homosexuality—may strengthen the ability of a species to respond “creatively” to a highly changeable and “unpredictable” world. As primatologist G. Gray Eaton suggests, sexual versatility as both a biological
The macaques’ sexual behavior includes both hetero- and homosexual aspects as part of the “normal” pattern. Protocultural variations of some of these patterns have already been discussed but it is well to remember the extreme variation in behavior that characterizes individuals and groups of primates. This plasticity of behavior has apparently played a major role in the evolutionary success of primates by allowing them to adapt to a variety of social and environmental conditions … . The variability and plasticity of the behavior … suggests an optimistic or “
This is not to say that such plasticity always has an identifiable “function” in relation to specific environmental or social factors (even though a few such “functions” can be discerned in specific cases, as we saw in previous chapters). Behavioral versatility is best regarded as a
Taken together, these observations—of sexual diversity, and the strength imparted by such sexual variability—lead to an important conclusion. The concept of biodiversity should be extended to include not only the genetic variety, but also the
In a rain forest that contains many hundreds of thousands of species of mammals, birds, insects, plants, and so on, the “purpose” of yet one more kind of beetle may be difficult to see—except when understood in terms of its contribution to the overall complexity and vitality of the environment. Similarly, the “function” of a particular social or sexual behavior such as homosexual courtship or heterosexual reverse mounting may seem minimal or even nonexistent at the level of a particular species or individual. But its contribution to the overall strength of the system is independent of such “utility” (or lack thereof) and is also independent of the proportion of the population that participates in it. Every individual, every behavior—whether productive or “counterproductive,” comprising 1 percent or 99 percent of the population—has a part to play. Its role is not
The Extravagance of Biological Systems
—GEORGES BATAILLE, “Laws of General Economy”109
There are many points of contact between biodiversity studies, chaos science, and the new evolutionary paradigms, but one of the most significant common threads running through these three disciplines is a recognition of the profound
To formally recognize this “extravagance,” and also to consolidate some of the converging ideas in these disciplines, we propose the concept of Biological Exuberance, after the work of noted French author and philosopher Georges Bataille.115 Bataille has presented, in his theory of General Economy, a radical revision in the way we think about the flow of energy in both natural and cultural systems (or “economies”). According to his view, excess and exuberance are primary driving forces of biological systems, as much if not more so than scarcity (competition for resources) or functionality (the “usefulness” of a particular form or behavior). Bataille’s fundamental observation is that all organisms are provided with more energy than they need to stay alive—the source of this energy is, ultimately, the sun. This surplus of energy will first be used for the growth of the organism (or larger biological system), but when the system reaches its limits of growth, the excess energy must be spent, expressed in some other form, “used up,” or otherwise destroyed. The typical ways that such energy is “squandered,” Bataille observes, are through sexual reproduction, consumption by other organisms (eating), and death.
Life on this planet is above all characterized by what Bataille calls “the superabundance of biochemical energy” freely given to it by the sun. The challenge confronting life, then, is not scarcity, but excess—what to do with all this extra energy. Virtually all outpouring of activity, both (pro)creative
This theory turns conventional ideas about the world on their head. In spite of its unorthodox perspective, though, it accords startlingly well with a number of observations that scientists have been making for many years (and not just the obvious ones, such as that solar energy is the driving force behind all life and movement on this planet). We have already seen that scientists in such diverse areas as chaos theory, biodiversity studies, and post-Darwinian evolution have been forced to confront the unmitigated extravagance of natural systems, in all their “splendor and squalor.”117 Yet researchers who do not necessarily consider themselves to be part of these “new” streams of thought have independently come to similar conclusions. This is particularly true with regard to the three “expenditures” that Bataille’s theory singles out—sexual reproduction, eating, and death.