Hard-Wired to Party

(2 of 2)

Would a political protest, where thousands of people get together in Washington, be an example of this?

I think there's been kind of a carnivalization of protests, that occurred in the late 90s and continues, especially among what are called the anti-globalization protesters. If you look at the 1999 Seattle protests, there was a tremendous amount of costuming, the famous "turtle suits" worn by the environmentalists, as well as music. I went a rally in Brazil in 2004. It was fascinating — people came with their drums, and some people had face paint on, like they might at a soccer game. People were dancing in the streets.

How does Christmas fit in into this?

Christmas used to be a very raucous outdoor celebration, in the English tradition. So much so that it was really condemned by a lot of religious figures, and banned in some of the states in the 18th and 19th century. What we've done to the holiday is to turn it into something you have to celebrate privately, in your home, in your family. You don't put on costumes as you might once have done, and go from door to door, and then dance in the public square. You stay indoors, among your family. But I'm always fascinated by how people increasingly costume for Christmas. You get a Christmas sweater; you get earrings that are in the form of Christmas decorations; you wear a Santa hat. I think that's sort of a reaching out, saying "Let's make this a public holiday again."

Will you do something festive on New Year's this year?

(Laughs) I don't have a plan yet.

So we shouldn't look for you in Times Square?

No, no. I think that's so sad at Times Square where they all stand still under close police supervision, but you can't move. You can't dance around. You can't really mingle.

Do you believe that this is in our wiring, that human beings are born with this need?

I would make the argument, yes, that it is. Robin Dunbar wrote the book Grooming, Gossip and the Evolution of Language, about how important it was in human evolution to be able to increase group size beyond small bands of related people, important for defense. That defense was originally against predatory animals, then a growing need to defend against other primates and finally against other humans. That may well have selected for humans who had these skills and talents. Evolutionary biologists always beat their heads up against these things. Why do people do things like music? Why do they dance? These are things that are big calorie burners, a tremendous amount of energy at times. You don't do things like that over hundreds of thousands of years and survive unless it's some selective advantage. So I'd say we're hard-wired to party.