I think we are obliged to Charles for filling in the background. I had my
own query about the Lalande paper: a John Odling-Smee is cited as co-author.
There is another John Odling-Smee, he heads up the IMF's eastern European
division, which is definitely not interested in altruism or coevolution.
Odd, eh?
Mark
> -----Original Message-----
> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On Behalf Of Julien
> Pierrehumbert
> Sent: 23 August 2000 20:26
> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Subject: RE: [CrashList] Niche Construction, Biological
> EvolutionandCultural Change 1of2
>
>
> Charles,
>
> A good part of your argument with Mark is over my head and I
> agree with you
> on the specificity of human culture eventhough I wouldn't
> necessarily exclude
> other primates or even other very different species from this
> specificity.
> Nevertheless...
>
> >Human culture is grounded in the enormous sociality or
> >communality of the human species. This sociality or communality
> is humans'
> >greatest biological adaptive advantage compared with all other species.
>
> The obvious counter-example are the social insects, some of which are
> hugely sucessful species.
>
> >So, selfish , individualist behavior undermines the most
> critical adaptive
> >advantage of our species. But it is exactly this area in which
> other species
> >do not have the same thing as humans.
>
> There is a balance of selfishness and social/affective behaviour in all
> mammals, AFAIK. You could also argue that human sociality is based on
> group-selfishness or the selfishness of a leader. I do not
> understand where
> this behaviour differs from the one of other mammals.
>
> Julien
>
>
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