Sociobiology Then and Now

Chapter 1 of The New Synthesis was entitled "The Morality of the Gene."In that chapter, Edward O. Wilson laid out the definition of sociobiology as the systematic study of the biological basis of all social behavior.As written, no one could disagree with attempting to implement that research program.Clearly, social behavior has a biological basis.This is illustrated by the fact that social behavior did not evolve in all taxa.Prominent examples of taxa with social behavior include the Hymenoptera (ants, bees, and wasps) and the Chordates (e.g., birds and mammals).Simple animals such as Cnidarians (jelly fish, anemones) usually do not display social behavior.Scientists and society could have benefitted from a rigorous and unbiased examination of the biological contributions to social behavior.With a better understanding of social behavior, we could also better understand how past and current societies operate. 1 However, the problem with Wilson's vision as it was laid out in The New Synthesis was its reliance on a series of non-testable mechanisms driven by genetic determinist assumptions and a series of "just-so stories" of adaptation. 2 In addition to these foundational problems, the book suffered from its Eurocentrism and patriarchy, which stood out even for the time period.One of the main points criticized by the Sociobiology Study Group (SSG) was Wilson's overestimation of the genetic contributions to complex