Human socio-cultural evolution in light of evolutionary transitions: introduction to the theme issue

Evolution and sustainability: gathering the strands for an Anthropocene synthesis

How did human societies evolve to become a major force of global change? What dynamics can lead societies on a trajectory of global sustainability? The astonishing growth in human population, economic activity and environmental impact has brought these questions to the fore. This theme issue pulls together a variety of traditions that seek to address these questions using different theories and methods. In this Introduction, we review and organize the major strands of work on how the Anthropocene evolved, how evolutionary dynamics are influencing sustainability efforts today, and what principles, strategies and capacities will be important to guide us towards global sustainability in the future. We present a set of synthetic insights and highlight frontiers for future research efforts which could contribute to a consolidated synthesis. This article is part of the theme issue 'Evolution and sustainability: gathering the strands for an Anthropocene synthesis'.

Can sociality facilitate learning of complex tasks? Lessons from bees and flowers

The emergence of animal societies is a major evolutionary transition, but its implications for learning-dependent innovations are insufficiently understood. Bees, with lifestyles ranging from solitary to eusocial, are ideal models for exploring social evolution. Here, we ask how and why bees may acquire a new 'technology', foraging on morphologically complex flowers, and whether eusociality facilitates this technological shift. We consider 'complex' flowers that produce high food rewards but are difficult to access, versus 'simple' flowers offering easily accessible yet lower rewards. Complex flowers are less profitable than simple flowers to naive bees but become more rewarding after a learning period. We model how social bees optimally choose between simple and complex flowers over time, to maximize their colony's food balance. The model predicts no effect of colony size on the bees' flower choices. More foraging on complex flowers is predicted as colony longevity, its proportion of foragers, individual longevity and learning ability increase. Of these traits, only long-lived colonies and abundant foragers characterize eusocial bees. Thus, we predict that eusociality supports, but is not mandatory for, learning to exploit complex flowers. A re-analysis of a large published dataset of bee-flower interactions supports these conclusions. We discuss parallels between the evolution of insect sociality and other major transitions that provide scaffolds for learning innovations. This article is part of the theme issue 'Human socio-cultural evolution in light of evolutionary transitions'.

Steps to individuality in biology and culture

Did human culture arise through an evolutionary transition in individuality (ETI)? To address this question, we examine the steps of biological ETIs to see how they could apply to the evolution of human culture. For concreteness, we illustrate the ETI stages using a well-studied example, the evolution of multicellularity in the volvocine algae. We then consider how those stages could apply to a cultural transition involving integrated groups of cultural traditions and the hominins that create and transmit traditions. We focus primarily on the early Pleistocene and examine hominin carnivory and the cultural change from Oldowan to Acheulean technology. We use Pan behaviour as an outgroup comparison. We summarize the important similarities and differences we find between ETI stages in the biological and cultural realms. As we are not cultural anthropologists, we may overlook or be mistaken in the processes we associate with each step. We hope that by clearly describing these steps to individuality and illustrating them with cultural principles and processes, other researchers may build upon our initial exercise. Our analysis supports the hypothesis that human culture has undergone an ETI beginning with a Pan-like ancestor, continuing during the Pleistocene, and culminating in modern human culture. This article is part of the theme issue 'Human socio-cultural evolution in light of evolutionary transitions'.