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"Ritualized" inciting
In the Brittanica I find the phrase "It seems generally
true that elaborate rituals evolve where social bonds are most fleeting or likely
to be disrupted."
Hmmm.
Like when mating, or when threatened?
In the example of the anser family (ducks and geese),
we see the social necessities of protecting offspring/spouse ("Altruistic Behavior!")
whittled down to the comic conflict of "Flight or Fight" in the Sheldrake, and
a bizarre incomprehensible spastic head in the Mallard.
I wonder if evolution's "natural selection" eventually
encoded this behavior in the genes of the Mallard (i.e. those with the genetically
derived twitch weren't eaten or damaged in threatening circumstances, and later
procreated) because the behavior looks "sick".
By that, I mean perhaps it functions in a way similar
to aposomatic coloration. What animal, or who, wants to eat a bright red newt,
or get close to a duck with a spastic neck?
The use of the word ritualized intrigues me, because
it suggests learned behavior (from ducks that survived?), and in the context
of genetics, and natural selection, touches on the notion that perhaps there
exists a feedback loop (enzymes and neural proteins?) from learned or developed
character states (behaviors, physical capacities, mental calisthenics, etc.)
that influences the meiosis sorting and tends to favor the genetic inheritance
of these tendencies.
Maybe my daughter will take to the guitar like a
duck takes to…
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E-mail: Mark Plimsoll