Among the more elaborate behaviours exhibited by Homo sapiens are a family of collective ceremonies devoted to the production of agreement.
These rituals appear in many forms.
Committees.
Panels.
Symposia.
Working groups.
Consensus conferences.
Royal commissions.
Task forces.
Strategic consultations.
The external details vary considerably.
The underlying structure is strikingly stable.
Participants gather because an important question lacks an accepted answer.
They then establish procedures through which the absence of agreement may gradually acquire institutional legitimacy.
Early observers assumed the purpose of these gatherings was to discover truth.
This interpretation now appears incomplete.
Truth occasionally emerges.
Agreement, however, appears to be the more reliable product.
The distinction is subtle.
A proposition may become socially actionable long before it becomes universally convincing.
This allows the tribe to continue functioning while philosophical questions remain unresolved.
The achievement deserves greater recognition than it has generally received.
Human civilisation would proceed only intermittently if every disagreement required complete resolution before breakfast.
Particularly noteworthy is the ceremonial vocabulary surrounding these events.
Discussions become consultations.
Differences become perspectives.
Disagreement becomes constructive engagement.
Persistent disagreement becomes an opportunity for future dialogue.
Failure to agree becomes a promising basis for continued collaboration.
The species displays extraordinary linguistic creativity when approaching intellectual deadlock.
The rituals themselves follow a recognisable sequence.
Questions are raised.
Evidence is presented.
Subgroups are established.
Further evidence is requested.
Recommendations are drafted.
Recommendations are revised.
Recommendations concerning the recommendations are circulated.
At this point, observers often lose track of the original question.
Participants rarely appear troubled by this development.
The process has become self-sustaining.
One fascinating characteristic is the importance attached to inclusivity.
Representatives from every relevant perspective are invited.
Where possible, additional perspectives are identified.
Where insufficient perspectives exist, they may be developed through further consultation.
The resulting diversity is widely celebrated.
Whether it produces greater certainty remains difficult to establish.
It unquestionably produces longer meetings.
The anthropologist should resist the temptation to regard these practices as inefficient.
On the contrary.
They perform several indispensable cultural functions simultaneously.
They distribute responsibility.
They reduce conflict.
They transform isolated opinions into collective positions.
Most importantly, they allow difficult decisions to emerge with no identifiable point at which any individual appears solely responsible.
This adaptation has proved remarkably successful.
An especially intriguing phenomenon occurs near the conclusion of many rituals.
Having spent several days acknowledging profound disagreement, participants frequently produce a final document expressing broad consensus.
The mechanisms responsible for this transition remain imperfectly understood.
Coffee appears to play a contributory role.
Researchers once hypothesised that agreement represented the natural endpoint of discussion.
Accumulated evidence suggests the reverse.
Discussion often functions as the natural endpoint of agreement.
Once participants agree that they have reached sufficient agreement, the ritual concludes.
The remaining uncertainties are respectfully transferred to future committees.
This intergenerational migration of unresolved questions constitutes one of humanity's more elegant cultural achievements.
Each generation inherits uncertainty.
It also inherits the minutes.
Field Note 7:
Human beings display an unusual ability to transform unresolved questions into standing agenda items.
Field Note 8:
Consensus appears to function less as the elimination of disagreement than as the collective decision to proceed despite it.
Field Note 9:
The species has developed sophisticated rituals for ensuring that no important uncertainty ever need feel socially isolated.
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