The Biological and Social Survival of Humankind. A Review

    

    

    Figure 2: Jellyfish. (Photo Tomic I).
    

Finally, there are some large wild animals, which can harm and even kill humans by direct attack, although this happens very infrequently [40]. As for sharks, 5,034 attacks were recorded worldwide since 1990, of which 1,205 were fatal [41]. These rare events have inspired Misiorowski and other directors to make corresponding movies. There are also sporadic cases of domestic animals attacks.

Autodestructive Human Disorders

Some disorders within the human organism, with the underlying biological processes, can increase morbidity, but they may have a fatal outcome as well [12,14]. The subject is mainly related to autoimmune, allergic, genetic and psychiatric disorders, as well as to malignant tumors.

As already mentioned, a normal prion protein of the neurons is transformed in some individuals into a pathological protein, which behaves as an infectious particle within the brain and produces a deadly outcome. In addition, there are many autoimmune disorders, e.g. lupus erythematosus, scleroderma, and rheumatoid arthritis [14]. An abnormal immune reaction is also seen in many patients with multiple sclerosis, which affects about 2.5 million people worldwide. Certain types of diabetes mellitus, whose global prevalence is over 420 million people, have an autoimmune basis. Some allergic reactions in predisposed individuals can cause a fatal outcome, especially anaphylactic shock that can lead to death in a few minutes [15].

Some gene mutations and chromosome alterations cause hundreds of disorders which can result in death either during development, in infants, or in adult individuals [14,31]. Similarly, various developmental disorders affect embryos or fetuses during pregnancy and often produce lethal outcome. These and other neonatal disorders cause 2.2 million deaths globally per year [42].

Much more frequently, the causes of autodestruction are certain cancers, which are produced by at least 4-7 gene mutations, or one or several chromosomal abnormalities in somatic cells [14,31]. These neoplasms may lead to a patient’s death in several months or years, or over a decade in some patients [14]. In any case, a malignant tumor behaves as the worst enemy against its own organism.

Neoplasms are the second leading cause of global human mortality, just after cardiovascular diseases and stroke [14]. The incidence of new cancer cases is 17 million worldwide annually, and the global mortality rate is 9.5 million [43]. Cancer has caused the death of many famous people, e.g. the composers Puccini, Debussy, Bartók, Rachmaninov, Shostakovich, and Bernstein, as well as artists (Fawcett, Hopper, Chapman, Arthur, Piaf, Pinter, etc.), certain scientists (Curie, Sagan, etc.), and some others.

Certain psychiatric disorders, especially major depression, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia, may cause patient suicide, but also homicide intermittently [44]. The mentioned disorders have a relatively high incidence. In China alone, for example, over 7 million patients with schizophrenia were registered between 1990 and 2010 [45]. Of them, almost 30,000 patients commit suicide each year. As for bipolar disorder, there are globally about 50 million patients [46]. It is an even worse situation with depression, the prevalence of which is up to 5% of the global population, with a great risk of suicide attempts. In any case, many famous artists and writers have suffered from major depression, bipolar or hypomanic disorders, and some of them from schizophrenia, e.g. Messerschmidt, Blake, and Kubik, a certain number of which have committed suicide. In addition, millions of people in the world, especially tobacco and alcohol addicts, belong to the group with a “chronic suicide” tendency [44]. Similarly, psychoactive substance abuse is a great problem in modern society because about 350,000 of overdose deaths are registered worldwide per annum [44].

The Human Destruction of Nature

Intelligence and the other cognitive abilities of Homo sapiens, which are very important for our survival and better life, have created many procedures, substances, tools, devices, and apparatuses which can modify nature, either positively or, more often, negatively, in both local and global domains.

Even in ancient times, humans exerted a devastating influence on the natural environment. Thus, there is an example of deforestation in Mesopotamia about 5,000 years ago, which gradually transformed most of that fertile region into a desert [1]. Nowadays, ubiquitous deforestation, artificial lake formation to produce energy, and settlements and road building, can drastically endanger the living world in those ecosystems, and alter local and even global climate conditions.

The industrial revolution in the 19^th century, and the scientific and technological revolution in the 20^th century, including the modern 4^th revolution, profoundly changed the human-nature relationship [1,8]. Thus, the emission of millions of cubic meters of carbon dioxide (CO₂) into the atmosphere has caused dangerous global warming. Acid precipitations happen occasionally and damage water and land ecosystems, whilst some air and water pollutants have cancerogenic effects [47]. The damage of the ozone (O₃) layer around the earth has caused a decline of this gas followed by diminished protection from solar ultraviolet radiation with a resultant rise in skin cancer incidence.

Air, soil, and ground water pollutions are ubiquitous, and they are a great health threat to the whole human population and other living beings [1,47]. There are several main air pollutants in urban regions, which are particularly generated by certain industrial technologies and the combustion of fossil and coal fuel. Soil and ground waters contain many pollutants, especially in rural environments, e.g. some herbicides, insecticides, fertilizers, and solvents [11].

All the mentioned disastrous effects of human activity have endangered the human population, but have also produced a biodiversity crisis and a mass extinction of about 10% of the species in the biosphere [1]. A great additional danger comes from the radioactive radiation following, for example, the nuclear plant disasters in Chernobyl and Fukushima, which will last for hundreds of years. It is a similar situation with the mentioned Ultraviolet (UV) radiation and global warming. Finally, there is another variety of iniquitous human activity in some ecosystems, that is, the introduction of certain foreign species into corresponding territories [1]. Thus, 12 pairs of non-native pest animals, i.e. rabbits, were imported from Europe to Australia in the 19th century, whereupon the population exploded to hundreds of millions until 1950, damaging the entire ecosystem.

Some other aspects of the progress have additional consequences, for example, technologically based accidents, such as explosions, fire, radioactivity appearance, or the leaking of dangerous chemicals in certain factories or from oil tankers. In addition, transportation accidents instigate scores of injured people and over 1.5 million of deaths worldwide every year [9,42].

Individual Aggression

Aggression is normal behavior in the animal kingdom, regarding both intraspecies and interspecies conflicts, which is usually a type of adaptation and natural selection [1,6]. Humans sometimes behave similarly to other mammals when their health or lives are in danger [2,4]. However, there are some responses, which are distinct from animal behavior. Namely, people also react aggressively when their freedom is endangered, as well as moral, political and religious beliefs, and other abstract concepts, which are not present in animals.

Unlike these, more or less, normal reactions, pathological aggression may appear manifested as violent behavior of an individual with the intention to hurt other people and, moreover, to feel pleasure occasionally when committing aggression [2,44]. All in all, antisocial, violent, and psychopathic individual aggressive behaviors can be distinguished, all with various consequences: injuries, abuse, psychological stress, and particularly self-aggression (suicide) or homicide, including euthanasia [6,44,48]. The highest suicide incidence has been recorded in Eastern European countries, Japan and some other places, while the lowest one is in the Mediterranean countries. In fact, nearly 1 million suicides is committed globally per year [49]. Mass suicides have occasionally been recorded throughout history, either to avoid surrender, or for certain religious reasons, resulting in thousands of deaths [8].

Some well-known individuals have committed suicide, for example, certain rulers (Cleopatra, Nero, Hitler), philosophers (Socrates, Seneca, Deleuze), poets, novelists and screenwriters (London, Poe, Woolf, Hemingway, Yesenin, Mayakovsky, Tsvetaeva, Zweig, Mishima, Brooks), painters (van Gogh, Kirchner, Gorky, Rothko), actors and actresses (Monroe, Whale, Williams, Gordon, Bhattacharjee, Brandis) and others [7,8]. Mythological, biblical, real or imagined suicides were presented by many artists. Thus, the Roman legend about Lucretia was the subject matter of many painters, e.g. Cranach, Botticelli, Titian and Tiepolo [7], and of some composers, for instance, Britten in his opera The Rape of Lucretia. The suicidal drowning of Shakespeare’s Ophelia was depicted by Delacroix, Redon and Millais. Furthermore, Anna Karenina in Tolstoy’s novel threw herself under the carriage of a train.

Homicide also contributes to lives being lost in every society. Individual murderers, or mass and serial killers, as for example London’s Jack the Ripper from the 19^th century, the 20^th century British Harold Shipman, and the Norwegian Anders Breivik in the new Millennium and others, resulted in many deaths [50]. In general, there are about 500,000 homicide-caused deaths at the global level per year [51]. Homicides from biblical or mythological stories were often the subject matter of famous artists [7]. We can mention, for instance, Tintoretto’s The Murder of Abel, Cranach’s, Caravaggio’s and Titian’s Judith and Holofernes, and, Moreau’s and Klimt’s Salome. Real murders or murderers were painted by David (Death of Marat), Repin (Ivan the Terrible killing his Son), Wojtczak (Murder), and by Cézanne, Monory and some others. Murder was the subject in certain plays or novels, for example, in Hamlet by Shakespeare, Eugene Onegin by Pushkin, Crime and Punishment by Dostoyevsky, and in The Trial by Kafka, as well as in Carmen, an opera by Bizet [35,52].

Even some artists were killed, for instance, the musician John Lennon, American actress Sharon Tate, the well-known Italian film director Pasolini, and modern Polish painter Beksinski [7]. It is interesting that some famous artists, such as Caravaggio and Cellini, were accused of committing murder.

Socio-psychology and Societal Organization

Some animals live in groups with a certain social structure [1,6]. The individuals of such groups, especially primates, show the ability to organize dominance/subordinate hierarchies with an alpha male on the top. Such a rank order confers a better survival of the group, and also limits fighting among fellow members [1].

Since humans evolved from socially organized hominids (Figure 3), they have an urge and necessity to live together [3]. According to some authors [1], our social development, including culture, has passed through three main stages: scavenging-gathering-hunting, agriculture, and the industrial and technological revolution. In general, all stages elicit similar effects: enough food and goods production, population growth, certain technology development, labor division and cooperation, economic specialization, competitive groups and class system appearance, a new state organization, warfare, and, consequently, the economic, cultural, political and military dominance of certain societies [53,54].

Figure 3: Our common origin, but diverse evolution. (Photo Marinkovic S).

    

    

    Figure 3: Our common origin, but diverse evolution. (Photo Marinkovic S).
    

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The interpersonal relationships within a community are based on social cognition, including the social intelligence of each individual, which are actually a result of an interplay of the individual psychosocial traits of the group members who are interconnected by communication and collaboration, similar belief and tendencies, and certain interests [2,4,55]. The social groups within a large society function according to certain norms, the different roles of its members, and status hierarchy. Intrasociety cohesion is maintained by individual and group moral responsibilities, social norms, and a legal system, which all limits individual or group aggression. As regards dominance, two types of it exist, i.e. social and aggressive [56]. It is interesting that individual dominance is developed already in infants as young as 10 months and under [57].

Social Aggression

In the animal kingdom, the members of many species kill those of other species to provide food (predator aggression) or when competing for a territory with certain resources (adoptive aggression) [16]. On the other hand, members of the same species within a group very rarely kill each other when fighting for social dominance. Only occasionally are there certain inter-group conflicts with some deadly outcomes.

Human social aggression, i.e. collective violence, has been expressed from ancient times to the present days, most often in the form of human sacrifice, slavery and warfare, and less frequently by mass panic and some other types [8,44].

Human sacrifice, including ritual murder, was practiced in ancient times, less frequently in the Middle Ages, and rarely in certain African tribes - until recently. Such rituals were most often performed as an offer to a deity. The Aztecs, for instance, used to sacrifice thousands of war prisoners annually, whose hearts during the ritual were ripped out while they were still alive [58]. Similarly, in some African tribes, living victims were dismembered.

pSlavery was one of several ways to abuse and occasionally kill individuals of certain groups or races [8]. It was a common type of social aggression in the ancient era, less so in the middle Ages, but particularly high in colonial times. About 20 million Africans were used as slaves in the colonies and in various Western countries. Unfortunately, slavery is still present, especially in the form of trafficking, which involves over 40 million people worldwide [59].

Social aggression throughout history was also manifested as capital or judicial punishment, not only of criminals but also of political rivals or religious opponents [8]. As regards the latter, many people were tortured or killed in the period of the medieval Inquisition. In modern times, some dictators performed genocide of certain nations, or a mass killing of their own people. Thus, Hitler’s Third Reich exterminated about 9 million Jews, Roma and Slavs in concentration camps [33], which was artistically presented by Lebrun on the canvas Floor of Buchenwald No. 1, and by Benigni in the deeply touching movie Life is Beautiful. Similarly, Stalin was responsible for about 10 million deaths of Russians in Siberia and other places, which was impressively depicted in the novel The Gulag Archipelago by Solzhenitsyn.

Mass panic with a deadly outcome is defined as an assessment of each individual in a group that his or her chances for survival in a life-threatening situation is close to zero [2,44]. Such impulsive and uncontrolled mass behavior can lead to countless more casualties than the objective threat itself [9]. Thus, during a football match at a Moscow stadium in 1982, over 300 fans lost their lives. An even worse scenario happened during the Hajj in 2015 when almost 2,400 panicked pilgrims lost their lives in Mecca [60].

Warfare

Social aggression (Figure 4) is obviously common behavior for the human race, especially in the domain of warfare [6,8,48] (Figure 5). Throughout history, most often stronger social groups, nations, or states were killing members of the weaker ones, taking over their territories and properties, as well as women which occasionally increased the gene flow in the aggressor population [1,8]. Similarly, groups with an opposite political or religious ideology were sometimes fighting among themselves, with many consequential victims. Overall, in the recorded history of the last 3,500 years, there were in total only about 200 years of peace on Earth. Dozens of millions people were killed in multitude of wars during the last 6,000 years, whilst many of the survivors experienced posttraumatic stress disorder [44].

Figure 4: Human aggressive behavior. (Photo Marinkovic S).

    

    

    Figure 4: Human aggressive behavior. (Photo Marinkovic S).
    

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Figure 5: Allegory of warfare. (Designed by Marinkovic S).

    

    

    Figure 5: Allegory of warfare. (Designed by Marinkovic S).
    

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For example, numerous people were killed in wars between the Egyptians and Mesopotamians, ancient Greeks and Persians, and during the formation of the Roman Empire, as well as in the 5^th century AD attacks by barbarian tribes and Huns, which ended the Western Roman Empire. The Eastern Roman Empire, i.e. Byzantium, faced attacks by other nations, including the Ottomans, who created numerous victims and ended the Empire. Many wars happened in Europe in the following centuries [8]. During the colonization of the Middle, South, and North Americas in the 16^th and 17^th century, millions of local populations were either killed, became slaves, or died from infections.

Many casualties occurred in the American War of Independence and in the French Revolution in the 18^th century. In addition, Napoleon occupied most of Europe and caused millions of deaths, which was impressively presented in Disasters of War by Goya, and in Tolstoy’s novel War and Peace [7]. Many thousands of people were killed in the European social unrests and the independence struggles in the 19^th century, as well as in the American Civil War. In addition, millions died during the Russian Revolution in 1917.

In modern times, over 20 million people were killed in World War I, half a million in the Spanish Civil War thereafter, and more than 70 million in World War II [8]. These disasters were presented by many artists and novelists, for example, by Remarque in the novel All Quiet on the Western Front, Picasso in his painting Guernica, Hemingway in the novel For Whom the Bell Tolls, and by Obrosov in his 1941 painting Wartime Moscow [7].

Toward the end of the last World War, a single atomic bomb explosion over Hiroshima and Nagasaki instantly killed more than 150,000 citizens [8]. Later on, the wars in Korea, Vietnam, Cambodia, some African countries, and in the Middle East, as well as several civil wars in various regions of the world, produced millions of casualties. Nowadays, many thousands of people lose their lives in some other local wars, and millions of refugees have flooded into European countries where, at the same time, hundreds of innocent people have become victims of terrorist attacks. As for the latter, about 64,000 people were killed in 100,000 cases of terrorism from 2002 to 2011 [61].

The concept of war was “imprinted” in human social psychology from the very beginning. Ordinary people and soldiers throughout history regarded war as an almost normal event, and many of them as an opportunity for robbery and rape, or belligerence and bravery [8]. Similar goals were important in later history, i.e. gaining new territories and resources, or introducing a new ideology, either political or religious. As for the latter, the Crusades happened, as well as deadly conflicts between the Catholics and Protestants in the 16^th century Reformation and in the 17^th century Thirty Year War with 8 million casualties. Religious wars or smaller conflicts continue to the present day.

The psychological background of social aggression in general comprises group frustration and anxiety, occasionally due to food shortages, but also selfishness, greed, and striving for group, national, or global dominance [6,2,48,62]. As for modern times, there is again a dominance of powerful countries due to their wealth, economic, and technological and military superiority [8]. Moreover, there is an occasional political and military involvement of the fittest in the affairs of small countries just because the former dislike the political system or the leaders of the latter, or due to some economic, strategic, and geopolitical interests, which is usually associated with violation of international law. Such behavior of the fittest provokes hostility, rage, and a destructive tendency in the weakest, which is one of the causes of local conflicts, but also of terrorism development [63].

Finally, certain within-society conflicts rise, usually due to individual or group tendencies to attain a better position, more influence, financial benefits, or a new ideology, that is, to induce a redistribution of power [2]. Due to that, class, ethnic, political, or religious conflicts may arise, often in the form of a national revolution or a civil war with many deaths [8].

Finally, there is a distinct social violation in the economic sphere. Struggle for profit often involves mighty politicians who sporadically start international economic wars and a consequent global financial crisis, with a grave impact mostly onto the low-income countries. In addition, only a few percentage of the most affluent represent about a half of global wealth, whilst at the same time hundreds of millions of people are starving, many of them to death. However, such a situation cannot last for a long time. Millions of economic migrants have already appeared on virtually all continents.

Concluding Remarks

Homo sapiens, due to his cognitive abilities, has achieved fantastic progress in science, technology, fine art, music and philosophy by designing things, processes and phenomena some of which do not exist in nature [52-66]. Yet, he himself is a creation of nature and thus is influenced by its laws and rules [1]. In fact, nature itself is so complex that over 90% of our scientific work is devoted to revealing the mechanisms of natural phenomena, especially those in quantum physics, astrophysics, and biological domains. Most of the discoveries we have made in this and other fields help us survive on this planet and maintain our status of a supreme species.

Evidently, the history of humankind has several domains. First, the harmful influence of many microorganisms, some algae, fungi and certain parasites, which show a high level of biological adaptation [11,14,31]. Infectious agents still cause a high mortality rate: over 11 million worldwide each year [42]. The morbidity rate is related to an incredible number of several billion people who are occasionally or chronically infected with some microbes or infested with certain parasites. Therefore, the life span in some of those people is shortened, the quality of life is affected, and their fertility is diminished, in spite of human immune system engagement and modern medical treatment. It means that the infectious agents are biologically very successful, and that our struggle against them will last forever. In addition, if we include some other biological factors, such as autodidestructive diseases, and especially cancers, it can be said that an additional 11 million of deaths occur at the global level annually.

As mentioned previously, there are also certain harmful influences of inorganic nature, some of which can be predicted, although none of them can be stopped. On the other hand, there is a human degradation of the biosphere and the rest of nature with possible disastrous consequences, including certain plant and animal extinction, and dangerous effects on humans themselves. All this, along with some technological threats (especially nuclear plants and weapons), also may contribute significantly to the global morbidity and mortality rate.

The situation with humankind can get much worse due to an additional factor, i.e. the population explosion in the last few centuries. Whereas only about 0.5 billion people lived on Earth in 1650, the current population has reached almost 7.5 billion, mainly due to good nutrition, sanitation, and medical care [1]. However, the Earth’s carrying capacity is probably up to 15 billion people, due to limited housing and infrastructure space, as well as food, water and energy resources. Such a demographic explosion can be reduced in two ways, either by decreased reproduction (by individual decisions or by government interventions, as was the case in China) or an increased mortality rate (resources limitation, environmental degradation, pandemics, and warfare) [1]. A possible population of some neighboring planets or moons is, for the time being, an idea in the science fiction domain.

Finally, biologists, sociologists, anthropologists, psychologists, psychiatrists, historians, and philosophers have been debating for centuries about the question of human social behavior, especially warfare, which is associated with mass killing and occasionally with pogroms, ethnocide, or genocide [8]. Several theories and hypotheses have been proposed, e.g. Hamilton’s rule, parochial altruism, blatant dehumanization, and a social, economic and religious imbalance of power [1,3,6,48,53,64,67-70]. Some others have mentioned that warfare is predominantly a biological event in the form of “social Darwinism” or gene flow necessity [1,6,48], although others believe that it is mainly a cultural and social product [3,53].

Whatever the cause and in spite of some optimistic attitudes [71], history and psychology have shown that individual aggression and social conflicts will probably be occurring until the end of time. This is perhaps a special type of natural selection within the same species. Although we can understand the biological and social basis for such behavior, the ethical norms of our superego cannot accept such a situation, especially the horrible suffering and a massive loss of lives of the most intelligent and most emotional beings on the Earth.

Obviously, there will be no true progress in the world community until some kind of global economic, social and ecological justice is achieved [3]. Otherwise, international conflicts, including wars and terrorism, technological threats, and the degradation of nature, will continue for a long time. In addition, even in the case of achieving the mentioned global justice, a biological desire for power and social dominance will probably remain forever. In spite of this, a global consensus must still be achieved [3] in order to prevent the suffering and death of millions people in the future.

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Citation: Marinkovic S, Lazic D, Tomic I and Boljanovic J. The Biological and Social Survival of Humankind. A Review. Austin Anthropol. 2019; 3(1): 1005.

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