The Second Generation

This chapter cites E.O. Wilson’s extremely influential and controversial book from the 1980s, Sociobiology: The New Synthesis. It talks about the inclusive fitness theory, which explained many aspects of animal and human behavior as strategies designed by evolution to maximize an individual organism’s genes in future generations. It also points out how Jane Goodall’s findings were not inconsistent with the emerging field of sociobiology, as she found it pointless to deny that humans harbor innate aggressive and violent tendencies. The chapter highlights the spread of the perspective on the evolutionary rationale behind “demonic males,” explaining how it plumbed the roots of social structure by seeking to explain it as a result of adaptations to maximize the reproductive success of the social individual. It reviews the main theory of chimpanzee violence and methodology that focused on formulating and testing narrow hypotheses.