Wilson chapter notes

Gaugin painting: Where do we come from? Who are we? Where are we going?
7: Star Wars culture from Stone Age emotions
Do myths explain origins or do origins explain myths? -- Strong claim for latter position.
Our evolutionary equipment for survival predates our capacities for self-reflection on that equipment. Claims science can solve the riddle of Gaugin's painting.
Evolutionary Account:

pre-human evolutionary lines -- most went extinct
Dates for invertebrates: 220 million years ago for termites; 150 million for ants; bees 70-80 million years. Stabilized around 65 million years ago.
Dates for homo sapiens: several 100 thousand years ago; diaspora (out of Africa) 60,000 years ago; neanderthals, homo floresiensis (hobbits!); agriculture 10,000 years ago;

Eusocial: lives with multiple generations and altruistic; diffs: culture, language, intelligence, empathy, judging intentions, mental maps of social space.
How to explain differences? large size and low mobility --

Some points to make about evolution (paralleling Wilson a bit): What does it mean to say evolution is "radically contingent" but also involves "design". Concept of "design space" and Wilson's concept of "preadaptation."
Preadaptation (22): a step in evolution which opens up (or closes off) other possibilities.
Major pre-adaptations leading to culture:

Big step toward eusociality: camping! Seriously, campsites (what's valuable about a campsite?) cf. hives, nests

Dietary changes: Australopithecenes were vegetarians, Homo species (Habilis and later, Sapiens) scavenged meat before hunting.
Changes marking Homo Habilis: facial structure, similar neocortex wrinkling to moderns, Broca and Wernicke areas of brain grow.
Traditional explanations for growth of Hominins vs. recent speculation: 37-39: "innovation-adaptiveness hypothesis" -- why that favors the variability of grasslands and savannahs; variety of ways to make a living. Limits to hypothesis: Finarelli & Flynn study.
Meat and hunting. Protein consumption.
Wilson's emphasis on the "nest" and, for Hominins, the campsite. Defensive architecture and lifestyle in modern culture.
Importance of nests: division of labor, defense, sharing food, group competition.

Land (allowing for fire)
Large size (allowing for large brain)
Grasping hands with soft "spatulate" fingers & and free to use (not needed for walking)
Meat -- cooperation to get it --
Cooking
Nest/Camp
Division of Labor

More on encephalization: australopithicenes 500-600 cubic centimeters --> Homo Sapiens 1500-1700!
Kin Selection: Altruism benefits group members proportionally to genetic similarity.

Note: Wilson believes he and some colleagues have disproven kin selection, but not everyone agrees, and that's an understatement. Distinguishing the part that's mainstream from where he tries to write himself into history).

Multi-level selection: A broader range of scientists believe in multi-level selection (individual and group), whether they agree that kin selection is true.
Group Selection: Holds that group competition affects the fitness of individuals.

Traits such as group size, "tightness" and "cooperativeness" (quality of communication and division of labor) matter.
Group selection advocates think this is a meaningful question: How do the costs and benefits of membership in a group affect my fitness (ability to pass on genes)?
54: If costs (of group membership) exceed benefits (of group membership), defection will increase.

Tribalism -- examples from Sports
Research on in-group and out-group judgements (59)
Is this nurture or nature? "pre-pared learning" (like language, incest, other ev. psycho traits)
Ethnocentrism -- in experience and in the lab. implicit racism

Contents