"Forms of Social Control and Dependence among the Dorians of Sparta and Crete : A Troubling Sociobiology in the Background ?" This paper seeks to address the question of whether the sociobiological explanatory pattern applies to ancient descriptions of human behaviour, with respect to relationships of control and dependence in the societies of Sparta and Crete in the classical and Hellenistic periods. The following evidence is examined : 1) Aristotle, Politics, 1269b, 12-27, and 1270a, 11-31 ; 2) Dosiadas, FGrH, 458 F2 ; 3) Pyrgion, FGrH, 467 F1 ; and 4) ICret IV 72 col. VI, 55-VII, 4 (Gortyn Code).