by organisms via behaviour-evoking-situations or via direct detection of actual genetic relatedness. Related questions have been the domain of kin recognition theory. Holland notes that the name 'kin recognition' itself suggests some expectation that a positive identification of genetic relatedness is a prediction of inclusive fitness theory, and is thus expected. Similar points have been made by others; "many behavioural ecologists seem to implicitly assume that specialised mechanisms allowing individuals to distinguish their kin from non-kin must have evolved." Again, the possibility that behaviour-evoking-situations might be the more parsimonious: "Altruistic or selfish acts are only possible when a suitable social object is available. In this sense behaviours are conditional from the start." mechanism of the expression of social behavior, and fully compatible with inclusive fitness theory, has often been underemphasized. However, Holland's review of the evidence notes that field studies in this area quickly established that behaviour-evoking-situations do in fact overwhelmingly mediate social behaviours in those species studied, and that, particularly in mammal species, social bonding and familiarity formed in early developmental contexts (e.g. in burrows or nesting sites) are a common mediating mechanism for social behaviors, independently of genetic relatedness per se. On the basis of the preceding theoretical analysis and review of evidence, at the end of chapter five, Holland argues that; It is entirely erroneous, both in reference to theory and in reference to the evidence, to claim or suggest that 'the facts of biology' support the claim that organisms have evolved to cooperate with genetic relatives per se.
Primate social bonding and attachment theory
Having argued for the above position on the lack of necessity for genetic relatedness per se to mediate social bonding and behavior, Holland suggests that "The further question then is; can we uncover in any greater detail how familiarity and other context-dependent cues operate?". To discover the extent to which the variety of human kinship behaviors may nevertheless be compatible with this (less deterministic) interpretation of biological theory of social behavior, Holland suggests that a survey of primates' most fundamental social patterns may give clues, especially those of species most closely connected with humans. The variety of primate mating systems, group-membership ('philopatry') patterns, and life-cycle patterns are reviewed. Holland finds that;
Like other mammals, Catarrhini primate demographics are strongly influenced by ecological conditions, particularly density and distribution of food sources... Cohesive social groups and delayed natal dispersal mean that maternally related individuals, including maternal siblings, face a statistically reliable context of interaction in all Catarrhini primates. This reliable context of interaction with maternally related individuals is extended amongst those species with female philopatry (especially Cercopithecinae).
As with other social mammals, evidence suggest that the reliability of 'behaviour-evoking-situations' this social context provides has shaped the mechanisms of proximate expression of social bonding and behavior;
Adoption of infants by females (and sometimes males) demonstrates that care-giving and bonding to infants is not mediated by positive powers of discrimination. From the infant's perspective, it will bond with any responsive carer. If not necessarily the actual mother, in natural conditions this will often be a maternal relative (particularly an older sibling), but the context is primary, not the actual relatedness. Similarly, social bonding and social behaviours between maternal siblings (and occasionally between other maternal relatives) is context-driven in primates, and mediated via the care-giver.
Holland also notes how Bowlby and colleagues' attachment theory was strongly informed by primate bonding patterns and mechanisms, and that in Bowlby's later writing the then emerging inclusive fitness theory was explicitly linked to.