The OBS Perspective and Ancestral Human Life

Abstract

Overview: Having developed the ontogenetic bonding system (OBS) framework around the central construct of a Perception-Central Processing-Behavior (P-CP-B) schema, we go back in this chapter to examine how this mechanism might have served in the environment of our evolutionary adaptedness (the EEA). We begin by developing a consen sus view of human life in the EEA in terms of its physical and social setting, usual life history, and major behavioral and social patterns. We then examine how the OBS framework fits with the consensus view, using three different perspectives. The first perspective is an evolutionary model in which the organism’s ultimate goals are related through intermediate steps to the proximate mechanism of a P-CP-B schema. The second perspective is based on what we call bonding stagetypical relationships. The third perspective makes use of what we know about sex differences in bonding. After discussing these three perspectives, we turn to a consideration of what each stage of bonding — succorance, affiliation, sexuality, and nurturance — was like in the EEA and how this description is enriched and clarified by examining it from these three perspectives.