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Meijer H. Janus faced: The co-evolution of war and peace in the human species. Evol Anthropol 2024:e22027. [PMID: 38623594 DOI: 10.1002/evan.22027] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/11/2023] [Revised: 03/22/2024] [Accepted: 03/25/2024] [Indexed: 04/17/2024]
Abstract
The human species presents a paradox. No other species possesses the propensity to carry out coalitionary lethal attacks on adult conspecifics coupled with the inclination to establish peaceful relations with genetically unrelated groups. What explains this seemingly contradictory feature? Existing perspectives, the "deep roots" and "shallow roots" of war theses, fail to capture the plasticity of human intergroup behaviors, spanning from peaceful cooperation to warfare. By contrast, this article argues that peace and war have both deep roots, and they co-evolved through an incremental process over several million years. On the one hand, humans inherited the propensity for coalitionary lethal violence from their chimpanzee-like ancestor. Specifically, having first inherited the skills to engage in cooperative hunting, they gradually repurposed such capacity to execute coalitionary killings of adult conspecifics and subsequently enhanced it through technological innovations like the use of weapons. On the other hand, they underwent a process of cumulative cultural evolution and, subsequently, of self-domestication which led to heightened cooperative communication and increased prosocial behavior within and between groups. The combination of these two biocultural evolutionary processes-coupled with feedback loop effects between self-domestication and Pleistocene environmental variability-considerably broadened the human intergroup behavioral repertoire, thereby producing the distinctive combination of conflictual and peaceful intergroup relations that characterizes our species. To substantiate this argument, the article synthesizes and integrates the findings from a variety of disciplines, leveraging evidence from evolutionary anthropology, primatology, archeology, paleo-genetics, and paleo-climatology.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hugo Meijer
- Sciences Po, Center for International Studies (CERI), Paris, France
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2
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Fuentes A, Kim N, Kissel M. Capacities for peace, and war, are old and related to Homo construction of worlds and communities. Behav Brain Sci 2024; 47:e8. [PMID: 38224087 DOI: 10.1017/s0140525x23002558] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/16/2024]
Abstract
The capacities required for both peace and war predate 100,000 years ago in the genus Homo are deeply entangled in the modes by which humans physically and perceptually construct their worlds and communities, and may not be sufficiently captured by economic models.
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Affiliation(s)
- Agustín Fuentes
- Department of Anthropology, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, USA ://anthropology.princeton.edu/people/faculty/agustin-fuentes
| | - Nam Kim
- Department of Anthropology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, USA ://www.anthropology.wisc.edu/staff/kim-nam-c/
| | - Marc Kissel
- Department of Anthropology, Appalachian State University, Boone, NC, USA ://anthro.appstate.edu/directory/dr-marc-kissel
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3
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Benítez-Burraco A, Nikolsky A. The (Co)Evolution of Language and Music Under Human Self-Domestication. HUMAN NATURE (HAWTHORNE, N.Y.) 2023; 34:229-275. [PMID: 37097428 PMCID: PMC10354115 DOI: 10.1007/s12110-023-09447-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 03/27/2023] [Indexed: 04/26/2023]
Abstract
Together with language, music is perhaps the most distinctive behavioral trait of the human species. Different hypotheses have been proposed to explain why only humans perform music and how this ability might have evolved in our species. In this paper, we advance a new model of music evolution that builds on the self-domestication view of human evolution, according to which the human phenotype is, at least in part, the outcome of a process similar to domestication in other mammals, triggered by the reduction in reactive aggression responses to environmental changes. We specifically argue that self-domestication can account for some of the cognitive changes, and particularly for the behaviors conducive to the complexification of music through a cultural mechanism. We hypothesize four stages in the evolution of music under self-domestication forces: (1) collective protomusic; (2) private, timbre-oriented music; (3) small-group, pitch-oriented music; and (4) collective, tonally organized music. This line of development encompasses the worldwide diversity of music types and genres and parallels what has been hypothesized for languages. Overall, music diversity might have emerged in a gradual fashion under the effects of the enhanced cultural niche construction as shaped by the progressive decrease in reactive (i.e., impulsive, triggered by fear or anger) aggression and the increase in proactive (i.e., premeditated, goal-directed) aggression.
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Affiliation(s)
- Antonio Benítez-Burraco
- Department of Spanish Language, Linguistics and Literary Theory (Linguistics), Faculty of Philology, University of Seville, Seville, Spain.
- Departamento de Lengua Española, Facultad de Filología, Área de Lingüística General, Lingüística y Teoría de la Literatura, Universidad de Sevilla, C/ Palos de la Frontera s/n, Sevilla, 41007, España.
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Wilson DS, Madhavan G, Gelfand MJ, Hayes SC, Atkins PWB, Colwell RR. Multilevel cultural evolution: From new theory to practical applications. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2023; 120:e2218222120. [PMID: 37036975 PMCID: PMC10120078 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2218222120] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 04/12/2023] Open
Abstract
Evolutionary science has led to many practical applications of genetic evolution but few practical uses of cultural evolution. This is because the entire study of evolution was gene centric for most of the 20th century, relegating the study and application of human cultural change to other disciplines. The formal study of human cultural evolution began in the 1970s and has matured to the point of deriving practical applications. We provide an overview of these developments and examples for the topic areas of complex systems science and engineering, economics and business, mental health and well-being, and global change efforts.
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Affiliation(s)
- David Sloan Wilson
- ProSocial World, Austin, TX78738
- Department of Biological Sciences, Binghamton University, State University of New York, Binghamton, NY13902
| | - Guru Madhavan
- National Academy of Engineering, Washington, DC20001
| | | | - Steven C. Hayes
- Department of Psychology, University of Nevada, Reno, NV89557
| | - Paul W. B. Atkins
- ProSocial World, Austin, TX78738
- Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University, CanberraACT 0200, Australia
| | - Rita R. Colwell
- Department of Cell Biology and Molecular Genetics, University of Maryland Institute for Advanced Computer Studies, University of Maryland, College Park, MD20742
- Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD21205
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5
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Rodrigues AMM, Barker JL, Robinson EJH. The evolution of intergroup cooperation. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 2023; 378:20220074. [PMID: 36802776 PMCID: PMC9939261 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2022.0074] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/21/2023] Open
Abstract
Sociality is widespread among animals, and involves complex relationships within and between social groups. While intragroup interactions are often cooperative, intergroup interactions typically involve conflict, or at best tolerance. Active cooperation between members of distinct, separate groups occurs very rarely, predominantly in some primate and ant species. Here, we ask why intergroup cooperation is so rare, and what conditions favour its evolution. We present a model incorporating intra- and intergroup relationships and local and long-distance dispersal. We show that dispersal modes play a pivotal role in the evolution of intergroup interactions. Both long-distance and local dispersal processes drive population social structure, and the costs and benefits of intergroup conflict, tolerance and cooperation. Overall, the evolution of multi-group interaction patterns, including both intergroup aggression and intergroup tolerance, or even altruism, is more likely with mostly localized dispersal. However, the evolution of these intergroup relationships may have significant ecological impacts, and this feedback may alter the ecological conditions that favour its own evolution. These results show that the evolution of intergroup cooperation is favoured by a specific set of conditions, and may not be evolutionarily stable. We discuss how our results relate to empirical evidence of intergroup cooperation in ants and primates. This article is part of a discussion meeting issue 'Collective behaviour through time'.
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Affiliation(s)
- António M. M. Rodrigues
- School of Biology, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, KY16 9TH, UK,Schools of Medicine and Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA,Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06511, USA
| | - Jessica L. Barker
- Surgo Ventures, Washington, DC 20036, USA,Interacting Minds Centre, Aarhus University, 8000 Aarhus, Denmark,Division of Population Health Sciences, University of Alaska Anchorage, Anchorage, AK 99508, USA
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Townsend C, Ferraro JV, Habecker H, Flinn MV. Human cooperation and evolutionary transitions in individuality. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 2023; 378:20210414. [PMID: 36688393 PMCID: PMC9869453 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2021.0414] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/24/2022] [Accepted: 10/31/2022] [Indexed: 01/24/2023] Open
Abstract
A major evolutionary transition in individuality involves the formation of a cooperative group and the transformation of that group into an evolutionary entity. Human cooperation shares principles with those of multicellular organisms that have undergone transitions in individuality: division of labour, communication, and fitness interdependence. After the split from the last common ancestor of hominoids, early hominins adapted to an increasingly terrestrial niche for several million years. We posit that new challenges in this niche set in motion a positive feedback loop in selection pressure for cooperation that ratcheted coevolutionary changes in sociality, communication, brains, cognition, kin relations and technology, eventually resulting in egalitarian societies with suppressed competition and rapid cumulative culture. The increasing pace of information innovation and transmission became a key aspect of the evolutionary niche that enabled humans to become formidable cooperators with explosive population growth, the ability to cooperate and compete in groups of millions, and emergent social norms, e.g. private property. Despite considerable fitness interdependence, the rise of private property, in concert with population explosion and socioeconomic inequality, subverts potential transition of human groups into evolutionary entities due to resurgence of latent competition and conflict. This article is part of the theme issue 'Human socio-cultural evolution in light of evolutionary transitions'.
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Affiliation(s)
- Cathryn Townsend
- Department of Anthropology, Baylor University, Waco, TX 76798-7334, USA
| | - Joseph V. Ferraro
- Department of Anthropology, Baylor University, Waco, TX 76798-7334, USA
| | - Heather Habecker
- Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Baylor University, Waco, TX 76798-7334, USA
| | - Mark V. Flinn
- Department of Anthropology, Baylor University, Waco, TX 76798-7334, USA
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Davis GH, Crofoot MC, Farine DR. Using optimal foraging theory to infer how groups make collective decisions. Trends Ecol Evol 2022; 37:942-952. [PMID: 35842325 DOI: 10.1016/j.tree.2022.06.010] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/15/2021] [Revised: 05/17/2022] [Accepted: 06/20/2022] [Indexed: 12/23/2022]
Abstract
Studying animal behavior as collective phenomena is a powerful tool for understanding social processes, including group coordination and decision-making. However, linking individual behavior during group decision-making to the preferences underlying those actions poses a considerable challenge. Optimal foraging theory, and specifically the marginal value theorem (MVT), can provide predictions about individual preferences, against which the behavior of groups can be compared under different models of influence. A major strength of formally linking optimal foraging theory to collective behavior is that it generates predictions that can easily be tested under field conditions. This opens the door to studying group decision-making in a range of species; a necessary step for revealing the ecological drivers and evolutionary consequences of collective decision-making.
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Affiliation(s)
- Grace H Davis
- Department of Anthropology, University of California, Davis, Davis, CA, USA; Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Balboa, Ancon, Panama; Department of Biology, University of Konstanz, Konstanz, Germany; Department for the Ecology of Animal Societies, Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior, Konstanz, Germany; Centre for the Advanced Study of Collective Behaviour, University of Konstanz, Konstanz, Germany.
| | - Margaret C Crofoot
- Department of Anthropology, University of California, Davis, Davis, CA, USA; Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Balboa, Ancon, Panama; Department of Biology, University of Konstanz, Konstanz, Germany; Department for the Ecology of Animal Societies, Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior, Konstanz, Germany; Centre for the Advanced Study of Collective Behaviour, University of Konstanz, Konstanz, Germany; Animal Behavior Graduate Group, University of California, Davis, Davis, CA, USA.
| | - Damien R Farine
- Department of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Science, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland; Department of Collective Behavior, Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior, Konstanz, Germany; Division of Ecology and Evolution, Research School of Biology, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia.
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8
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Crespi BJ, Flinn MV, Summers K. Runaway Social Selection in Human Evolution. Front Ecol Evol 2022. [DOI: 10.3389/fevo.2022.894506] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Darwin posited that social competition among conspecifics could be a powerful selective pressure. Alexander proposed a model of human evolution involving a runaway process of social competition based on Darwin’s insight. Here we briefly review Alexander’s logic, and then expand upon his model by elucidating six core arenas of social selection that involve runaway, positive-feedback processes, and that were likely involved in the evolution of the remarkable combination of adaptations in humans. We discuss how these ideas fit with the hypothesis that a key life history innovation that opened the door to runaway social selection, and cumulative culture, during hominin evolution was increased cooperation among individuals in small fission-fusion groups.
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Anastasiadi D, Piferrer F, Wellenreuther M, Benítez Burraco A. Fish as Model Systems to Study Epigenetic Drivers in Human Self-Domestication and Neurodevelopmental Cognitive Disorders. Genes (Basel) 2022; 13:genes13060987. [PMID: 35741749 PMCID: PMC9222608 DOI: 10.3390/genes13060987] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/25/2022] [Revised: 04/28/2022] [Accepted: 05/11/2022] [Indexed: 12/24/2022] Open
Abstract
Modern humans exhibit phenotypic traits and molecular events shared with other domesticates that are thought to be by-products of selection for reduced aggression. This is the human self-domestication hypothesis. As one of the first types of responses to a novel environment, epigenetic changes may have also facilitated early self-domestication in humans. Here, we argue that fish species, which have been recently domesticated, can provide model systems to study epigenetic drivers in human self-domestication. To test this, we used in silico approaches to compare genes with epigenetic changes in early domesticates of European sea bass with genes exhibiting methylation changes in anatomically modern humans (comparison 1), and neurodevelopmental cognitive disorders considered to exhibit abnormal self-domestication traits, i.e., schizophrenia, Williams syndrome, and autism spectrum disorders (comparison 2). Overlapping genes in comparison 1 were involved in processes like limb morphogenesis and phenotypes like abnormal jaw morphology and hypopigmentation. Overlapping genes in comparison 2 affected paralogue genes involved in processes such as neural crest differentiation and ectoderm differentiation. These findings pave the way for future studies using fish species as models to investigate epigenetic changes as drivers of human self-domestication and as triggers of cognitive disorders.
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Affiliation(s)
- Dafni Anastasiadi
- Seafood Technologies, The New Zealand Institute for Plant and Food Research, Nelson 7010, New Zealand;
- Correspondence:
| | - Francesc Piferrer
- Institut de Ciències del Mar, Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), 08003 Barcelona, Spain;
| | - Maren Wellenreuther
- Seafood Technologies, The New Zealand Institute for Plant and Food Research, Nelson 7010, New Zealand;
- School of Biological Sciences, The University of Auckland, Auckland 1010, New Zealand
| | - Antonio Benítez Burraco
- Department of Spanish, Linguistics, and Theory of Literature (Linguistics), Faculty of Philology, University of Seville, 41004 Seville, Spain;
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Benítez-Burraco A, Pörtl D, Jung C. Did Dog Domestication Contribute to Language Evolution? Front Psychol 2021; 12:695116. [PMID: 34589022 PMCID: PMC8473740 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.695116] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/14/2021] [Accepted: 08/02/2021] [Indexed: 11/20/2022] Open
Abstract
Different factors seemingly account for the emergence of present-day languages in our species. Human self-domestication has been recently invoked as one important force favoring language complexity mostly via a cultural mechanism. Because our self-domestication ultimately resulted from selection for less aggressive behavior and increased prosocial behavior, any evolutionary or cultural change impacting on aggression levels is expected to have fostered this process. Here, we hypothesize about a parallel domestication of humans and dogs, and more specifically, about a positive effect of our interaction with dogs on human self-domestication, and ultimately, on aspects of language evolution, through the mechanisms involved in the control of aggression. We review evidence of diverse sort (ethological mostly, but also archeological, genetic, and physiological) supporting such an effect and propose some ways of testing our hypothesis.
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Affiliation(s)
- Antonio Benítez-Burraco
- Department of Spanish, Linguistics, and Theory of Literature (Linguistics), Faculty of Philology, University of Seville, Seville, Spain
| | - Daniela Pörtl
- Psychiatric Department, Saale-Unstrut Klinikum, Teaching Hospital Leipzig and Jena Universities, Naumburg, Germany
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Benítez-Burraco A, Ferretti F, Progovac L. Human Self-Domestication and the Evolution of Pragmatics. Cogn Sci 2021; 45:e12987. [PMID: 34170029 DOI: 10.1111/cogs.12987] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/03/2020] [Revised: 04/25/2021] [Accepted: 04/26/2021] [Indexed: 12/11/2022]
Abstract
As proposed for the emergence of modern languages, we argue that modern uses of languages (pragmatics) also evolved gradually in our species under the effects of human self-domestication, with three key aspects involved in a complex feedback loop: (a) a reduction in reactive aggression, (b) the sophistication of language structure (with emerging grammars initially facilitating the transition from physical aggression to verbal aggression); and (c) the potentiation of pragmatic principles governing conversation, including, but not limited to, turn-taking and inferential abilities. Our core hypothesis is that the reduction in reactive aggression, one of the key factors in self-domestication processes, enabled us to fully exploit our cognitive and interactional potential as applied to linguistic exchanges, and ultimately to evolve a specific form of communication governed by persuasive reciprocity-a trait of human conversation characterized by both competition and cooperation. In turn, both early crude forms of language, well suited for verbal aggression/insult, and later more sophisticated forms of language, well suited for persuasive reciprocity, significantly contributed to the resolution and reduction of (physical) aggression, thus having a return effect on the self-domestication processes. Supporting evidence for our proposal, as well as grounds for further testing, comes mainly from the consideration of cognitive disorders, which typically simultaneously present abnormal features of self-domestication (including aggressive behavior) and problems with pragmatics and social functioning. While various approaches to language evolution typically reduce it to a single factor, our approach considers language evolution as a multifactorial process, with each player acting upon the other, engaging in an intense mutually reinforcing feedback loop. Moreover, we see language evolution as a gradual process, continuous with the pre-linguistic cognitive abilities, which were engaged in a positive feedback loop with linguistic innovations, and where gene-culture co-evolution and cultural niche construction were the main driving forces.
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Affiliation(s)
- Antonio Benítez-Burraco
- Department of Spanish, Linguistics and Theory of Literature (Linguistics), Faculty of Philology, University of Seville
| | - Francesco Ferretti
- Department of Philosophy, Communication and Performing Arts. Roma Tre University
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