The document is an interview with Irenäus Eibl-Eibesfeldt, a pioneer in the field of human ethology. Some of the key points discussed are: - Human ethology studies human behavior from a naturalistic perspective, focusing on innate behaviors and communication. - Many behaviors previously considered "cultural" have roots in innate behaviors shared with other primates. - Language and long-term planning are abilities that distinguish humans from other species. - Eibl-Eibesfeldt believes that more cohesive groups with more altruism could have evolutionary advantages over other groups. - In addition to facial expressions, other human universals observed across cultures include familiarity

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Etología Humana (entrevista a Irenäus Eibl-Eibesfeldt)
En su obra sobre Política, Aristóteles afirmó que el hombre es un animal social. Lo que dijo fue, exactamente zoon politikon, lo
que podría también traducirse como animal político. La nítida distinción que hoy hacemos entre político y social no existe en
esta definición del hombre, ya que el ateniense Aristóteles, ciudadano de una Polis, tenía a esta por su sociedad, y los asuntos
de la Polis, o Políticos, por asuntos de la incumbencia de todo aquel que integraba la misma.
Uno de los más importantes psicólogos sociales de nuestro tiempo, Elliot Aronson, ha titulado las sucesivas ediciones de su
excelente tratado sobre su materia como El Animal Social, recalcando la importancia de nuestra sociabilidad. Hogg y Vaughan,
en su obra también de psicología social aclaran que en su disciplina , "como regla...creen que el estudio de los animales no nos
lleva muy lejos en la explicación del comportamiento social humano, a menos que estemos interesados en sus orígenes
evolutivos".
En efecto, ha surgido una nueva disciplina, de la mano de, entre otros, David Buss, Roy Baumeister , Mark Leary o Mark Van
Vugt (por citar a tres de nuestros entrevistados) denominada Psicología Social Evolucionista, que incide en los aspectos sociales
de nuestra mente y nuestro comportamiento que pueden considerarse como derivados de adaptaciones biológicas a ambientes
ancestrales.
El animal social, el zoon politikon aristotélico o ser cognitivamente y comportamentalmente social clasificable dentro del Reino
Animal de la Biología, para los psicólogos sociales, es para los psicólogos sociales evolucionistas un todo integrado. Tenemos la
sociedad humana y sus grupos, dentro sus relaciones interpersonales y, por supuesto, sus individuos. Estos están dotados de
una mente que mantiene una identidad social que en parte la configura, pero responde a los dictados fisiológicos de un
organismo que busca sobrevivir, y que han sido configurados por la evolución biológica. Pero para tener un cuadro de pincelada
más fina y una perspectiva pictórica (conceptual) más adecuada nos faltaría la ciencia de la Etología Humana.
La Etología, ausente el factor humano, se dedica a estudiar el comportamiento animal. Aplicada al hombre se convierte en
Etología Humana, y estudia al animal comparativamente con otras especies, en sus comportamientos instintivos. Del animal
social escoge al animal, y solamente porque no podría estudiar a este animal sin contemplar su faceta social, lingüística,
cultural e incluso política, se convierte en humana.
El fundador de la Etología Humana, el austriaco Irenaüs Eibl-Eibesfeldt, es junto con los nobeles Von Frisch, Nicholaas
Tinbergen o Konrad Lorenz, uno de los grandes artífices del campo de la etología, del estudio del comportamiento animal.
Resulta curioso adentrarse en la historia de las palabras y las ideas y descubrir cosas como esta:
"John Stuart Mill propuso la formación de una "ciencia exacta de la naturaleza humana". La denominó etología, término con el
que entendía referirse al carácter humano en sentido amplio. Observemos que, recientemente, este mismo término ha sido
adoptado, menos apropiadamente, por los psicólogos y los biólogos para designar la ciencia de la conducta instintiva". Gordon
Allport. La Personalidad 1963.
Al final ha llegado un etólogo que ha abordado la etología, en la medida de lo posible,
como una ciencia exacta de la naturaleza humana, y este no ha sido otro que el fundador
de la Etología Humana, Irenaüs Eibl-Eibesfeldt. Consciente, eso sí, de las limitaciones
metodológicas y conceptuales que existen para hacer algo así como una ciencia exacta,
muy alejado de esa concepción típicamente decimonónica de Mill que tenía por referentes
ineludibles a la física, las matemáticas, la ingeniería y sus rápidos progresos de la era
industrial y el positivismo científico imperante, Eibl-Eibesfeldt ha realizado un extenso y
profundo trabajo de campo, observando el comportamiento humano en diversas
sociedades, desde las modernas hasta las de cazadores-recolectores aún existentes, y
grabándolo de forma tal que los protagonistas de sus películas se comportaban con
absoluta naturalidad -que es, precisamente, lo que él buscaba.
Ha escrito asimismo algunas obras de referencia sobre el Amor y el Odio, la Guerra y la
Paz, de las que la psicología social, que también estudia la agresión y los comportamientos
de colaboración y altruismo podría tomar buena nota, y diversos tratados académicos,
además de infinidad de artículos científicos. Particularmente recomendable me parece su
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El texto está primero en español y luego en inglés

2. Tratado de Etología Humana, titulado en castellano Biología del Comportamiento Humano, y que en su día publicó Alianza
Editorial.
El Profesor Eibl Eibesfeldt ha tenido la inmensa amabilidad de respondernos unas preguntas, cuyo correcto inglés fue revisado
por el Doctor Marzo Varea, que asimismo tradujo las respuestas al español. Para llevar a cabo esta entrevista hemos contado
además con la inestimable ayuda de una estrecha colaboradora en las investigaciones del Profesor Eibl-Eibesfeldt y coautora de
dos de sus libros: la Doctora Christa Sütterlin, que hizo la entrevista al Professor Eibl-Eibesfeldt en alemán. Gracias también a
Sybille, la Secretaria del Profesor, con quien mantuvimos el contacto más directo.
En inglés:
1. The study of animal behavior, ethology, opened the possibility of considering human behavior in naturalistic
terms; it was then followed by sociobiology and evolutionary psychology, which inevitably have to rely on
comparative study of animal behavior to analyze individuals and societies, both animal and human. It could be
said that you are the main representative of human ethology (and one of the most distinguished ones of
ethology). What ties it together with the currents of sociobiology and evolutionary psychology? What barriers
separate them?
Both disciplines are interested in the social behavior of living organisms up to the human level. And both search after the
function of a behavior in the service of fitness i.e. for the selection pressures behind its emergence. Human ethology owes
sociobiology a great number of valuable cost-benefit calculations that have been prolific also for neighboring disciplines. But in
contrast to sociobiology human ethology observes and analyzes behavior along a wide front down to the neuronal level and up
to the complexity of nonverbal communication processes. Human ethology would never understand why only genes could be
the units of selection. Individuals and their group cohesion are more interesting to look at, since genetics and experience as
well as the phenomena of individual adaptations - such as imprinting and flash learning - play an important role. (We learn for
instance that neuronal circuits connect into functional networks when three cells of such a circuit are separated and put
together in a Petri-bowl. And once established, they create a functional out-put , i.e. they cooperate.)
Evolutionary Psychology on the other hand is more interested in cognitive processes, while human ethology focuses on the
motives of behavior and expression in the frame of nonverbal communication. But of course there are many interfaces.
2. Ever since Darwin first published his “Origin”, without any mention of man, controversy over our primate
ancestry arose. It gradually vanished, with regard to our anatomy, because of the avalanche of evidence; but it
then proceeded to the realm of the human mind, and hostilities broke out in the field of culture and science. You
are not noted for being controversial, but rather moderate and focused exclusively on the evidence offered by
science. How were you affected by the war between those who believed that the human mind is not a product (or
only in a very small degree) of biological evolution and those who argued that many of our behaviors and
cognitions could be explained in evolutionary terms?
Darwin in his first work of 1859, the mentioned „Origins of species“ didn’t look much at the behavior of humans, that’s right.
But in his „Descent of man“ of 1871 humans are widely considered. As a biologist and a human ethologist you remain familiar
with both of his volumes a life long. And if you are a comparative scientist you keep track in the similarities - homologies and
analogies - between the species.
It was especially human ethology that revealed seemingly „cultural“ behaviors as behaviors with a long heritage. We share
many social attitudes with our near ancestors (chimps and bonobos), such as territoriality, familiarity, fright, and behaviors that
are instrumental in the service of communication. There is “symbolic” nest-building for territorial taboo, object transfer and
reciprocity in bonobos (Fruth, B. & Hohmann, G. 2002), and there are even forms of empathy and mourning - that I observed
myself in chimps in Tanzania while staying with Jane Gooddall (in 1986). In addition, we know about selective perception for
specific objects like a con-specific face, eyes, a human face schema etc. in macaque monkeys (Ch.G. Groß et al. 1981). And
already every frog has a distinct perception of his prey to look like from the beginning (Lettvin, J. 1959)
3. What aspects of our behavior distinguish us from other species, in your opinion?
The most I consider, is the setup of mutual obligations that work- or are meant to work - on the long run. The social grooming
of chimps is valuable as a cohesion-behavior only for this generation and ends latest with the death of the involved individuals.
Whereas, the care for the frails and the olds is a human concept. We see a lot of predispositions like mourning and sympathy,
even empathy in animals, as well in goose, raven and ducks, but no cultural organization to do so within a larger social frame
and in the future. The capacity to conceive a vision in the past and future - mirrored in our language - is probably the most
stringent difference between humans and other species.
4. You have written two excellent books about love and hate, and war and peace. We are social animals, but
especially groupal animals, and what is harmony within the group, with a strange group is hostility. It looks like
the face of love brings with it its reverse of hatred, owing to our past in diverse hunter-gatherer groups with little
relationship between them. From Prehistory to globalization an extraordinary cultural evolution has taken place,
especially in communications. Now the psychologist Steven Pinker has published a book saying that the trend from
our origins to our time has been one toward less violence both between individuals and between groups. Are you
optimistic about the future of our species? Do you think we'll tend to form more bonds and to reduce or ritualize
further hostilities? Are not terrorism, economic crisis and nuclear weapons sufficient reason to doubt about a
peaceful future?
I see the development as a rather positive one. However, we observe still many actual conflicts in the world due to inequalities in
the distribution of goods and to common law. Wars are performed on a economical level today, and dominance structures are apt
to outlaw minorities. - In general I pointed to possibilities for civilizing warfare, for instance through contracts and peace
agreements (see „Peace and War“ and my textbook on „Human Ethology“). Humans can culturally overcome biological
dispositions for inter-group hostility - by extending their original familial ethos to a larger group. But maybe this process has its
limits. A certain chance lays in the conscience about the ecological constraints to save our planet, as I pointed out in many
publications (i.e. „Man at its risk“ 1988).
5. Group-level selection has recently gotten strong support from the joint work of David Sloan Wilson and Edward
Osborne Wilson. Amotz Zahavi or Robert Trivers have told us that they are suspicious of a selection beyond genes
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3. and individual organisms. What do you think about this? Could more cohesive human groups, with more altruistic
members, have thrived at the expense of other human groups and bequeath more genes to posterity?
I strongly believe so. There are more than geographical differentiations, but social differentiations. Darwin didn’t see this. Out
of “group”- differentiations, that we can observe already in bird songs, results always a “we and the others”. But this depends,
how open groups are. If one group is restricted only to itself, conflicts arise. In humans specially, we observe networks that are
successful, exchange systems like the Xharo in the San societies in Botswana (P. Wiessner 1977) or the Kula in the Trobriand
Islands in New Guinea. The basis of give and take that we call reciprocity is the prerequisite for the subsistence of the network.
Cooperation pays.
We can misbehave of course, but depending on how, this can be beneficial for the group or not.
6. Following on Darwin's pioneering work on expression of emotions in animals and man, psychologist Paul Ekman
has studied human facial expressions. This has led him to describe a set of universal emotions (and particular
facial expressions linked with them). You yourself have spent years thoroughly recording customs, including
gestures and rituals, in various cultures for comparative study, and to find human universals. What other human
universals have been observed in field work, besides facial expresions?
Indeed my archive of taken films in many traditional and nontraditional cultures is extended over 400 km films and will be
stored in one of the best places internationally, the Senckenberg Society Frankfurt. - Paul Ekman, whom I estimate a lot,
established his facial action coding system on the basis of an earlier work of Carl Hjortsjö (1970) that worked with a slightly
different terminology. But there are much more universals than the ones expressed in our faces, and that are crucial, like I
mentioned: familiarity, territoriality, the laws of reciprocity (giving and sharing), empathy, love and hate.
7. What are you working on now? What is the present of human ethology? How do you see its future?
My last big oeuvre was the one on art, written and conceived on evolutionary grounds together with my co-author Christa
Sütterlin, an art historian and meanwhile well trained cultural ethologist, with whom I wrote a book on ritualized gestures and
apotropaic figures already in 1992. Art is something essential to humans, since it allows for the elaboration of expressions to
which specially our visual system co-evolved and that are especially well „read“, beginning with color and form signals up to the
encoding styles of culturally defined contents.
As we find art from the earliest beginnings of human culture and into the last corners of this world, it is fascinating to observe
an universal communication system in work that can serve also as a bridge in understanding between different cultures. These
bridges don’t have to be built, they are existent in all humans.
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