In this blog post, we will look at how paternal love, defying the logic of natural selection and genes, has evolved through human memes and culture.
For humans and most mammals, maternal love has been the most important force in the reproduction of the species. Mammals are born after being protected in the mother’s body as placental reproduction develops. Since they grow to a certain size in the mother’s womb, mammals cannot give birth to many offspring at once, and they have developed maternal love to care for their children affectionately in order to leave more genes behind. This is an undeniable fact that has evolved through natural selection, and it has been studied that the genes responsible for maternal love are located on the X chromosome, so all females have the maternal love genes. On the other hand, fathers have not been selected by natural selection to have paternal love. Nevertheless, fatherly love has become a virtue that should be naturally present in human society, and we were able to grow up under the warm love of our fathers. In this article, I will argue that this fatherly love has been culturally shaped through memes.
First, let’s look at examples of animals with strong fatherly love. The most representative examples are the fatherly love of sea dragons and emperor penguins. In the case of haerong, the male has a nursery pouch, where the female lays her eggs, and the male protects and cares for the eggs in the pouch alone until they hatch. When the mother penguin lays her eggs, the male penguin also protects the eggs and endures the cold without eating for about 65 days. The reason these animals have fatherly love is the result of natural selection, as female sea dragons lay eggs and are unable to move for a day after laying them, and the female emperor penguins that lay eggs are also unable to withstand the cold for 65 days. As such, fatherly love for species preservation is different from human fatherly love, which is about forming an emotional bond with one’s child. So, what role did paternal love play in human evolution?
When we look at paternal love from the perspective of genes, paternal love is very harmful to genes. For humans who take care of their children until they grow up, paternal love can be fatal to genes. Paternal love can increase the chances of a child’s survival, but it also means giving up the opportunity to spread one’s genes. From the perspective of genes, spreading is the top priority, so paternal love is considered a great loss. Moreover, in many countries, the environment has been created in which a mother can take care of her children alone, so paternal love is even more of a loss from the perspective of genes. For these reasons, the fact that paternal love, which goes against the theory of genes, has grown over time suggests that paternal love has not evolved through natural selection.
Human paternal love is not helpful from a genetic perspective, which raises the question, “Where did human paternal love originate?” I believe the answer lies in the fact that humans are not simple robots driven by genes, but higher life forms with thoughts and reason. This is because humans have the ability to pioneer life after birth, unlike the “genetic machine” that Richard Dawkins argued.
Humans are the only animals that can create memes through reason and thought. For example, Psy’s “Gangnam Style” is a meme created by singer Psy and dancers, and the songs of Super Junior and Twice have also formed a new culture called the Korean Wave as a meme. This new culture is expressed through Korean music and dance in venues, clubs, and cafes around the world. As such, culture is formed through the interaction between memes, and humans are influenced by these cultures non-genetically. This can be seen as an acquired change, and paternal love is one such example. Humans, who come into contact with social conventions, values, and civilization, experience acquired changes such as fatherhood. Currently, a culture has been formed in which there are morals between couples and a duty to raise children, and fathers who come into contact with this have become fatherly.
In 2014, there was an incident that shocked Korea. A father who was addicted to games killed his son because the baby kept crying. As shown in this incident, this father lacked paternal love. He was addicted to games and cut off from society, and he was unable to acquire acquired paternal love because he was not influenced by memes. According to statistics on domestic violence in Korea, 77% of cases are committed by fathers and 16% by mothers. This 4.8-fold difference shows that if maternal love is an inevitable love that has evolved through natural selection, paternal love is selective. In particular, fathers who lack paternal love often have social problems or mental illnesses. This shows that a lack of paternal love can be caused by a lack of culture, and that paternal love is an acquired change in humans who have been exposed to culture.
Humans sometimes make choices that are not related to their survival instincts. This is influenced by memes, and the economic situation has a particularly large impact on humans. A typical example is the process of deciding the number of children. In South Korea, the average cost of raising a child to the age of independence is 200 million won, so people choose the number of children they have based on their economic circumstances. In this way, people are not bound by their genes and can pioneer a new life based on the memes and judgments they come across. From a genetic standpoint, human thought and reason are a kind of virus. Of course, this virus cannot shake the huge framework created by genes, but these judgments enhance the value of life. The ability to have paternal love is a blessing that allows us to create a harmonious family, unlike other animals, and paternal love is true love that comes from the father’s rational judgment and thought, not from genes.
