Well, good to see that some evolutionary biologists have started to clarify what natural selection does or does not!
> All the clever joking, punning, and tongue-in-cheekin' aside, > whilst you are quite correct to emphasize that "there is an > important [flaw]" flowing through any logic that GENETIC > natural selection acts DIRECTLY on groups, but what about > complex evolution of behaviors within and between cultures? Thanks for your nice reply, Wayne, and for correcting my English... As a foreigner I sometimes make spelling mistakes. Anyway, regarding group selection and why doesn't work in nature, you might wish to read: Williams (1966): Adaptation and natural selection, let's say THE reference book that explains in details why group selection cannot work. New edition in 1996 Ridley, M.: Evolution (the most recent edition is 2004). A very good text book for anyone wishing to start studying evolution (pages 302-304 on why group selection doesn't work). Ridley, M. Ed (2004) Evolution. Same title and author, but this is an edited book with the most influential papers of the most famous evolutionary biologists. Again, group selection is destroyed with examples and theory For those who believe that group selection and kin selection are the same, this is not a semantic matter: group selection and kin selection are two very distinct things and have very different meanings. Still, kin selection is very rare in nature and doesn't shine much; group selection doesn't exist at all in nature. Finally, for those interested in evolution of human cultures, look at the papers by Ruth Mace! Isabella -- Isabella Capellini, PhD Research Associate Evolutionary Anthropology Research Group Department of Anthropology Durham University 43 Old Elvet DH1 3HN Durham (UK) phone: +44 (0)191 3346177 fax: +44 (0)191 3346101
