@timb Saying that humans are social animals is NOT indoctrination. It is a statement of fact.
Come to think of it, a human is born premature and would die in short order without the social contract between parents or parent as the case may be. Just a piece of straightforward biology.
Those fur traders were self-sufficient and loners maximus - yet most the time they were thinking of the next Rendezvous, and seeing old friends, finding a woman, partying, telling stories, drinking and hopefully making a some profit. Pretty dang social, don’t you think?
Come to think of it, a human is born premature and would die in short order without the social contract between parents or parent as the case may be. Just a piece of straightforward biology.
Biology is right, not sociology. There is nothing "social" in a parent/child relationship. It's a biological imperative. Do you believe that there is a social contract between your heart and your lungs?
Hmmm, how figure that one exclude the other? Please explain.
The essential biological aspect of the natural mother/child relationship is unconscious. The psychological aspect of a contrived relationship is the conscious cultivation of social bonding devised by child care experts.
Do you know anything about the parent/child relationship?
No, I don't. Being a binary male, I am not in the business of giving birth to babies and nursing them with boobs.
And I don’t mean being taken to fancy restaurants.
Actually, I view that as the unconscious biological aspect of my upbringing. It was akin to a mother bear showing her cub how to hunt. There was no conscious aim on my mother's part to deliberately cultivate in me a lifestyle of socializing. My mom just loves going to fine restaurants. It isn't just the food. She told me of the famous people who dined there. One time, the maitre' d at the La Grenouille in mid-town New York told her that he would sit her next to the queen and the princess. As it turned out, the queen at the table to her right was the Duchess of Windsor and the princess at the table to her left was Jacquelin Kennedy.
Also, back to your quote.
Don’t you know, that’s the point – being a social animal is our biological imperative.
I don’t agree. As I said, the social animal is a product of artificial indoctrination. I always dine alone, like the grizzly.
... the social animal is a product of artificial indoctrination. I always dine alone, like the grizzly.
Effective parenting probably takes place most often on an unconscious basis. But if things are going wrong in the natural optimal dyadic parent/child relating, the parent can learn conscious techniques to help overcome the threat to the child's development.
Without social interaction (without a listener/responder) no child would ever learn verbal behavior.
sree, that you are able to communicate via your posts, indicates that you are a social animal. You may also, individually, be “anti-social” in some ways. But if you had never had a social/verbal community, you would have never learned language skills. You would be dead now or in an institution for the profoundly retarded.
Social animals (including many mammals and some birds) can potentially develop somewhat complex verbal behavior. Animals whose parents do not care for their offspring, are not going to develop complex verbal behavior.
e.g., Elephants are social animals. I believe that they generally have relatively complex verbal behavior. Same with dolphins and whales. And yes, even you and your monied mom.
