Bruce Bagemihl - Biological Exuberance

There are a number of parallels between post-Darwinian thought and the emerging science of chaos. Chaos theory is, fundamentally, a recognition of the unpredictability and nonlinearity of natural (and human) phenomena, including apparently destructive or “unproductive” events such as natural catastrophes. Although originally developed in the fields of mathematics, physics, and computer science, chaos science was quickly applied to biological phenomena. In fact, the periodic fluctuations of animal and plant populations were among the first examples of “chaotic behavior” to be uncovered in the natural world. Chaos theory has since been successfully used in the analysis of a wide range of natural and social phenomena, including biological systems (from the ecosystem to the cellular level) and evolutionary processes. Indeed, chaos scientist Joseph Ford has stated that “evolution is chaos with feedback.” 93The fractal or “chaotically ordered” structure of nature has even been revealed in the behavior patterns of individual animals and in the “self-organizing” architecture of honeybee combs. 94

Arrhythmias, discordant harmonies, and aperiodicities are some of the characterizations of “chaotic” natural phenomena that have been offered. These terms are attempts to convey the idea that fundamental principles of “pattern organization” direct, but do not entirely determine, the development or “shape” of biological (and other) entities. The internal dynamics of such systems generate unpredictable, but not random, patterns. 95This concept is echoed in recent reappraisals of “adaptationist” explanations for the diversity of plant and animal forms. As one ornithologist studying the proliferation and elaboration of bird plumage has observed, traditional evolutionary theory may be able to account for how a specific pattern, color, or form has developed, but it cannot explain why or how such incredible variety arose in the first place: “Such hypotheses explain a large variety of traits as divergent as a widowbird’s tail, a rooster’s comb, a peacock’s train, or the black bib of a sparrow. While these hypotheses can account for some features of the trait, they cannot account for the enormous diversity in conspicuous traits—why some birds have red heads and others long tails even though the same basic process… may be at work.” 96Most current theories of phenomena such as plumage diversity still focus on the putative functional or adaptive role of specific patterns rather than the overall range of variation. However, this is an area where the application of principles from chaos theory might yield fruitful results. 97

So too for diversity of sexual and gender expression. One of the more important insights to emerge from chaos theory is that the natural world often behaves in seemingly inexplicable or “counterproductive” ways as part of its “normal” functioning. According to Sally Goerner (in her discussion of chaos, evolution, and deep ecology), “Time and again, nonlinear models show that apparently aberrant, illogical behavior is, in fact, a completely lawful part of the system.” Similarly, biologist Donald Worster remarks that “scientists are beginning to focus on what they had long managed to avoid seeing. The world is more complex than we ever imagined… and indeed, some would add, ever can imagine.” More than half a century earlier, evolutionary biologist J. B. S. Haldane presaged these thoughts when he commented that “the universe is not only queerer than we suppose, it is queerer than we can suppose”—words we used to open this book. 98Although none of these scientists is referring specifically to homosexuality, the alternate systems of gender and sexuality found throughout the animal kingdom are exactly the sort of “discontinuities” and “irrational” events that should be generated in a “chaotic” system.

Particularly relevant in this respect is Goerner’s statement of one of five basic “principles” of chaos: “Nonlinear systems may exhibit qualitative transformations of behavior (bifurcations) . The idea is simple: a single system may exhibit many different forms of behavior—all the result of the same basic dynamic. One equation, many faces. A corollary to this idea is that a system may have… multiple competing forms of behavior, each perhaps a hairsbreadth away, each representing stable mutual-effect organization.” 99Transposed to the realm of sexuality, this idea offers the potential for intriguing insights: heterosexuality, homosexuality, and all variants in between can be seen as alternative manifestations of a single sexual “dynamic,” as it were, which is itself part of a much larger nonlinear system. The “flux” of this system is played out in endless and infinitely varying expressions within individual lives, through various communities, between different species, across sequences of time, and so on and so forth.

Though chaos theory has been applied to various social phenomena, it has yet to be used in the analysis of patterns of sexual behavior. It remains to be seen whether something as relatively elusive as sexual and gender expression could even be quantified to the extent required by the rigorous mathematical models of chaos science. Nevertheless, the broader insights offered by chaos theory are readily apparent: seemingly incoherent or counterintuitive phenomena—whether in the realm of inorganic chemistry or “sexual chemistry”—are components of an overall pattern, regardless of whatever meaning (or lack thereof) they may have individually. In essence, deviation from the norm is part of the norm.

Nearly two decades ago, British scientist James Lovelock published his book Gaia: A New Look at Life on Earth, ushering in a new era in biological thought. What has come to be known as the Gaia hypothesis or Gaia theory has had an immeasurable impact on the way science looks at natural systems in general, and evolution in particular. Gaia theory says that the sum of all living and nonliving matter forms a single self-regulating entity, analogous to a giant living organism. Converging with the results of post-Darwinian evolutionary theory, the Gaia hypothesis has prompted a rethinking of some of the most basic principles of evolution. Cooperation, in addition to competition, is seen as an important force of evolutionary change, while the search for adaptive explanations at the level of the individual has been shifted upward to also include whole species as well as the functioning of the entire biosphere. Although not without controversy, Gaia theory has spawned a number of innovative ideas, many of which are beginning to be empirically and experimentally verified, and has led to important cross-disciplinary collaborations between scientists. 101

Once again, these new strands of thought have powerful implications for the way animal homosexuality and, more broadly, systems of sexuality and gender are construed. As Lovelock (quoted above) has observed, reproduction is not necessarily a required component of “survival”—in some instances, it may be beneficial for a species or an ecosystem as a whole if some of its members do not procreate. Of course, it is overly simplistic to equate homosexuality with nonreproduction (since, as we saw in previous chapters, many animals that engage in same-sex activity also procreate). There is also little evidence to support the idea that homosexuality operates as a kind of large-scale “population-regulating” mechanism (perhaps the most obvious “function” that would be ascribed to homosexuality in a Gaian interpretation). Nevertheless, one of the fundamental insights of Gaia theory—the value it accords to “paradoxical” phenomena—is directly applicable to homosexuality and transgender. Indeed, the “mosaic” or mixture of male and female characteristics found in intersexual animals such as gynandromorphs is used by some Gaian theorists as a model of multiplicity within oneness, the transformation of disjuncture into wholeness—in other words, the very image of the earth itself. 102