In evolutionary biology, few issues have caused more debate than altruism or what appears to be altruism. It is generally accepted that selection operates on individual organisms and that these organisms are selfishly interested in their own survival and reproduction. Another way of stating this is that individual organisms are interested solely in passing along [...]
Tags:altruism·archetypal·Carl Jung·cooperation·coyote·culture hero·David Sloan Wilson·E.O. Wilson·Elliot Sober·Franz Boas·George Price·George Williams·group level selection·inclusive fitness·Jerry Coyne·John Maynard Smith·Kantian·kin selection·kindness·Mac Linscott Ricketts·metaphysics·Michael Carroll·multilevel selection·mythology·Native Americans·Oren Harman·Paul Radin·reciprocal altruism·Richard Dawkins·Robert Trivers·selfish genes·selfishness·The Price of Altruism·Trickster·unit of selection·William Hamilton
There are a number of scholars who claim that “religion” evolved as an adaptation. What kind of adaptation? A group level adaptation. The story usually goes like this: at some unknown time during the middle or upper Paleolithic, certain groups of hominins developed proto-religious beliefs. These beliefs supposedly caused group members to dance, sing, and [...]
Tags:affinity·Barry Hewlett·Brian Wood·Claude Levi-Straus·cohesion·consanguinity·cooperation·extended kinship·fictive kinship·foragers·Frank Marlowe·group agonism·group competition·group level selection·group size·inclusive fitness·James Eder·Kim Hill·kinship·language·Lewis Henry Morgan·Magdalena Hurtado·prosocial·proto-religion·residence patterns·residential bands·Robert Walker·social structure·Thomas Headland·tools
There are a number of scholars who claim that “religion” evolved as an adaptation. What kind of adaptation? A group level adaptation. The story usually goes like this: at some unknown time during the middle or upper Paleolithic, certain groups of hominins developed proto-religious beliefs. These beliefs, which are rarely if ever specified, somehow gave [...]
Tags:altruism·baboons·chimpanzees·cohesion·competition·cooperation·David Sloan Wilson·ecology·evolution of religion·foraging unit·group agonism·group level selection·group size·hominids·hominins·hunter-gatherers·inclusive fitness·intergroup competition·Joseph Bulbulia·kinship·language·Matt Rossano·Nicholas Wade·Paleolithic·primates·Richard Sosis·ritual·technology·tools
Over at Discover, Razib Khan has reviewed Oren Harman’s new book The Price of Altruism: George Price and the Search for the Origins of Kindness. It is fantastic review and I encourage you to read it. Price was many things, including a theoretical evolutionary biologist with considerable mathematical skills. As Razib explains:
George Price’s aim was [...]
Tags:altruism·cooperation·dove·evolution of religion·evolutionary theory·Fisher's theorem of natural selection·George Price·goodness·group level selection·group level selectionists·hawk·inclusive fitness·morphs·Oren Harman·Paleolithic·Razib Khan·Richard Dawkins·The Price of Altruism
