Purposive Social Selection and the Evolution of Human Altruism

Boehm, Christopher

doi:10.1177/1069397108320422

Cited by 64 publications

(48 citation statements)

References 75 publications

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“…Big gods may serve as watchful instances observing and potentially punishing deviating behavior, a feature, however, mainly of large and thus more anonymous societies [14]. In small scale societies, by contrast, 'big moralizing gods' are unusual, and gods are typically less concerned with human affairs and moral behaviour [50,51].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The association between religious homogamy and reproduction

Fieder¹,

Huber²

2016

Proc. R. Soc. B.

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Individuals more strongly affiliated to religion have on average more children than less religious ones. Here, based on census data of 3 658 650 women aged 46-60 years from 32 countries provided by IPUMS International and data from the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study (n ¼ 2400 women, aged 53-57 years), we show that religious homogamy is also associated with higher reproduction in terms of a higher number of children and a lower chance of remaining childless. We argue that, together with the relationship between general religious intensity and number of children, religious homogamy has reproductive consequences. These may impact future demographic developments and could have also played a role in the biological evolution of humans.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The association between religious homogamy and reproduction

Fieder¹,

Huber²

2016

Proc. R. Soc. B.

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“…Boehm (1993Boehm ( , 1999Boehm ( , 2008 takes this further and suggests that it was the tendency towards moralistic aggression and capital punishment by third parties that helped create reverse dominance hierarchies and egalitarian societies. Others note that reputations minimize the need to punish because everyone can simply avoid interacting with those who have a reputation as a defector (Gintis et al 2001;Boyd 2004, 2005;Rockenbach and Milinski 2006;Smith 2005).…”

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confidence: 95%

Hadza Cooperation

Marlowe

2009

Hum Nat

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Strong reciprocity is an effective way to promote cooperation. This is especially true when one not only cooperates with cooperators and defects on defectors (second-party punishment) but even punishes those who defect on others (third-party, "altruistic" punishment). Some suggest we humans have a taste for such altruistic punishment and that this was important in the evolution of human cooperation. To assess this we need to look across a wide range of cultures. As part of a cross-cultural project, I played three experimental economics games with the Hadza, who are hunter-gatherers in Tanzania. The Hadza frequently engaged in second-party punishment but they rarely engaged in third-party punishment. Other small-scale societies engaged in less third-party punishment as well. I suggest thirdparty punishment only became more important in large, complex societies to solve more pressing collective-action problems.

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“…In particular, it seems that moralistic punishment of social dominance may have led to the evolution of egalitarian social structure in human evolution, similar to that seen today in smallscale, mobile foraging groups (Boehm 1999;Erdal and Whiten 1996;Knauft 1991). This shows up most clearly in cross-cultural norms against physical aggression, monopolization of sexually active females, and food sharing norms (Boehm 2008). This shows up most clearly in cross-cultural norms against physical aggression, monopolization of sexually active females, and food sharing norms (Boehm 2008).…”

Section: Why Are Social Conventions and Institutionsmentioning

confidence: 75%

Interdisciplinary Anthropology

2011

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The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.Cover photo: Michael K. Nichols/getty images Cover design: deblik, BerlinPrinted on acid-free paper Springer is part of Springer Science+Business Media (www.springer.com) Preface This volume is the result of a research project entitled "Evolutionary Continuity -Human Specifics -The Possibility of Objective Knowledge" that was carried out by representatives of six academic disciplines (evolutionary biology, evolutionary anthropology, brain research, cognitive neuroscience, cognitive psychology, and philosophy) over a period of three-and-a-half years starting July 1, 2006, and ending December 31, 2009. The starting point for the project was the newly emerging riddle of human uniqueness. Formerly, people believed it possible to determine which features distinguish humans from other animals. Rationality, i.e., the possession of mind, reason, language, logical thinking, etc., was thought to be the unique characteristic of human beings. This is precisely what the old definition of the human as animal rationale suggested: only human beings possess rationality and this sets them apart from all other creatures. But the results of scientific research fundamentally questioned this view in recent decades. With regard to the dimensions of rationality (possession of concepts, arithmetic, reasoning, etc.), it was found that they not only exist in us humans, but that at least early forms can be found in our close and distant relatives in the animal world. Not a single element of rationality is really exclusive to humans. For example, all mammals are capable of elementary categorizations; pigeons are experts in abstraction and generalization; chimpanzees and bonobos do not only understand causal relationships in the physical world but are also able to understand what their conspecifics think; finally, chimpanzees and orangutans are able to act on the basis of prior reasoning. Certainly, most of these skills are more perfectly developed in us than in our relatives. Yet, they are -and this precisely is the new insight -in no way exclusive to humans. Rather, our rationality constitutes an advancement of animal rationality.Alarmed by these results and in order to adhere to the exclusivity of humans, many attempts were made to come up with other human specifics. However, all of the alternatives turned out to be untenable in the light of recent research. The making and use of tools, for example, are common in the animal world; aesthetic judgment can already be observed in animals; the same applies to altruism, or to walking upright, of Kiel). Jointly, six areas of research were defined that addressed different aspects especially productive with regard to the overall question. The results of three-and-ahalf years of research are now presented in the six chapters of this...

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Purposive Social Selection and the Evolution of Human Altruism

Cited by 64 publications

References 75 publications

The association between religious homogamy and reproduction

The association between religious homogamy and reproduction

Hadza Cooperation

Interdisciplinary Anthropology

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