«Satiety, Sex, Status: Evolutionarily Determined Behavioral Mechanisms in Humans and Other Animals»: Course Annotation

Annotation of the interfaculty elective discipline "SATIETY, SEX, STATUS: EVOLUTIONARILY DETERMINED MECHANISMS OF THE BEHAVIOR OF HUMANS AND OTHER ANIMALS" Information for students

Video annotation of the proposed course — below.
Transcript of the video annotation
Good day! My surname is Shabanov, my name is Dmytro Andriyovych. I am head of the Department of Zoology and Animal Ecology at Karazin University, I hold a Doctorate in Biological Sciences and am a professor. My specific field is, first of all, research on semi‑clonal hybridization in green frogs, other batrachology issues—the science of amphibians—simulation modeling of stability and evolution of supra‑organismic systems, for example the evolution of sexual reproduction, as well as teaching ecology, zoology, statistics, and simulation modeling.
But besides being a lecturer, I also, as a human being, like all of us, use myself throughout life, and I need to understand why certain desires arise, what goals I set for myself, and why I achieve some of them and not others. Here I see that most people are unaware of what is obvious to zoologists and evolution researchers. Our bodies and our psyche are results of evolution, of evolutionary prehistory. We are both results and victims of our prehistory! And in order to use ourselves, we must understand why and how our bodies and psyches work.
By the way, it is easier for us to accept that our body is a product of evolution. For example, the structure of our eye is a consequence of how vision was organized in our distant ancestors, who resembled modern lancelets, even simpler than them. This can be convinced in people. That our desires arise from evolutionary traits of our ancestors, who perhaps resembled modern baboons, chimpanzees or gorillas, is much harder to accept. An internal resistance emerges; these are protective mechanisms of our psyche.
The point is that a person sees themselves from the inside not as external observers see them, especially if those observers understand the causes of the phenomena they observe. Supposedly on the wall of a temple in Delphi it was written: “Know thyself.” So, to follow this advice it is very useful to understand generally what behavior is, how it is formed, why it is the way it is, what determines our motivations, desires, how we choose strategies to achieve our goals. These are the issues we will discuss in the course I am now offering.
“Satiety, Sex and Status.” The main part of the title reflects the outcomes of our nutritional, reproductive and hierarchical behavior, aspects of our behavior that are heavily influenced (as I will try to convince you) by our evolutionary past. But there is one problem.
For instance, why do we crave sweet and fatty foods? These tastes signal that the food contains a lot of energy. Our ancestors often lacked energy, so such food had to be stored and accumulated in the body. This was adaptive in a different world, and it does not match our modern lifestyle, where technology gives us abundant access to all these foods. This behavior is the result of an anachronistic, time‑displaced selection. Consequently, these anachronistic nutritional motivations cause, in the modern world, the obesity pandemic, which markedly reduces lifespan and quality of life in people in developed countries. Examples concerning nutritional behavior are easier for you to accept than, say, those concerning other aspects. But do you think there are analogous anachronistic mechanisms in reproductive and hierarchical behavior? I think so. Yet again, defensive psychic mechanisms prevent us from seeing this.
An important point: the course title contains the word “sex.” Why? Because it is a powerful stimulus. Perhaps you are watching this video because that stimulus has activated you. I am not a sexologist. I will not tell you how to make love or find partners. In general, I will try not to pass judgments about what is good or bad. But why do we feel sexual desire, which partners are attractive to us, why are certain aspects of our sexual behavior ethically significant—these are all natural issues for an evolutionary biologist, and we will discuss them.
There are many myths. For example, you may have heard that because men are instinctively polygamous, they cannot refrain from infidelity. That statement contains elements that fit our common notions, but overall it is so distorted that it leads to conclusions opposite to those that should be reached through reasoned understanding. First, humans do not have instincts in the strict sense of the word. There are innate programs. But innate programs are not immutable! Depending on our goals, depending on our values—which, by the way, are heavily shaped by culture—we can either follow, accommodate, or modify these programs so as not to conflict with ourselves or destroy values important to us.
I am speaking on the backdrop of a website. It is a two‑person site, ours, called batrachos.com, link provided in the materials. “Batrachos” means frogs in Greek; we are batrachologists, amphibian specialists. Here, look, there is a menu at the top. This course, tentatively, is called “One and a half natures of humanity.” Why one and a half? Because our cultural nature depends heavily on, and is defined by, the biological, yet is relatively independent of it. We have more than one nature, more than just the biological, but less than two independent ones—biological and cultural—hence one and a half. Regarding the name… since 2017 I taught this course under the title “Evolutionary‑Biological Foundations of Human Behavior.” It became clear that the title could be made more catchy.
In this directory there is both an abstract and a large number of lectures, presentations recorded in previous years. I hope these presentations can be expanded and updated. Much of what I would now present differently, but you can roughly grasp the course direction from these materials.
Again, we could try to hook you with something… For example, at the end of the course there is a question about female reproductive biology. Generally, during human evolution female reproductive biology changed far more dramatically than male. Yet, notice why in our species females display beauty and attractiveness, drawing male attention. Usually in our relatives it is the males who do this! And, by the way, who chooses the partner: male or female, man or woman? In our species the estrous cycle (estrus) was replaced by menstruation, which is linked to key features of our behavior. How is it related that in our species’ life cycle, women have a prolonged post‑reproductive period during which a viable woman continues to live and interact socially but no longer reproduces? This is very unusual…
Here are such questions, and there are hints for finding answers. I also propose possible answers. Of course they are not displayed on the screen now, but follow the link and look. If something needs explanation—I will explain. Or perhaps it provokes your outrage. There are also answer options that can be discussed: come, let’s sort it out. Disagree? If you have constructive criticism, let’s debate, and perhaps it will significantly improve these explanations. Does it cause offense, outrage, rejection? That’s your choice. But it is interesting to find out why it might be important for you that I think this incorrectly. This is also a way to enter discussion and understanding of these matters. Either way, come!
I look forward to seeing you in the course. All the best!