What evolutionary biology can tell us about cooperation and trust in online networks, toby handfield by serrc on february 8, 2020 0. Cooperative breeding center for academic research and. According to this viewpoint, human intelligence rests on a. Fitness tradeoffs in the history and evolution of delegated mothering with special reference to wetnursing, abandonment, and infanticide. Humans are not cooperative breeders in surveys of the literature on breeding systems, cluttonbrock 2002 and hrdy 2009 reported that between 510% of mammalian species are cooperative in breeding.
Combining the methods of archeology, anthropology, cognitive neuroscience, and primatology, he offers a natural history of hierarchies from the point of view of both cultural and biological evolution. The evolution of cooperative breeding in early homo species also promoted other prosocial behaviors such as social learning, increased social. What evolutionary biology can tell us about cooperation. Rethinking attachment and separation in crosscultural perspective, spokane, wa. Cooperative breeding and human cognitive evolution j. Their focus on the evolution of human nature also paints a much richer picture of our behavior than traditional economics tends to do. The evolution of human cooperation by herbert gintis january 11, 2012 no comments the study of human cooperation today is the current state of a continuous line of intellectual inheritance from adam smith and david hume, through thomas malthus, charles darwin, and emile durkheim, and more recently the biologists william hamilton and robert trivers. Cooperative breeding is a widespread and intense form of cooperation, in which individuals help raise offspring that are not their own. Occasional cooperative breeding in birds and the robustness. Great apes possess many of the cognitive prerequisites for language, but largely lack the motivation to share information. Nature red in tooth and claw, selfish genes, and rational actors notwithstanding, humans are a peculiarly otherregarding, prosocial species.
The evolution of cooperative breeding is complex, and particularly so in humans because many other life history traits likely evolved at the same time. This breeding system quite novel for an ape permitted hominid females to produce costly offspring without increasing interbirth intervals, and allowed. Van schaik despite sharing a recent common ancestor, humans are surprisingly different from other great apes. Jul 18, 2012 cooperative breeding and human cognitive evolution, evolutionary anthropology 18 2009. This breeding system permitted hominid females to produce offspring without increasing interbirth intervals, and allowed for movement into new habitats. Similarities between cooperative breeding among humans and among platyrrhines are strikingly concrete and specific. Instead, it should provide commentary about the innovation. Her research interests include cognitive and psychological consequences of cooperative breeding, primate cognitive evolution, evolution of prosociality and cooperative breeding hypothesis.
Most scholars of language evolution recognize that the first use of language, in particular words, presupposed an unusual ability to cooperate. Although relatively rare, cooperative breeding is widespread taxonomically and continues to pose challenges to our understanding of the evolution of cooperation and altruistic behavior. A causal link might exist because motivational and cognitive processes necessary for the execution and coordination of helping behaviors could also favor cognitive. Revisiting the consequences of cooperative breeding aim. The origins of cooperative breeding are traced to misdirected parental care in species with intense parenting of altricial young. What follows is my take on how humans became such otherregarding apes. According to the cooperative breeding hypothesis, allomaternal assistance was essential for child survival during the pleistocene. Evolution of human cooperation anthropology bibliographies in harvard style. Burkart, hrdy and van schaik, 2009 your bibliography. Among primates, humans and callitrichid monkeys are the only. Cooperative breeding and human cognitive evolution burkart. Human evolution and the origins of hierarchies in this book, benot dubreuil explores the creation and destruction of hierarchiesinhumanevolution.
When it does occur, phylogeny appears to influence cooperative breeding in titmice. The cooperative breeding model part ii parentchild relationships. Humans take more or less twenty years to reach reproductive ma. Chapter 6, meet the alloparents, focuses instead on the development of cooperative breeding in the human lineage. Jul 24, 2009 several hypotheses propose that cooperative breeding leads to increased cognitive performance, in both nonhuman and human primates, but systematic evidence for such a relationship is missing.
There, however, the focus is more on joint attention and norm following than on executive control. Evolution of cognition evolutionary biology oxford. Cooperative breeding and human cognitive evolution semantic. Citeseerx document details isaac councill, lee giles, pradeep teregowda. Cooperative breeding and human evolution request pdf. A fascinating new theory about the human mind, evolution. Therefore, human offspring are highly dependent on caregiver investment, a necessity that serves as the precursor for theories on the development of pairbonding, alloparenting, and cooperative breeding. Taxonomic isolation may explain the presence of helping behavior in bridled titmice and not in other parids.
Seminar on the evolution of language psyc gu4242 4 points. She is considered a highly recognized pioneer in modernizing our understanding of the evolutionary basis of female behavior in both nonhuman and human primates. Use features like bookmarks, note taking and highlighting while reading cooperative breeding in vertebrates. The most obvious discontinuities are related to our cognitive. A causal link might exist because motivational and cognitive processes necessary for the execution and coordination of helping behaviors could also favor cognitive performance in contexts not directly.
How humans became such otherregarding apes on the human. Ina cooperative species, samuel bowles and herbert gintispioneers in the new experimental and evolutionary science of human behaviorshow that the central issue is not why selfish people act generously, but instead how genetic and cultural evolution has produced a species in which substantial numbers make sacrifices to uphold ethical norms. Although the bulk of the research on braincognition evolution has focused on primates and other mammals, increasing evidence from nonmammals also supports a link between cognitive ability and the brain. Among terrestrial vertebrates, this behavior is more common in birds than mammals but has evolved independently in a number of mammalian. Recent years have seen the emergence of a novel variant of this hypothesis, suggesting that cooperative breeding is associated with the elaboration of socio cognitive abilities. Email your librarian or administrator to recommend adding this book to your organisations collection. Fundamental problems with the cooperative breeding hypothesis. Burkarts group tries to contribute to a better understanding of the evolutionary origin of the human mind.
Abstract despite sharing a recent common ancestor, humans are surprisingly different from other great apes. Cooperative breeding and human cognitive evolution core. What evolutionary biology can tell us about cooperation and. Optimizing models are commonly used to describe behavior not because they mimic the cognitive processes of the actors. Pdf despite sharing a recent common ancestor, humans are surprisingly different from other great apes. A biocultural approach is taken to the study of the evolution of human growth and development. Home articles what evolutionary biology can tell us about cooperation and trust in online networks, toby handfield. Callitrichids and humans are unique among primates in showing prosocial behaviors e. Evolution of human cooperation anthropology bibliographies.
A major focus has been the evolution of, and factors favoring, particular cognitive abilities or enhanced intelligence. Cooperative breeding is found in only a few hundred bird species worldwide, and understanding this often strikingly altruistic behaviour has remained an important challenge in behavioural ecology for over 30 years. Recent years have seen the emergence of a novel variant of this hypothesis, suggesting that cooperative breeding is associated with the elaboration of sociocognitive abilities. Implications of this evolutionary context for the sociocognitive and emotional. Ecology and evolution of cooperative breeding in birds. Apr 01, 2009 humans have developed a distinctive type of relationship to others due to a history of cooperative breeding among kin. Cooperative breeding encompasses a range of unusually flexible monogamous, polygynous and polyandrous mating systems in which individuals of either sex may mate sequentially or at the same time with one more partners, with one common feature.
In this book, benoit dubreuil explores the creation and destruction of hierarchies in human evolution. The evolution of cooperative breeding is particularly complex in humans because many other traits that directly affect parental care shorter birth intervals, increased offspring survivorship, juvenile dependence, and older ages at dispersal also emerge during the pleistocene. This book explores the evolutionary steps since our common ancestor with chimpanzees and bonobos that have contributed to our longer lifespans and communitybased childrearing systems. While cooperative childrearing is often presumed ancient, the transition from maternal selfreliance to dependence on allocare leaves no known empirical record. Comparative evidence for cooperative breeding in early homo by karin. The study of human cooperation today is the current state of a continuous line of intellectual inheritance from adam smith and david hume, through thomas malthus, charles darwin, and emile durkheim, and more recently the biologists william hamilton and robert trivers. Cooperative feeding and cooperative breeding in human phylogeny. Here we propose that these cognitive consequences of cooperative breeding could have become more pervasive in the human lineage because the psychological changes were added to an apelevel cognitive system capable of understanding simple mental states, albeit mainly in competitive contexts. This book highlights the theoretical, empirical and. Human evolution and the origins of hierarchies in this book, benot dubreuil explores the creation and destruction of hier. Cooperative care of infants is theorised as a critically important social behaviour with profound implications for human evolution. Hrdys view that cooperative breeding was needed to achieve that level of cooperation.
Oct 26, 2009 anthropologist sarah hrdy talks about how shared infantrearing made all the difference in early human evolution. Pdf cooperative breeding and human cognitive evolution. Keynote speakers 5th european student conference on. At the same time, the study of human evolution has focused mainly on paleontological theses and has explained the different stages based on evidence such as fossils, tools, and meat diet.
The role of cooperative breeding in modern human evolution. Seminar on the evolution of language psyc gu4242 3 points professor herbert terrace 418 schermerhorn hall. The evolution of human cooperation the evolution institute. Bridled titmice exhibit behavioral characteristics of cooperative species including stable flocks and group territories in nonbreeding season. Paper presented at the lemelsonsociety for psychological anthropology conference. Callitrichids including marmosets and tamarins are highly vocal monkeys that are more distantly related to humans. Cooperative breeding and human cognitive evolution 2009 evolutionary anthropology. Both activities are cultural human features process of humanization that started after the morphology of human body came to an end process of hominization.
In fact, due to more complex cognitive abilities in humans, and perhaps supported by. Cooperative or communal breeding occurs when more than two birds of the same species provide care in rearing the young from one nest. Among the topics are defining behavioral modernity in the context of neanderthal and anatomically modern human populations, cooperative breeding and its significance to the demographic success of humans, the semiotics of brand, anthropological perspectives on structural adjustment and public health, the commodification of language, and anthropology and the study of autism. By this definition, humans are cooperative breeders, but our cooperative breeding. These are the sources and citations used to research evolution of human cooperation. Cooperative breeding and human cognitive evolution, evolutionary anthropology 18 2009. Cooperative breeding definition of cooperative breeding by. Here we propose that these cognitive consequences of cooperative breeding could have become more pervasive in the human lineage because the psychological changes were added to an apelevel cognitive system capable of understanding simple mental states, albeit mainly in. How our ancestors broke through the gray ceiling jstor.
The book contains a collection of chapters by the leading researchers in the field, and it is dedicated exclusively to the study of mammalian cooperative breeding. Building on decades of research, hrdy 2009 and others e. Cooperative feeding and breeding, and the evolution of. In most cooperatively breeding species, helpers are offspring that remain with their. These behavioral correlates of cooperative breeding can have implications for understanding human evolution burkart et al. Cooperative breeding and human cognitive evolution. The annotated bibliography should not be in the format of a book report. Language is a cognitively demanding human trait, but it is also a fundamentally cooperative enterprise that rests on the motivation to share information. We routinely share and behave in ways that benefit others and find it pleasurable to do so. About 3 percent approximately 300 species of bird species worldwide are cooperative breeders. We propose that the evolution of these derived features was a consequence of the adoption of cooperative breeding by early homo. A fascinating new theory about the human mind, evolution and mortality. Reliance on allomaternal assistance would make maternal commitment more dependent on.
Anthropologist sarah hrdy talks about how shared infantrearing made all the difference in early human evolution. Oct 26, 2009 here we propose that these cognitive consequences of cooperative breeding could have become more pervasive in the human lineage because the psychological changes were added to an ape. A number of overlapping subfields address cognitive evolution. The contributors to this book explore the evolutionary, ecological, behavioural and physiological basis of cooperative breeding in mammals.
The biocultural perspective of human development focuses on the constant interaction taking place during all phases of human development, between both genes and hormones within the body, and with the sociocultural environment that surrounds the body. Cooperative breeding and human cognitive evolution wiley online. Cooperative breeding and attachment in early childhood. Allomaternal nursing in humans is one part of this evolutionary cooperative care package. Several hypotheses propose that cooperative breeding leads to increased cognitive performance, in both nonhuman and human primates, but systematic evidence for such a relationship is missing. Cooperative breeding may be viewed primarily as a means by which young adults put off the start of their own breeding in order to maximize their lifetime reproductive output, and in the process occasionally promote genes identical with their own via kin selection. Human reciprocity and its evolution states a clearly articulated geneculture coevolution explanation for why we are a cooperative species. Cognitive consequences of cooperative breeding in primates. This behaviour is particularly well studied in birds, using both longterm and comparative studies that have provided insights into the evolution of reproductive altruism. Cooperative breeders are species in which individuals beyond a pair assist in the production of young in a single brood or litter. It may also correlate with a social system in which each person is identified with their matriline their mothers lineage and which can involve the inheritance of property andor titles. Looking at the entire range of human evolutionary history, melvin konner tells the compelling and complex story of how crosscultural and universal characteristics of our growth from infancy to adolescence became rooted in genetically inherited characteristics of the.
The most obvious discontinuities are related to our cognitive abilities, including language, but we also have a markedly different, coopera. We can define cooperative breeding behavior as individuals exerting costly parenting effort to contribute to the developmental success of an infant or juvenile that is not their own offspring. A biased, incomplete perspective on the evolution of human mating systems. Kramer one conspicuous lifehistory feature of primates generally and humans speci. Nov 20, 20 in particular, cooperative breeding has been identified as a potentially crucial factor in the evolution of human prosociality and our tremendous cognitive advantage over our nearest relatives, the great apes. Hrdy university of california, department of anthropology, davis, ca 956168522, u. Studies of ecology, evolution, and behavior kindle edition by koenig, walter d. In their introduction to this special issue, alfano and klein 2019 pose two neatly contrasting questions for social.
Humans and chimps are the most unlike in on these measures, with humans showing a very similar profile to callitrichids. Cooperative breeders are species in which more than a pair of individuals assist in the production of young. With cooperative breeding, a natural mother allows kin, and other peers, to look after a newborn infant, a practice that is diametrically opposed to that observed in apes, where a mother wouldnt allow anyone to attend to an infant until she is six months old. Cooperative males, long social childhoods, smart mothers, and extended kin networks 3 evolutionary context of human development. For example, a number of research programs have investigated whether human cognitive abilities exist in nonhuman animals. Matrilineality is the tracing of kinship through the female line. Callitrichids including marmosets and tamarins are highly vocal monkeys that are more.
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