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Science may be used by dominant groups to control their environment, including the people they rule, by either directing research to give them more power or by using supposedly value-free science to justify political & social actions. An example of this is sociobiology, an attempt to discover the biological basis for human & animal social behavior. This recently emerged as a discipline with the publication of E. O. Wilson's Sociobiology: A New Synthesis (Cambridge, 1975). Despite claims to the contrary, sociobiology would be meaningless if it were not basically biologically deterministic so it can be viewed as the latest phase of the "nature vs nurture" question. Biological determinism tends to justify the status quo, as exemplified by sociobiology considerations of the unequal treatment of women in our society. Opposed to biological determinism is radical environmentalism, which has demonstrated an appeal for groups of the Left. Neither extreme position is supported by evidence. The nature-nurture controversy can be best understood in terms of biological & cultural evolution. M. Migalski.

International audience ; Climatic variations since the end of the last ice age have been large enough to influence the fate of ancient civilizations, and deciphering the exact role of climate in the history of old societies is an active and challenging domain of research. This potential influence, which serves as the foundation of `climate determinism,' can be viewed as the response of natural-resource-dependent, agriculture-based communities to climatically driven environmental changes. In some cases, these could have provoked major damage in economic and social organization of the societies, thus paving the way for political disintegration.

International audience ; Climatic variations since the end of the last ice age have been large enough to influence the fate of ancient civilizations, and deciphering the exact role of climate in the history of old societies is an active and challenging domain of research. This potential influence, which serves as the foundation of `climate determinism,' can be viewed as the response of natural-resource-dependent, agriculture-based communities to climatically driven environmental changes. In some cases, these could have provoked major damage in economic and social organization of the societies, thus paving the way for political disintegration.

International audience ; Climatic variations since the end of the last ice age have been large enough to influence the fate of ancient civilizations, and deciphering the exact role of climate in the history of old societies is an active and challenging domain of research. This potential influence, which serves as the foundation of `climate determinism,' can be viewed as the response of natural-resource-dependent, agriculture-based communities to climatically driven environmental changes. In some cases, these could have provoked major damage in economic and social organization of the societies, thus paving the way for political disintegration.