FIRST OTHER THEORY – THE PATERNITY OF CIVILISATION – EVOLUTIONARY ROOTS OF ATTACHMENT AND THE PATERNAL ROLE IN FORMATION OF CIVILISATION

Resurrexit Spiritus part 7

Dr. Marcus Aurelius Roe (2023)

“For where there is envy and strife, there is an incompleteness; but where there is unity, there is completeness. Since this incompleteness came about because they did not know the father, from the moment when they know the father, incompleteness will cease to exist. As one’s ignorance disappears when one gains knowledge, and as darkness disappears when light appears, so also incompleteness is eliminated by completeness.”

-The Gospel of Truth

Matrilateral bias has been theoretically linked to historical paternity uncertainty, evolutionarily. However, I demonstrated matrilateral bias in relationships to nephews and nieces, or niblings, is predicted by the more original matrilateral bias in relationships to the connective siblings, in my dissertation (Roe, 2021). This suggests much more immediate and primary evolutionary mechanisms in attachment and familism for explaining matrilateral bias. I concluded the study by theorising matrilateral bias as more accurately characterised greater paternal disinterest and male criminality informing a general patrilineal and patrilateral alienation within families.

MONAD OF LIFE

Mother and child present the monadic toward dyadic staging of mammalian life creation. They are pregnancy, neonate, and infancy. The first stage is purely mother and child. In both successive stages, a child discovers greater independence and otherness. Throughout infancy that original bond is reaffirmed with each breastfeeding (Linde et al., 2020). The first and most important other to this monad is the father. This is a special distinction in social behaviour.

SECONDARY ATTACHMENT OR SOCIALISATION

Before the presence of the father, all is still of the self. At first, the mother is not clearly divided from person. The child is first part of the mother. Slowly the child separates from self-maternal socialisation into the self alone, separate from mother.

Contrarily, the secondary socialisation in the paternal relationship is separate from beginning, setting the precedent of all interactions afterward. The father is the first other, ever-present, modelling all future social procedures. He is the first introduction the child has to the society of others. Siblings and kin provide the more erratic tertiary social experience within the primary context of a father figure. In the absence of a stable father, social procedures are modelled on sibling errata and interactions with family and friends, or 21st century internet friends (Lei & Wu, 2020).

One fact that can be deduced from the attachment theory is that people are triggered into various behavioural modes by differences in parenting styles. Perhaps the most imposing determinant of parenting styles are the basic social, cultural, and physical realities surrounding that parenting endeavour (Su & Hynie, 2011). Personality derives largely from genetic divergence and parental attachments felt as environmental signals. Fatherhood plays a central role in the development of personality (Borisenko, 2007). This is logical as overall parental posture to the child and the World are likely the most accurate indicators to the child of important environmental factors and feasibility of lifestyle.

With these behavioural modes travel basic expectations of the World at large. This is extremely valuable for readying generational behavioural customisation in anticipation of changes. Individuals were especially selected for providing appropriate solutions to complex social problems. Those with attitudes and personality traits best adapted to the problems, found the greatest fitness.

Without the additional resources of a father figure, many children can only hope for fortunate windfalls. Such windfalls in difficult environments might come from violence and erratic spectacle, but rarely ever from peaceful or docile behaviours. Likewise, children raised by a father with resources would likely not benefit from displaying violence or erratic behaviours, at least not publicly. Regardless, different behaviours serve these lifestyles, and their missteps are opposite. So it is risky behaviours are more common among people who were raised without a father (Seidel, 2022).

The parental style has a great influence upon sexual behaviours (Rupp & Rosenthal, 2007). Parental behaviours and attitudes influence children and their outcomes tremendously (Boonk et al., 2018). The witnessed and understood behaviours of the father and mother strongly signal social standing, gender ratios, and commonality of infidelity within a community. Those accurately reactive to these signals prove the most beneficial mode given the criteria by demonstrating fitness through the resultant behaviours. This suggests an evolutionary cause for the phenomena explained by attachment theory. Personality disorders then evolved as different evolutionary survival modes reactive to environment, childhood adversities acting as models for navigating difficult societies (McDermott & Barik, 2014).

THE FIRST OTHER

In first other theory, the paternal attachment begins by the neonatal stage. The paternal attachment develops with the child so long as the father remains a consistent figure in life. From the earliest moments, it is the father who is best placed to create those interactions with a first other.

The best predictor for a man’s paternal behaviours are those of his own father (Gettler et al., 2019). Witnessing and experiencing fatherhood prepare boys for the role. Witnessing the interactions with the father throughout the family sets the stage for the future society of the children. The presence of the father enables the trigger of a certain mode of fatherly and monogamous behaviour, based upon perceived fitness of lifestyle.

It is the bond of fatherhood that endears a boy to humanity. The presence of the father figure keeps boys out of trouble (Mackey & Coney, 2000). Without the bond of the father, a boy will find a more difficult path to love. He is less forgiving of fellows their inferred insults against him and more likely to insult others. Fatherless boys and girls have substantially higher rates of criminality and recidivism (Seidel, 2022).

The presence of an emotionally stable father should theoretically signal more modelling behaviours in children. The father figure provides a foundation for alignment in the Kratos domain. The demonstrated preferences of the father in proto-socialisation, conformation, and resistance guide those selections in the children.

It is the positive interactions of fathers that socialise males for lower cost interactions with others. It is the fatherly presence that acculturates males, creating stronger bonds between the generations for the transference of culture (Haufiku, 2013). Behaviour opposite to fatherhood weakens this course. This also means that opposite behaviour patterns could potentially contradict fatherhood across the proceeding generations. Without the father figure, it seems, the social man degenerates to a lesser version of himself.

It is the bond of fatherhood that teaches a girl to understand and not to fear or hate men (Mackey & Coney, 2000). The strength of her father’s bond and the modelled presence of his monogamous interactions to mother set the stage for her own relationship expectations and sexual behaviours. Monogamous relationships best enable the bond of fatherhood to occur.

Fatherhood enables fatherhood. It is fatherhood that allows for the productive coexistence of the sexes. It is fatherhood that empowers men to value and promote the continuance of their own culture and civilisation. Logically then, fatherhood is the self-perpetuating lifestyle that acts as the engine of civilisation. In short, fathers generate civilisation.

REFERENCES

Boonk, L., Gijselaers, H. J., Ritzen, H., & Brand-Gruwel, S. (2018). A review of the relationship between parental involvement indicators and academic achievement. Educational Research Review, 24, 10–30.

Borisenko, J. (2007). Fatherhood as a personality development factor in men. The Spanish Journal of Psychology, 10(1), 82–90.

Gettler, L. T., Kuo, P. X., Bas, A., & Borja, J. B. (2019). The roles of parents in shaping fathering across generations in Cebu, Philippines. Journal of Marriage and Family, 81(3), 662–678. https://doi.org/10.1111/jomf.12568

Haufiku, J. (2013). The interplay between fatherhood and male identity in family life among the Ovawambo of Namibia: A pastoral hermeneutical approach.

Lei, L., & Wu, Y. (2007). Adolescents’ Paternal Attachment and Internet Use. CyberPsychology & Behavior, 10(5), 633–639. https://doi.org/10.1089/cpb.2007.9976

Linde, K., Lehnig, F., Nagl, M., & Kersting, A. (2020). The association between breastfeeding and attachment: A systematic review. Midwifery, 81, 102592.

Mackey, W. C., & Coney, N. S. (2000). The enigma of father presence in relationship to sons’ violence and daughters’ mating strategies: Empiricism in search of a theory. The Journal of Men’s Studies, 8(3), 349–373.

Roe, M. (2021). Aunt and Uncle Matrilateral Bias Towards Niblings Predicted by Bias Towards Siblings. ProQuest Dissertations Publishing, Evolutionary and Social Psychology. https://www.proquest.com/openview/77d2700023dde8c7a9de67483ea8013b/

Rupp, R., & Rosenthal, S. L. (2007). Parental influences on adolescent sexual behaviors. Adolescent Medicine: State of the Art Reviews, 18(3), 460–470.

Seidel, F. L. P. (2022). The Proclivity of Juvenile Crime in Fatherless Homes: An Urban Perspective.

Su, C., & Hynie, M. (2011). Effects of life stress, social support, and cultural norms on parenting styles among mainland Chinese, European Canadian, and Chinese Canadian immigrant mothers. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 42(6), 944–962.