Evolutionary analyses of ethnic solidarity: an overview

People and Place, June, 2008 by Frank Salter

Following is a selective review of some recent ethological research. Because ethology is an integrative field it also bears the marks of other evolutionary theories to be discussed in subsequent sections.

A 1998 symposium took up Eibl-Eibesfeldt's ideas about indoctrinability. The concept originated with social psychologist D. T. Campbell (11) and was taken up by E. O. Wilson to help explain the evolution of group cohesion among humans. (12) The concept is compatible with psychological research on social identity mechanisms. (13) Eibl-Eibesfeldt deployed the concept to explain anthropological observations of how culture and ritual shape concepts of' us' and 'the other'.

A 2002 symposium drew on several disciplines to examine the role of kinship and ethnic networks in establishing trust among those conducting risky transactions. Chapters tested a hypothesis formulated from the theories of Eibl-Eibesfeldt discussed above and van den Berghe to be discussed below. Examples studied were organised crime, long-range exchange networks within a hunter-gather culture, traders lacking the protection of contract law, U.S. Supreme Court proceedings, dissenters from totalitarian societies, tourists, and nationalist freedom fighters. The studies indicate that ethnic solidarity is a pervasive weak tie sensitive to rituals and ideology. It is usually intermediate in strength between strong kinship bonds and interactions between non-ethnics. (14) Non-evolutionary research also finds that trust is higher in ethnically homogeneous societies. (15)

Butovskaya et al.'s observational study of street beggars in Moscow tested a hypothesis based on ethnic nepotism (see below). Beggars received the largest gifts from fellow ethnics, the next largest from a genetically similar ethnic group, and least from a relatively distant ethnic group. (16)

Contributors to a 2004 symposium tested the ethnic-nepotism hypothesis that ethnic heterogeneity depresses the willingness of citizens to contribute to public goods. The hypothesis was generally confirmed. Examples included charitable giving in the United States (more homogeneous locations give more), a global comparison of welfare states (ethnic heterogeneity correlates negatively with welfare rights), foreign aid (more homogeneous states give more), economic growth (among the poorest 90 per cent of countries heterogeneity is negatively correlated with economic growth), the effect of Quebec separatism on the allocation of Canadian welfare (it increases it), and affirmative action (it tends to strengthen ethnic identification). (17)

All of these studies were conducted by social scientists using ethological theory, concepts or methods in addition to conventional approaches. Prominent among these were political scientists. Indeed, much of the above research, though ethological, was directed at political themes. The field of 'politics and the life sciences' is a quarter century old and combines all the evolutionary approaches discussed in this review. (18)