As a society are we returning to our animal origins? Couple of examples which seem to be very similar to the animal world: It is now fully acceptable for mothers to have kids by several different fathers and for none of the fathers to play any role in their kids lives. This seems to be on the increase and seems very similar to the role of roving males. Women now place more emphasis on their mates than on their partner. Again it seems that the instinct to protect the kids and gather a strong sisterhood is an overriding urge and males are only used for procreation. Just me or is society moving to a more traditional animal behaviour when it comes to relationships? I do appreciate that they have always been similar in a lot of respects but the examples above always held us different from them.
No, I just think that we are embracing the animal aspect that is always there... we have been egoistic to create a disparity between ourselves and non-human animals - considering that we shre so much of our behaviour with them Evolution isn't exactly an old theory, and as it becomes more institutionalised in our thought I wouldn't expect to find more revelations whereby we come to understand our behaviour as a result of our animal nature. Yes, animal nature - not roots, we are still animals
I don't think we've ever altered from when we stepped out of the water. We like to think we have and put ourselves above the rest of the animal kingdom but while we judge another human animal by their sex, age, colour, race, hair colour, size etc then we'll always be on the same rung.
No, I think there are important reasons why we do judge people by the way they appear... we are constantly judging people to see whether we will get on with them, whether they are a threat etc... We pay more attention to someone's body language than their physical appearance and for good reason - there are things you can tell about a person within about 3 seconds of meeting them. The only problem comes when you want to completely write someone off, or big someone up on the basis of those 3 seconds...
Actually it could be argued we are moving away from our traditional behaviour and thereby becoming more animalistic. Depending on who you believe it has been suggested that we evolved our socialiseation process in very kin-centric communites that relied on the man/woman LT partnership to raise children (humans take a LONG time to reach a stage of self-survival compared to other animals, so 2+ adults are ideal). Breakdown of society has destroyed the socialisation process, hence the 'animalistic' behaviour described, and others such as quasi-ferral gangs of children.
CBS sums it up matey....we are indeed animals at the core and the "traditional behaviour" you advocate is in fact a recent (five hundred years) phenomonen in mankind's search for the "higher" plain. We now refuse to associate ourselves with animals because we believe we are better than them due to our sentient behaviours. Many animals I believe display similar behaviours (Dolphins have names for each other if you believe today's reports? ) but we are so pig headed that we fail to see the similarities of relationships between ourselves and the "animal" world. I for one will be voting for Skippy for the next PM of the UK!!
Bar, I have never thought if such trends in that way but now you have mentioned it I follow your logic. Perhaps we have been falttering ourselves that we are more developed than the rest of the animal kingdom, sadly most of us are not. Humans (well those that discuss such issues) are burdened with the capacity to analyse their actions and the consequences of them but will find it very difficult or almost impossible to resist instinct. I think we also have to take into account the demographic changes and the engineered undermining of our society as a whole. Feminism, human rights, the emancipation of the traditional male role have all contributed to these problems and may have more of an influence than devolution.
I would call it a natural breakdown of social controls that were developed to encourage us away from our animal behaviour and bring out a more civilised human side. I believe it is inevitable that over time, such social controls will wane and the animal side will emerge once more. A society with a highly-developed social structure will inevitably become decadent and corrupted, by virtue of the fact that the forces that led it there have been annhilated by the same highly-developed social structure. As such, that structure collapses and chaos emerges, until the forces swing back to bring the order again. I believe the behaviour that the OP has observed are signs that our society has peaked and is now beginning to break apart under the weight of its social corruption, decadence, apathy, greed and lack of direction.
That could be the next "jedi" style popular protest. Somebody start a "Skippy the Bush Kangaroo" party, and let's all vote for it
It will be interesting to see what else changes within our society. Will we move back to a more dominant aggresive male hierarchy with the return of a strong alpha. To a limited extent you are seeing this with the increase in gangs and as mentioned earlier "feral kids" Is gang culture set to become even more commonplace than it currently is?
Im not sure 'alphaism' and 'male domination' are really evolutionary and animal traits... I just think that there are a lot of evolutionists who would like to think of themselves that way... I think that the female is capable of weilding as much power, otherwise men wouldn't have to struggle to opress women in many parts of the world...
I don't think it's an accurate generalisation to say that all early human societies had a strong alpha male and hierarchy type structure.
