Reply to Winterhalder's Behavioral and Other Human Ecologies: Critique, Response and Progress through Criticism

Introduction In anthropology, the primary goal is understanding the human condition, what makes humans human or explaining human variation and change. To critically assess what a given theory has to offer anthropological attempts to understand the human condition requires a detailed understanding of a theory and its components. For some it may seem that there is a contradiction between the goal of theory-building and that of holism. After all, theories often make generalizations and attempt to simplify in order to understand. However, holism, as a fundamental principle of anthropology, goes for the big picture. That is, holism emphasizes that in order to understand a cultural system one must understand the "relations," "webs," or "interactions" between different subsystems or institutions-social, political, economic, religious, etc. Holism is invaluable in guarding against overly facile theoretical conclusions that are based on partial or single aspects of the human condition. While holism does not prevent retaining elements of simplicity in understanding human variation and change, simplifications or theoretical generalizations should be consistent with general anthropological insights as to what it means to be human. Attention to scale is crucial, for some simplifications might only apply to interactions at particular levels of human social organization. And, sometimes, theoretical simplifications may turn out to be flawed. So what about Anthropological Evolutionary Behavioral Ecology (AEBE)? Theories or paradigms which rest on unverified assumptions and faulty premises are likely to produce questionable simplifications. In AEBE, many simplifications or generalizations about human behavior are based on unverified assumptions about optimality or adaptation. Similarly, theoretical interpretations of human behaviors rest on premises as to the meaning of "reproductive success" and the organism/environment dichotomy, which are untenable in human sociocultural systems. Theories which seek to establish a universal predictable human nature or identify a single currency (such as reproductive success) for understanding human behavior without seriously considering the role of culture and historical difference are especially prone to erroneous simplification. Likewise, theories that place primary emphasis on prediction are likely to be limited. Predictive success cannot be used as the principal criteria for evaluating a theory. The reason being that disparate theories often make similar predictions. The more important question is how well does the theory explain empirical observations? In order to address this question we must turn to the conceptual roster of theory. The question then becomes: does the theory have rich, well-developed or elaborated concepts and framework for explaining cultural and ecological difference? In the case of AEBE, the principal focus is on simple predictive models. No serious attention is given to the role of culture. Most empirical observations are interpreted in light of the biological process of natural selection. It is virtually impossible to challenge or contain adaptationist arguments in AEBE because adaptation is assumed. This means that explanations of successful predictions rest on functionalist reasoning. And because no strict conditions or rigorous requirements must be met before invoking adaptationism (the "theoretical safeguards" mentioned in Winterhalder's response do not hold up to careful scrutiny), adaptationist arguments are virtually unbounded or limitless. In short, the expansion of the domain of AEBE is almost limitless. Can such a theory contribute to our understanding of human variation and change? The likely answer is yes, in some ways; but its explanatory potential is likely to be rather limited, particularly when it comes to understanding human sociocultural systems. As a result, I conclude in this reply (as in my original critique) that it is necessary to delimit the domain of AEBE. …