Christopher Boehm > Quotes

“When Netsilik Eskimos must either undergo a long migration or starve, the number of dogs they can feed limits what they can carry on their sleds and how fast they can travel. If there are old people too infirm to carry their own weight, they cannot be put on a sled at the expense of equipment that is necessary to a family's survival. Generous feelings based on nepotism or altruism must be set aside; these unfortunates are sadly allowed to freeze to death (Balikci 1970).”
― Christopher Boehm, Hierarchy in the Forest: The Evolution of Egalitarian Behavior

“What well-internalized moral values and rules do is to slow us down sufficiently that we are able, to a considerable extent, to pick and choose which behaviors we care to exhibit before our peers. As a result, most of our self-interested acts don’t become so predatory or antisocial that we’re likely to be discovered and severely punished—with our fitness ultimately being damaged.”
― Christopher Boehm, Moral Origins: The Evolution of Virtue, Altruism, and Shame

“As Goblin rushes forward to reconnoiter, Mustard approaches him with a large fear-grin and tries to embrace him for reassurance. Goblin moves forward quickly to a vantage spot to peer across the valley, and Mustard now emulates him. As Goblin (alpha), Satan (number two), and Evered (number three) scan the valley, they break off several times to look at one another quickly. After nearly 60 seconds Goblin suddenly makes his decision, and begins to vocalize and display. The entire group, which includes adolescents Freud and Beethoven, immediately follows suit, and the result is the usual one: both groups vocalize and display ferociously, then slowly retreat into their home ranges.”
― Christopher Boehm, Hierarchy in the Forest: The Evolution of Egalitarian Behavior

“all human groups frown on, make pronouncements against, and punish the following: murder, undue use of authority, cheating that harms group cooperation, major lying, theft, and socially disruptive sexual behavior. These basic rules of conduct appear to be human universals.”
― Christopher Boehm, Moral Origins: The Evolution of Virtue, Altruism, and Shame

“All over the world, mobile hunter-gatherers use social control guided by moral rules to see to it that when a successful hunter kills a large mammal, his ego is held in check.”
― Christopher Boehm, Moral Origins: The Evolution of Virtue, Altruism, and Shame

“an efficient evolutionary conscience is one that lets us express ourselves socially in ways that help us to both keep ourselves out of trouble and get ahead in life.”
― Christopher Boehm, Moral Origins: The Evolution of Virtue, Altruism, and Shame

“Chimpanzees have a graded call system (Marler 1969), which means that certain calls can and do mutate into other calls along an acoustical continuum. For example, a scream can grade, gradually or quickly, into a waa. When a chimpanzee screams, air is expelled from the vocal cavity as the animal's lips are drawn back to expose the teeth; this amounts to a fear-grin, which is hard wired. The vocalization has a high, thin, bleating quality, which tends to be continuous except when air intake is necessary. (Orthographically, this vocalic production can be roughly represented by ee, as in "see.") By contrast, a waa involves expelling air while the lips are pursed, and an "ah-like" vowel is voiced.”
― Christopher Boehm, Hierarchy in the Forest: The Evolution of Egalitarian Behavior

“The first fossil with a definite and undisputed claim to human ancestorhood is Homo erectus,42 for some time a contemporary of these later upright apes. Erectus appeared before 1.8 MYA”
― Christopher Boehm, Moral Origins: The Evolution of Virtue, Altruism, and Shame