FEB 1

6: FEB 1.

Assigned

• Wrangham C10 – “The Evolution of Right and Wrong” – 2nd half (210-220; 10) – Key concepts: Good Samaritan Problem, emotions as moral guides, interference, baby prosociality, Ultimatum Game, reverse dominance hierarchies, self-protection, conformity, obedience, shame, guilt, and embarrassment.

In-Class

• Rubric and Process
• Bonobos (Wrangham C5)
• The Tyrant Problem and Capital Punishment (C7 & C8)

Rubric and Process

• Assignment Rubric - Normalizing scores. What's a 5 out of 7? How likely are we to see 3, 2, or 1?

• Today we will do some rubric training (sometimes called "grade norming").

• Process for writing review, scoring, and comments. (Use SW1 assignment.)

Wrangham C10 – “The Evolution of Right and Wrong” – 2nd half (210-220; 10)

• See notes from previous class.

The Tyrant Problem and Capital Punishment (C7 & C8)

• The Tyrant problem and Capital Punishment- Evidence of use of capital punishment in human societies. Execution was a selective pressure against aggressive individuals (mostly males). Or, "We evolved a behavior of using coalitionary proactive aggression against bullies."

• Execution hypothesis - Selection against aggressiveness and in favor of greater docility came from execution of the most anti-social individuals.

• Has Darwin’s support, even though he didn’t think we self-dom. Appreciated that contemporary society’s execution practice was a kind of selection pressure. (Prison does nothing for your dating prospects.) More dominant theory has been: parochial altruism hypothesis — groups that could cooperate in war have an advantage. Specifically self-sacrifice. But this is not seen in hunter-gather groups. Maybe more of a cultural level effect.

• Alexander argues that reputation is the key to h.sapien cooperation. Gossip matters. Chimps don’t gossip and don’t care about their reputation. Evidence from h-gatherers. Reputation matters. 137.

• Solution to the Tyrant problem (an alpha male who doesn’t care about his reputation) is for coalitions of males to kill him.

• C8 - Capital punishment

• Used to be lots of ways to get executed. Read at 143. Popular. Crimes to execution in a few days. Not just America. Capital punishment is a human universal. By contrast, other primates allow for contests against the alpha male.

• Examples of male coalitions in h-gather groups. Importance of self-deprecation to show you are not arrogant. Egalitarian expectation. Predates ag societies hierarchy.

• Why aren’t there alpha males around h-gatherers. Story 157 of gift of ox that backfires. (Like anti-social punishment). Dom from cap pun supported by absence of alpha males and egalitarian values among males.

• 161: genetic account — Would 300,000 years (12,000 generations) be enough? Some indicators, yes. But needs language. Language comes in bt 100,000 and 60,000 y ago. Good evidence h.sapien langauge better than other homo.

• ”The development of increasingly skilled language, in combination with our evolved solution to the tyrant problem, thus provides the best basis for the ultimate explanation of human domestication. Or, "Unlike chimps, but like bonobos, h. sapiens did not tolerate alpha males ruling by 1-1 contests for dominance. Humans and bonobos gang up on tyrants."

Small Group Discussion: "The Paradox" and "More Bonobo"?

• In your small group discussion consider two questions:

• 1. What is the "paradox of goodness" in Wrangham's theory of the the origins of morality?
• 2. Would we be better off if we were less chimp and more bonobo? (Your group might also speculate about how that could come about. Should we raise our expectations for tolerance and non-aggression? Lower our groupishness?)

• Fill in this group report form with your best answer to each questions. You each receive 5 points for completing the form.