On May 23, 12:35 am, Dave Smith <
davidelliottsm...@btinternet.com>
wrote:
>
> Caring for one's family and kin, pair-bonding, co-operating with others, etc., are not signs of weakness they are signs of humanity.
>
I'm enjoying E.O.Wilson's book 'The Social Conquest of Earth', in
which he argues that altruism is one of the prerequisites for
eusociality. [Wilson translates 'eusocial' as 'true social', whilst I,
and the OED, understand it more as 'good social' {as 'euthanasia' is a
'good death'}]
Interestingly, Wilson sees the main trigger for the formation of a
eusocial species as a defensible, shared nest - many non-eusocial
creatures share characteristics, including altruism, without becoming
eusocial, few, if any, have defensible, shared nests.
I have been stuck by how important camp fires, or their equivalent (a
huddle of chairs around a fireplace or a bbq), are to humans, and it
makes sense as they're the original nests. I notice how, even in the
largest, most opulent, houses, the place where people actually spend
their social time is in a cosy nook less than three metres in
diameter. Apart from the smoke problem, the traditional Zulu beehive
hut seems to be the ideal structure.