More Complex Formulae of Generalized Exchange [and Comments and Replies]

Fat, Franklin E. Tjon Sie; Atkins, John R.; Barnard, Alan; Buchler, Ira R.; Meur, Gisèle De; Eyde, David B.; Fischer, M.; Jorion, Paul; Rustad, J. A.

doi:10.1086/202692

Cited by 8 publications

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“…The systems are notably variable across cultures and can be highly complex, with sets of rules that determine kin-related designations and prescribed or proscribed social and reproductive interactions (such as marriage, cooperation, and inheritance) that follow from their rules and structure. As such, and most importantly, kinship terms and relationships, due to their inherent biological-genealogical and cultural structures, can be represented in terms of mathematics and geometry [29‒32]. It is such representations and their neural implications, in the broader context of pedigrees and kin-directed behaviors, that form the key component of the hypothesis proposed here.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Roots of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics: What Are the Evolutionary and Neural Bases of Human Mathematics and Technology?

Crespi

2024

Brain Behav Evol

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Introduction Neural exaptations represent descent via transitions to novel neural functions. A primary transition in human cognitive and neural evolution was from a predominantly socially-oriented primate brain to a brain that also instantiates and subserves science, and technology, and engineering, all of which depend on mathematics. Upon what neural substrates, and upon what evolved cognitive mechanisms, did human capacities for STEM, and especially its mathematical underpinnings, emerge? Previous theory focuses on roles for tools, language, and arithmetic in the cognitive origins of STEM, but none of these factors appears sufficient to support the transition. Methods In this article, I describe and evaluate a novel hypothesis for the neural origins and substrates of STEM-based cognition: that they are based in human kinship systems and human maximizing of inclusive fitness. Results The main evidence for this hypothesis is threefold. First, as demonstrated by anthropologists, human kinship systems exhibit complex mathematical and geometrical structures that function under sets of explicit rules, and such systems and rules pervade and organize all human cultures. Second, human kinship underlies the core algebraic mechanism of evolution, maximization of inclusive fitness, quantified as personal reproduction plus the sum of all effects on reproduction of others, each multiplied by their coefficient of relatedness to self. This is the only 'natural' equation expected to be represented in the human brain. Third, functional imaging studies show that kinship-related cognition activates frontal-parietal regions that are also activated in STEM-related tasks. In turn, the decision-making that integrates kinship levels with costs and benefits from alternative behaviors has recently been shown to recruit the lateral septum, a hub region that combines internal (from the prefrontal cortex, amygdala and other regions) and external information relevant to social behavior, using a dedicated subsystem of neurons specific to kinship. Conclusions Taken together, these lines of evidence suggest that kinship systems, and kin-associated behaviors, may represent exaptations for the origin of human STEM.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Roots of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics: What Are the Evolutionary and Neural Bases of Human Mathematics and Technology?

Crespi

2024

Brain Behav Evol

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Matrilateral cross-cousin marriage in Australia

Jorion¹

1993

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Multiple Measures of Alyawarra Kinship

Denham

White

2005

Field Methods

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A field experiment conducted in Central Australia in 1971Australia in -1972 Denham conducted the Alyawarra project in 1971-1972. He used methods being developed for observational field studies of nonhuman primate behavior but studied people with human cognitive and linguistic capacities. A comprehensive review of the field methods appears in Denham (1978); the following paragraphs deal in greater detail with methods used to collect data related to descent, marriage, and kinship. Denham worked for eleven months with 264 Alyawarra-speaking Aborigines at MacDonald Downs and Derry Downs (MD-DD) Stations, Australia, about 160 miles northeast of Alice Springs, Northern Territory. The Chalmers family, who operated these and adjacent cattle stations, were highly sympathetic to the Aboriginal people, whom they had known inti-

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More Complex Formulae of Generalized Exchange [and Comments and Replies]

Cited by 8 publications

References 0 publications

The Roots of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics: What Are the Evolutionary and Neural Bases of Human Mathematics and Technology?

The Roots of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics: What Are the Evolutionary and Neural Bases of Human Mathematics and Technology?

Matrilateral cross-cousin marriage in Australia

Multiple Measures of Alyawarra Kinship

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