-Caveat Lector- Wilson rattles historians with 'bio-history' theories By Gareth Cook, Globe Staff, 1/16/2001 http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/016/science/Wilson_rattles_historians_with_bio_history_theories+.shtml History is no longer just the study of war and peace, of politicians and economics. If the next generation of historians hopes to understand the driving forces of humanity, they need to know the principles of ecology, population genetics and even molecular biology. That was the message that Harvard University professor E.O. Wilson, a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner and one of America's leading intellectuals, delivered to a somewhat skeptical audience of the nation's historians, gathered recently in one of the mirrored ballrooms of the Sheraton hotel in Boston. One cannot know history, Wilson said, without knowing how human nature was shaped by hundreds of thousands of years of ''deep history.'' Wilson predicted that, armed with the latest insights from the sciences, ''a whole new generation of scholars will surprise us'' with answers to puzzles that have long bothered historians. Already researchers are finding patterns in the frequency and magnitude of wars and the jittery leaps and falls of economies. And biologists are uncovering the evolutionary roots of warfare and the types of alliances and betrayals that drive politics and palace intrigue. This is the stuff of history. Indeed, that the American Historical Association, holding its 115th annual meeting in town this month, would sponsor a session on ''bio-history'' was another sign that scientific insights are playing an increasingly influential role in the humanities, scholars said. Even the study of English literature, seemingly far from the purview of the scientific method, has been shaken up by new statistical techniques that can identify the authors of poems and novels written anonymously. But as science has made inroads, it has also brought anger - Wilson once had a pitcher of ice water dumped on him at a conference - and charges that scientists, made arrogant and giddy by the stunning advances of the last three decades, have come to believe that, eventually, they will be able to explain everything. Understanding the biological roots of behavior ''may eventually get you a long way with individuals, for biographies,'' said Daniel J. Kevles, a historian of science who spoke from his office as a visiting professor at Yale University. But ''it will [still] be impossible to understand how large groups like nation states behave'' because the calculations involved would be hopelessly complicated. ''I don't think you need biology to understand the origins of World War II,'' Kevles added. But bringing biological insight to other fields, in sometimes surprising ways, has been Wilson's life work. Inspired by a childhood watching the intricate behavior of ants and other creatures, Wilson built a career in biology and, in 1975, he changed the field. With the book, ''Sociobiology,'' published to both acclaim and ridicule that year, he argued that human behavior could be understood by studying our animal brethren and explained, in part, by our genetic inheritence. With ''bio-history,'' Wilson and his sympathizers say that, far from trying to start a new academic war, they are trying to bring together disparate disciplines that aren't usually on speaking terms. For example, it wasn't long ago that historians were grappling with a seemingly simple question: Why did Europeans develop sophisticated technology and invade the Americas, instead of the other way around? Then, in his 1997 book, ''Guns, Germs, and Steel,'' UCLA School of Medicine professor Jared Diamond argued that one of the explanations was ecological. Europe was home to far more plants and animals (such as pigs and cereals) that were easy to domesticate, making agriculture - and thus the kind of civilization that brings rapid technological advance - move much faster. More controversial among historians, especially liberal historians, has been the suggestion that there is a human nature, with instincts and predilections honed in the Stone Age, that powerfully shapes the flow of history. Wilson cited several examples of cultural patterns, such as the way people describe color or the incest taboo, that seem the same across the planet. These same patterns can affect how people from kings to slaves to revolutionaries behave, and how, over time, societies reinvent themselves. In a book called ''Ubiquity'' to be published in the United States this year, physicist Mark Buchanan argues that many phenomena, from earthquakes to financial markets to wars, obey a mathematical law called a ''power law'' that precisely describes how likely events of a certain magnitude are. This law makes it possible to predict how, over time, a system will behave, but not when a particular event - be it a war or an earthquake - will happen. His work is an outgrowth of what is known as ''chaos theory,'' a relatively new branch of mathematics that describes the functioning of seemingly random systems where little actions can have big effects. On a snow-covered mountain, for example, a slight shift in the wind could do nothing, or it could cause an avalanche. And, he added, ''revolutions in knowledge'' also seem to follow this pattern. ''Every once in a while someone says, `We're not going to make progress unless we ditch a few of our old ideas,''' Buchanan said. ''And if the idea hits just the right spot, it sets off an avalanche of new ideas.'' Scientists like Wilson think they hear a rumbling from the mountaintops. This story ran on page F03 of the Boston Globe on 1/16/2001. © Copyright 2001 Globe Newspaper Company. This was distributed via the memetics list associated with the Journal of Memetics - Evolutionary Models of Information Transmission For information about the journal and the list (e.g. unsubscribing) see: http://www.cpm.mmu.ac.uk/jom-emit <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/">www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'—with its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright frauds—is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. 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