The structure of origin stories
1. Introduction
- The Ideas of Nature chapter introduced the idea that interpretation exposes what is only implicit in an account. This chapter interprets story-telling, focusing on origin stories both outside science and inside.
- Story tellers select elements and arrange them in a sequence. Selection and arrangement simplify the complexity of influences needing to be considered to understand the outcome and cover over the uncertain or unknowable information. The story-teller not only gives emphasis or credence to the outcome, but can also try to make plausible the causality implied in the story.
- Stories are more compelling if they adopt a familiar structure and if they resonate with other stories.
- The influence of structural (or structuring) themes can be seen by identifying them and asking what would happen to the account if an opposing or alternative theme were employed.
- Playing one theme off against another and creating some interpretive tension is an example of critical thinking in the sense of understanding ideas or practice better by holding them in tension with alternatives.
- Origin stories are important because they are used to make sense of and often to justify the state of affairs we find ourselves in now.
- Many scientific accounts can be read as stories or narratives (Landau as described in Lewin), especially when
1. they attempt to deal with uncertain or unknowable information, e.g., in accounts of origins—meaning both the point of origin and the subsequent history—and evolution; or
2. with many connections and causes rather than a few experimentally controlled factors.
1b. Mini-lecture
- Initial questions: Why tell stories? How do stories get to be memorable and persuasive? Why are origins important? Why do we tell stories to explain origins?
- Examine first chapter of Genesis (King James version) to introduce the idea of looking for themes that structure biological accounts, especially those used to explain origins and the history of life.
- Additional question: Is story-telling an acceptable part of science?
- An invented account of the origin of human intelligence that employs non-standard structuring themes.
2. Readings
Hrdy, S. B. (1981). "An Initial Inequality". Pp. 20-23 in The Woman That Never Evolved. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press
- Precis TBA
- Precis TBA
- Precis TBA
- Locate 1 or 2 accounts in textbooks or elsewhere of either a) sperm and egg production; b) the passage to fertilization; or c) contact and fusion. Do the accounts you find reinforce or depart from Martin’s analysis of gender bias? Do they fit Landau’s structure of stories told about human evolution (as described in Lewin)? Come to class prepared to discuss these questions.
- Come with ideas and questions about how to extract the themes that structure Hrdy's account of the origin of sex differences.
3. Activity
Based on preparation above, pairwise discussion of Martin's interpretation and analysis of structure of Hrdy, followed by whole-class discussion.
(Time permitting) Given that sometimes we describe our lives in a linear narrative; sometimes we emphasize its multiple strands, contingency, etc., reflect on the different situations in which you use the different themes to organize your life descriptions.
4. Synthesis and extensions
Why do we tell stories?
- See introduction. More answers: TBA.
- One answer is when they are biased in ways we accept (see discussion of bias). More answers: TBA.
- Why not simply start from where you are? Possible answer: Because origins connect the present to the future, that is, to who we are and where we are going. That is, origin stories can be read as explanations and explanations as justifications.
- TBA
| Structural themes in stories /narratives /historical accounts Stories are more compelling if they adopt a familiar structure (see Landau's structuralist account) and if they resonate with other stories (the hermeneutic emphasis). Identifying the structural themes and noticing connections between parts highlights the causation implied and perhaps exposes weaknesses in the account. For example, Hrdy’s uses four dualities that at first seem to reinforce each other—large/small cell, egg/sperm, “female”/”male” unicell, female/male mammal—but then allow us to ask what is anything the relationship is say between a sperm and a male. After all, sperm can carry an X or a Y chromosome. To pursue critical thinking around structural themes, use the pairings to reflect on how the story could appear if the other theme in the pair had been emphasized.
A. In each of the following the first theme is more common in biology and allied social thinking, while the second is an alternative that is more open and difficult to analyze: 1. linearity one person or entity is the central subject followed through the course of the story, inc. life course maturation;. (A chain of if-then connections does not necessarily make a narrative linear because the story can be weaving together several different types of phenomena, i.e. not just following one entity.) vs. multiple strands (in the one story -- multiple explanations of the same phenomenon don’t necessarily make an account non-linear.) (Even if different phenomena enter the story without much background being given to them, consider what they entail. For example, in the speculative account of the origin of human intelligence the basic tendency of primates to be social was assumed in having the early humans stay and care for the premature babies, rather than leaving them to die. This then constitutes another strand woven into the story ) 2. development - unfolding - essential trajectory everything, including the endpoint, is implied from the outset -- if you have an egg you'll eventually get an adult chicken -- if you have a society you'll inevitably have it modernize, democratize, etc. Of course, not everything fits, but the deviations are mere deviations from the ideal course. vs. critical interventions along the way (by Gods, heroes, random mutations) move things along 3. progress everything is climbing ever higher, getting better, or the opposite, regress -- everything is getting worse, declining from the Golden Age of the past. vs. simply change most of what happens doesn't contribute to the final outcome, e.g. Ediacaran fauna & Burgess shale do not contribute genealogically to present taxa 4. directional, even determined very few steps from start to outcome, or very few opportunities for anything different to have happened. Includes Whig history (= the past is presented so that the present is made to seem a necessary consequence of it ) -- it's hard to see any other directions things could have gone (side-branches, failures, etc.) vs. contingent and thus winding, branching path -- lots of places for things to have gone another way - dicey connections between events and “quirky changes” (the path to the end-point is windy, not direct) 5. adapted, fit to situation current function seems so good, even optimal or perfect, that the story doesn't have to fill in much history of how it came to be vs. constructed many strands come together or coalesce to produce an outcome, which is thus open to change at many points in the process. “Characters = genes plus environment” is a very weak form of construction, especially if the central thread of the story is genetic, leaving the environment just a modifier of the result. 6. gradual & continuous steady accumulation:"evolution not revolution" vs. episodic, even catastrophic bursts of activity or happenings, e.g. Cambrian radiation, post-Mesozoic radiations of birds and mammals 7. naturalism human social behavior and arrangements are natural, i.e. do not need specifically social explanation vs. humanism explain humans in specifically human terms (see also B8 below). 8. dualisms categories come in pairs (e.g., homosexual/heterosexual; male/female) vs. multiplicities divisions into two types obscures a lot of diversity (e.g., variants of sexual preference) B. In each of the following the themes are equally common and often co-exist in tension within the one account (we’ll say more about these themes in later classes): 1. uniformityinsist on invoking the same causes then (in the past) as you see now vs. historically located unique causes, or causes that need reference to the particular situation and timing, i.e., events wouldn't be true in all times or places 2. balance of nature(see also adapted, stability) vs. struggle for existence necessarily involving sub-optimality and imperfection (at least transiently) 3. fixed, stable places, niches vs. scramble for a place 4. stable equilibrium vs. change 5. biological causes of changing conditions of life vs. physical/ climatic determination 6. Nature integrated, like an organism vs. aggregate of individuals 7. Nature passive vs. active, creative 8. anthropomorphism depicting non-humans (living or non-living) in terms of human motivations, emotions, social arrangements, etc. vs. naturalism human social behavior and arrangements follow the same rules as the rest of nature. (These themes can reinforce each other if the idea of what’s natural is anthropomorphized.) 9. Parallels and borrowing (e.g., Hrdy’s small/large cell = sperm/egg = male/female mammals) vs. Unique and singular (e.g., explaining differentiation of cell size in ancient unicells, anisogamy in germ cells, and size-activity differentials in mammals each by different means) |
An invented account of the origin of human intelligence that employs non-standard structuring themes.
As a preliminary, keep in mind that in placental mammals most neural connections are made before birth.
- In a small group of our hominid ancestors a mutation that affected developmental timing occurred and spread by genetic drift through the group. The effect of this mutation was to prolong the period, characteristic of mammalian fetuses, in which relative growth rate of the brain is greater than the growth rate of the body. The immediate effect of this was to increase the brain size at birth making births more difficult than before. Individuals who were born early and thus smaller (and their mothers) tended to survive better. The premature individuals, however, needed care -- they weren't able to hang on for themselves, move around, and so on for some months. Their caregivers tended to remain more on the ground and more sedentary during this time, enhancing both the level of face-to-face interaction (the parents’ hands being free from holding on to branches) and the level of social interaction involving and surrounding the babies. The babies having been born premature, however, meant that this was just the period when neural connections were being set down. The neural connections then reflected this high level of social interaction, whereas other placental fetuses experience mostly the physical environment of the womb while their connections are being set down. The sophistication and flexibility of these post-birth neural connections accounts for human intelligence.
S. B. Hrdy
Origin of size difference
Chance size difference in single cell gametes
-> 2 types
| ......................Large ... |
...Small |
| .........Competition ........for resources |
...........Competition ...........for access ... |
| Even larger |
...................Smaller & maneuverable |
= ground rules for males & females*
| "Hardier"...................................... |
"con-artist" "preying" "taking hostage" |
Fusion -> sexual recombination -> Hedge against fluctuations
- * Size difference among males & females occurs in whole organisms, so why does the egg-sperm difference show anything about sexual differences?
- Moreover, sperm and egg are not male & female. (Indeed, in mammals, sperm determines sex.)
- Why not stay big in the competition?
- Why not fuse two big cells to get through hard times?
- Why fuse at all?
- Is this story only relevant to sexual organisms? What fraction of species are sexual?
- Is the hedge against fluctuations accepted as explanation of why sex? (Alternatives?)
An activity: Refer to the structural themes above to analyze E.O. Wilson's (1980, 279) story about the evolution of human homosexuality, which is preceded and followed by other points relevant to his account, http://bit.ly/XHsxgi (starting end of first column).
| I. Bias has a range of associations Let us distinguish bias and Bias bias 1. X's bias leads them to accept assumptions and propositions without examining alternatives. 2. The assumptions and propositions are one set of elements in the construction of scientific knowledge from many elements building upon each other. That is, all work is biased. (Image: biased bowls) vs. Experimental tests and peer review eliminate bias in science. (This view assumes, incorrectly, that all alternatives are raised and considered in normal science.) 3. 1=> Use the assertion that X is biased to counterpose alternative, and ask what difference it makes in examples cited, observations made, arguments addressed and conclusions reached. That is, bias, provides an entry point for further investigation. 4. 2=> We should not expect bias to determine the outcome. 5. 2=> Changing biased work will require changing many interconnected elements. vs. Bias 6. Bias = accusation that X's bias is determining, that changing it would make all the difference, because everything is built upon that. 7. Accusations of Bias arise in two ways:
Which biases should we identify and work through?
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5. Connections and resources
5b. Add to this blog post to make contributions to the revision of the chapter above or to an annotated collection of readings and other resources related to the chapter.
5c. Adaptation of themes from the chapter to students' own projects of engaging others in learning or critical thinking about biology in its social context. Suggestions:
i. Identify the leading or dominant explanation or account of some issue that is important in the area of your project. Identify the structural themes used. Invent an alternative account that emphasizes the alternatives to the structural themes. e.g., emphasizing the key role of contingency instead of a directional account.
ii. Same as i, but instead of inventing the alternative, look for one already published or promoted by someone in the area.
iii. Brainstorm with instructor