Part Two: The Emotional-Territorial Circuit

The second circuit, the emotional-territorial networks of the brain, is concerned entirely with power politics. This "patriotic" circuit is built into all vertebrates and is perhaps 500 million to 1000 million years old. In the modern human it seems to be centralized in the thalamus -- the "back brain" or "old brain" and is linked with the voluntary nervous system and the muscles.

This circuit appears in each newborn when the DNA master tape sends out RNA messenger molecules to trigger the mutation from neonate to "toddler", which involves first of all standing erect. Walking, mastering gravity, overcoming physical obstacles and learning to manipulate others politically are the vulnerable points at which imprinting and heavy conditioning occur. The muscles that perform these power functions are quickly programmed with what become chronic, life-long reflexes.

Depending as always upon the accidents of the environment -- what happens at points of neurological vulnerability -- this circuit will organize itself into a strong, dominating role in the pack (or family) or a weak, submissive role. Without going into the jungles with the ethologists, one can observe this mammalian imprinting process in any litter of puppies. It is very quickly determined who is TOP DOG and who is BOTTOM DOG.

Status in the pack or tribe is assigned on the basis of pre-verbal signaling system (kenesics) in which these muscle reflexes are crucial.

The standard "authority" reflex on the emotional-territorial circuit is to swell the muscles and howl. You will find this among birds as well as mammals, and in the Board meeting of your local bank. The standard "submission" reflex is to shrink the muscles, lower the head, and "crawl away." You will find this among dogs, primates, fowl, and employees who wish to keep their jobs everywhere.

If the first (bio-survival) circuit is chiefly imprinted by the mother, the second (emotional-territorial) circuit is chiefly imprinted by the father -- the nearest alpha male. It has been proposed, by sociologist G. Rattray Taylor that societies swing back and forth between "Matrist" periods, in which motherly oral values predominate, and "Patrist" periods, in which fatherly anal values are in ascendance.

Taylor's table of the characteristics of these "Matrist" and "Patrist" periods is as follows:

MATRIST PATRIST
Permissive toward sex Restrictive toward sex
Freedom for women Limitation of freedom for women
Women have high status Women have low status
Chastity not valued Chastity highly valued
Egalitarian Authoritarian
Progressive Conservative
No distrust of research Distrust of research
Spontaneous Inhibitions
Sex differences minimized Sex differences maximized
Fear of incest Fear of homosexuality
Hedonic Ascetic
Mother Goddess Father God

Whether or not societies wobble between these extremes as Taylor claims, individuals certainly do. These are merely the consequences of a) having the heaviest imprint on the oral (Matrist) bio-survival circuit or b) having the heaviest imprint on the anal (Patrist) territorial circuit.

In pre-ethological terms, the emotional-territorial circuit is what we usually call "ego." Ego is simply the mammalian recognition of one's status in the pack; it is a "role" as sociologists say, a single brain circuit which mistakes itself for the whole Self, the entire brain-mind apparatus. The "egotist" behaves like "a two year old," in the common saying, because Ego is the imprint of the toddling and toilet-training stage.

The question of hwo human an animal is (especially a pet dog or cat) never ceases to divide scientists from laypersons -- and one scientist from another. In terms of the present theory, the differences between domesticated primates (humans) and other domesticated animals are virtually nil, as long as we are talking only about the first two circuits. (Since most people spend most of their time on these primitive circuits, the differences are often much less obvious than the similarities.) Real differences begin to appear when the third, semantic circuit enters the picture.

For instance, novice dog-trainers always make the mistake of using too many words. Because the dog is so "human" in so many ways (canines, like primates, are great mimics), the novice imputes too much "humanity" to them. The average dog has a vocabulary of around 150 words, and within that semantic universe is quite bright. It is very easy to teach a dog the meaning of "Sit," "Stay," "Attack," etc.; and the dog will learn the meaning of "walk" and "food" even without your trying to teach him. The problem begins when the novice expects the dog to understand something like "No, no, Fritz -- anywhere else in the bedroom, but not on the bed." Even a non-English-speaking human would not grasp that, except vaguely. The dog gives up on such sentences and guesses what he can from your mammalian (and unconscious) body-language.

Understanding these disctinctions can vastly improve primate-canine communication. For instance, my wife, a sociologist, trained our dog, Fang, not to beg at the table in the most direct mammalian language possible. She simple growled at him the first few times he approached her while she was eating. (She had been reading ethology, of course.) Fang understood fully; he soon learned to avoid the table while the Pack-Leaders (my wife and myself) were eating. His genetic programs told him we were the Big Dogs, or as close to the Big Dogs as he could find in that environment; dogs, like wolves, have a genetic program about not annoying the Big Dogs while they're eating. The growl told him all he needed to know about the local paramaters of that rule.

Persons (extreme cases) who take the heaviest imprint on this territorial-emotional circuit tend to be musculotonic. That is, they old most of their attention and energy, in the muscular attack-defense systems and grow up medium weight -- heavy enough to be hard to knock down, light enough to be quick and sinewy.

Most societies shunt these types into the military where their propensities are put to proper ethological use, defending the tribal turf.

Since we all contain a territorial-emotional circuit we need to exercize it daily.

Playing with children is one good exercize -- especially if you play with large groups, in which case you will have to referee mammalian territorial disputes. Swimming, jogging or whatever else appeals to you is good, to keep the muscles from feeling you are trying to starve them. Trying to "psych out" somebody else's emotional state is one of the best exercizes for this circuit, and is very educational in general. It activates the old mammal centers in the thalamus where body-language communicates emotional signals.

A good General uses this circuit to "psych out" what the enemy General is planning. A good mother uses it, vice versa, to figure out what baby's howl means in each particular case.

Advanced work with this circuit, involving some hazards in personal relations, would involve such games as learning to bully somebody if you've never been able to do that before, learning to submit docilely if you've never been able to do that before, and learning to express anger appropriately and letting go of it when it is no longer necessary.

Introduction
Part One: The Bio-Survival Circuit
Part Three: The Semantic Circuit
Part Four: The Socio-Sexual Circuit
Part Five: The Circuits and communication

C.