There were no solutions to these puzzles until anthropologists
started taking more seriously the fact that humans are by nature a
social species. What this means is that we are not just individuals
thrown together in social groups, trying to cope with the problems
this creates. We have sophisticated mental equipment, in the form of
special emotions and special ways of thinking, that is designed for
social life. And not just for social life in general but for the particular
kind of social interaction that humans create. Many animal species
have complex social arrangements, but each species has specific dispo-
sitions that make its particular arrangements possible. You will not
make gregarious chimpanzees out of naturally solitary orangutans, or [27]
turn philandering chimpanzees into monogamous gibbons. Obviously,
the social life of humans is more complex than the apes', but that is
because human social dispositions are more complex too. A human
brain is so designed that it includes what evolutionary biologists call a
particular form of "social intelligence" or a "social mind."
PROGRESS BOX 3:
RELIGION, MORALITY AND SOCIETY- Religion cannot be explained by the need
to keep society together or to preserve morality,
because these needs do not create institutions. - Social interaction and morality are indeed
crucial to how we acquire religion and how it
influences people's behavior. - A different angle: The study of the social
mind can show us why people have particular
expectations about social life and morality and
how these expectations are connected to their
supernatural concepts.
WHATISTHEORIGIN?