Mutual aid theory and human development: Sociability as primary

Mutual aid theory emerged as a model for evolution in pre-revolutionary Rus sia, roughly parallel to the rise of evolutionary theory in England. Perhap s the most well known exponent of mutual aid theory was the sociobiologist and political theorist Petr Kropotkin. In his writings Kropotkin embraced t he general framework of Darwin's ideas, but stressed the issue of social co operation, as opposed to egoistic competition, as the keystone of species d evelopment. Kropotkin suggested that sociability, the desire of members of a species to be in relationship with their own, and the quality of life the y get from these relationships, is primary; and that all species developmen t flows from this sociability. Sociability is developed over the course of evolution through a process of natural selection: organisms with greater ca pabilities for social organization based on mutual aid have far greater cha nces for survival across a wide spectrum of ecological conditions. Kropotki n's theory of sociability is both unique and scientifically valid, and it c alls into question some of the basic pre-suppositions of not only current, dominant models of sociobiology, but much human development theory and rese arch. The final part of this paper suggests some of the ways mutual aid the ory might lead the field to rethink issues concerning culture and human dev elopment.