Man and Beast: Comparative Social Behavior.

What are the physiological and behavioral mechanisms underlying social behavior? Is man unique? Are creatures similar? Can man endure? That is, can man tame his aggression, increase his cooperation, and tailor his reproduction rate to fit living space and food supply? asks W. S. Dillon in the prologue to Man and Beast: Comparative Social Behavior. These questions were posed at a 1969 Smithsonian Institution Annual Symposium. Representatives from the humanities, social biology, psychohistory, anthropology, sociology, pediatrics, psychiatry, and other disciplines attempted answers to these global inquiries. The first of the four-part volume concerns the biological bases of social behavior. G. McBride rehashes the nature-nurture problem in social evolution, underscoring the importance of interactions of genetic and physiological factors with overt patterns of behavior. He discusses the two interrelated general physiological systems, chemical (hormonal) and electrical (neuronal), that form the biological substrate for much of behavior. McBride also emphasizes the importance of human culture as a powerful factor in shaping man's behavior patterns.