Sociobiology, Human
The Darwinian Setting
Sociobiology is the term used to describe a relatively recent stage in the continuing development of evolutionary biology. It systematically brings the study of social behavior under the umbrella of the Synthetic Theory (or the Modern Synthesis) that, starting in the 1920s, arose from the marriage of Darwinian theory and Mendelian, or genetic, science (Huxley 1942). The most challenging aspect of the new elaboration concerns a decisive step into human behavior. Sociologists (and social scientists in general) have not responded with enthusiasm; the old anthropocentrism with its extreme stress on culture and socialization (environmentalism) is still dominant. Resistance, however, is slowly breaking down, and one may speak of a human sociobiology taking the form of "evolutionary anthropology," "evolutionary psychology," "evolutionary sociology", and so forth. It can even be stated that human sociobiology may represent the beginning of the long-desired synthesis of the social sciences. At the same time, the introduction of cultural parameters into evolutionary explanation may further enrich the modern synthesis.
The term "sociobiology" harks back to the mid-1940s, and the evolutionary study of behavior began to develop rapidly only in the 1960s. However, its roots can be traced back to Darwin's ([1859] 1958) theory of evolution by natural selection, still the cornerstone of evolutionary science.
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