The article by Will Hively entitled Family man discusses family-oriented behavior of birds (the species is called bee-eaters) and applies these patterns to human society. One of the aspects of bee-eaters behavior which surprised the scientist Emlen was their great motivation for helping the other members of their community, e.g. with setting new nests and raising and feeding smaller individuals (Hively, p.29). The scientific observations of the researchers suggested that all the bird involved into the network of mutual help and support were relatives, parents and children, uncles, aunts, cousins and nephews, brothers and sisters and so forth. Therefore, the initial idea of altruism that challenged the popular theory of the selfish gene was rebutted, as helping others on the basis of kinship means ensuring the survival of ones own genes at 50-percent, 25-percent or other level, depending on the closeness of the kinship. Interestingly, bee-eaters are monogamous tend to create stable families for the whole life. As the study suggests, when certain
individuals form their offspring tried to establish their own nests with a mate, the whole family, from parents to cousins, interfere with the life of the young couple and in order to increase the probability of the failure of this nest so that the youngsters return to their parents or other relatives and continue helping them. Moreover, the relationships between different families are quite strained, and pairing with the individuals from other families is not welcomed. All these natural mechanisms show that the major goal of an activity of a living being in this world is preservation of the individuals genes, which is more effective in families. This principle applies to human beings, as before the 20th century, extended families were common due to the uneven distribution of resources among individuals. Nowadays, a human being is much more independent, but it is hard to break natural laws: for instance, in the families of both birds and humans where a remarriage takes place, there is less evidence of helping among half-brothers and half-sisters.