Sociobiology and the Roots of Human Social Systems

     In Edward O. Wilson's Sociobiology, he stated that humans have 2-5 million sweat glands, far more than any other primate, helping us become distinctly adaptive to bipedalism since we could move longer distances than others in our family tree.  It helped me realize that sweating profusely is nothing to be ashamed of; in fact, people who sweat more readily have a superior trait in our evolutionary branch.  People who sweat more can survive in extreme environments like excessive heat or food scarcity, which requires further migration.  While our culture seems to shame sweat with expressions of disgust, I wear it like a badge on my sleeve.  When I'm running or working hard, I don't care what others think.  I'm content to show the world how strong this necessity of human survival is in me.

    The book itself seems to have caused a rift in the sciences, as it rightly suggests a biological basis for some of the more nefarious human behaviors.  The social sciences in particular (psychology, sociology) take issue with the postulate that genes determine most of our behavior, socially and individually.  Though I majored in social sciences, I'm not going to let it influence my judgment on the matter.  I believe much of our behavior can be explained the same way animal behavior can, since we all developed along similar lines and we all came from the same ancestor species.  But humans are so marvelously diverse that biology can't explain all behavior- environments certainly can as well.  

    It's just that as social creatures, it's important to consider the roots of anthropological and political order, thus I feel we must heavily consider the information in this book when investigating how civilization became the way it is, with its hierarchical structures and dog-eat-dog mentalities, with so much inequality that it's a miracle we can see our sociological habits as any more superior than insects.  We are truly a a classic example of evolutionary convergence, where our social habits have strangely emerged to mimic ants and bees.  We create hierarchies and network the same way they do; we build and destroy, claim property and wage war and build cities like ant colonies; we follow each other in line, excavating and consuming resources like there's no tomorrow; all to feed our miraculous amount of nervous energy; and like them, we are far stronger than our small stature would indicate.