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Civilized Cavemen? Only in Hollywood!

Martha McCaughey opens The Caveman Mystique with this provocative question. In hearing this question at a Human Behavior and Evolution (HBE) Society conference, she writes, ‘‘Of course, they meant to ask whether it is a choice in the evolutionary sense. . . .But what got me was the gall of these male scholars to assume that they could rape if they wanted to or were driven to’’ (p. 1). McCaughey’s socio-feminist perspective and its sisters, Queer, Feminist, and African American Studies, present an alternative to this popularized HBE example. She frames her discussion using 20th-century social, economic, and political trends to explain how and why this version of HBE ‘‘evolved’’ from the language of biologists and psychologists into that of popular science. Understanding how and why theory enters popular culture, and thus the lingua franca, is important as it yields clues to how scientific principles are interpreted, disseminated, and absorbed by the masses. When theory is absent, we tend to impose explanations using the best evidence available at the time. McCaughey argues that Darwin’s theory of evolution by means of natural selection has been altered into ideology, a secular alternative to Biblical canon. Her arguments are fairly reminiscent of those presented in an older critique of science and genetics, Biology as Ideology (Lewontin, 1993). Like Lewontin (1993), McCaughey argues that science has become a form of ideology. Most people, including scientists, believe that science is an institution that is both objective and outside the realm of forces that shape daily life. In fact, science is actually a social institution, one that both shapes and is shaped by social structures. Scientific ideology is present in the view that humans (and society) are determined by internal causes. Genes create individuals, who then create societies with distinct cultures. In essence, everything that makes someone human or creates human societies is the result of an evolved genetic inheritance. Further, this genetic inheritance insures fixed and unchangeable differences between individuals and groups (e.g., sex, race). According to McCaughey, if this view is taken to its next, logical conclusion, biological determinism implicitly normalizes some of the more abhorrent behaviors in modern society: Men can rape because their genes (and thus their nature) direct them to do so. The Caveman Mystique paints a plausible picture of this process and offers a noteworthy, conceptual alternative to the popularized view of masculinity as misogynistic and inherently violent. A tenet of modern evolutionary theory has been that certain traits developed in response to the environment of evolutionary adaptedness (EEA). In-depth knowledge of the prehistoric environment is necessary for understanding how cavemen became cavemen. McCaughey is explicitly arguing that the modern EEA is one that no longer requires what Cosmides and Tooby (1997) referred to as ‘‘modern skulls (housing) a stone aged mind.’’ The original EEA may have, in many ways, hard-wired Neanderthals and their human cousins for survival, but many of these adaptations are no longer beneficial in a modern age where machinery and medicine help bridge genetic gaps. Thus, three critical elements are missing when evolutionary theory and principles enter popular media: (a) genes act in response to environmental pressures; (b) evolutionary adaptations are largely non-conscious, not willful responses to these pressures; and (c) evolutionary theory has a past focus (Cosmides & Tooby, 1997; Kauth, 2006). The popularized caveman version of masculinity thus contains problematic edits, even for true believers, and denies a very real present reality. Modern reality contains social, political, and economic pressures missing from the caveman’s EEA. The Caveman Mystique is relatively short, at fewer than 200 pages of text, citations, notes, and an index. McCaughey’s notes section is entertaining and provides additional commentary. Throughout the text, she rather deftly draws evidence from a variety of sources including literature, history, anthropology, and political science. She often uses images from popular media and culture (e.g., comics, cartoons, t-shirts) in explaining her theses, providing illustrations, and introducing humor. The result is a highly eclectic and often entertaining argument. The Caveman Mystique has several strengths and weaknesses. In terms of strengths, McCaughey is not a newcomer to evolutionary theory and psychology. She alternately identifies herself as a feminist, sociologist, and ‘‘Darwinist.’’ Her academic training stems from courses with distinguished evolutionary science researchers, including David Buss and Donald Symons. In addition, McCaughey states very early in REVIEWS