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Promoting discussion and collaboration in social and cultural evolution
Browsing All posts tagged under »multilevel selection«
Why Become a Farmer?
The previous blog discussed Göbekli Tepe, which achieved a surprisingly high level of social complexity before the adoption of agriculture. In the language of philosophy of science, Göbekli Tepe is an anomaly for the reigning paradigm in theoretical archaeology, which posits that the adoption of agriculture was the pre-condition for, or even the cause of, […]
What Happened in Prehistory
February 22, 2013 by Peter Turchin
I just finished reading the book by Peter Peregrine, What Happened in Prehistory? Peregrine is an anthropologist at the Lawrence University in Wisconsin. I have known him primarily because he spearheaded the construction of the Atlas of Cultural Evolution database and was co-editor of the nine-volume Encyclopedia of Prehistory. (I am interested in these works […]
The Glue that Binds
January 31, 2013 by Peter Turchin
There are certain things I miss about my first scientific love, ecology. Mostly it is being able to travel to neat places, like the Yellowstone or the Kruger National Park in South Africa, to commune with neat animals there. Bison in the Yellowstone National Park (photo by the author) But on the whole I don’t […]
Unproductive War II
January 26, 2013 by Peter Turchin
In the previous post I argued that although it looks like the period between 1 and 1500 AD was one of stagnation, and even regress (European ‘Dark Ages’, etc.), under the surface there was a lot of technological and social progress. In China, again, agricultural techniques continued to evolve. And while the geographic extent of […]
The Dangers of Building Historical Databases
November 17, 2012 by Peter Turchin
Wednesday and Thursday I ran a workshop in my lab. I call these gettings-together ‘micro-workshops,’ because there may be as few as 4-5 people, or as many as 10 (but not more). Many years ago, when I was hired by my university, I asked for a laboratory that was set up not as a usual […]
David Sloan Wilson. Reply to Comments on “Human Cultures are Primarily Adaptive at the Group Level”
October 22, 2012 by SEF Editor
Thanks to Peter Turchin and Michael Hochberg for creating and managing the Social Evolution Forum, which has become an excellent arena for high-level discussion. Thanks also to my colleagues who took the time to write commentaries and to readers who responded with their comments. In addition to this general reply, I have also provided comments […]
Joseph Bulbulia, Simon Greenhill, and Russell Gray. First Shots Fired For The Phylogenetic Revolution in Religious Studies: a Commentary on David Sloan Wilson
October 18, 2012 by SEF Editor
Wilson’s target article illustrates how evolutionary hypotheses are advancing the science of complex cultural systems. We agree. The following extends the conversation to consider the benefits of evolutionary methods. We restrict our review to computational phylogenetic methods as these are being used to test evolutionary hypotheses about religions. Why cultural phylogenetics? Offspring resemble their parents […]
Michael E. Hochberg and Harvey Whitehouse. To Understand Present Day Cultures We Must Study the Past: a Commentary on David Sloan Wilson
October 15, 2012 by Peter Turchin
David Sloan Wilson’s essay provides ample fodder for provocative discussion on cultural evolution. Are cultural traits adaptations, and if so, at what level(s) of selection? These questions can only be resolved on a case-by-case basis but that will mean we also need to know much more about how cultural traits and groups change over time. […]
Stephen K. Sanderson. A Commentary on David Sloan Wilson
October 12, 2012 by SEF Editor
David Sloan Wilson has been perhaps the strongest advocate for group selection for several decades now. The article under consideration here is an attempt to show that human cultures have been created by and evolve by a form of group selection, presumably cultural group selection. I am afraid that I don’t find anything in this […]
Matthew R. Zimmerman. Should the Consensus be Essentialist and Adaptationist? A Comment on David Sloan Wilson
October 10, 2012 by SEF Editor
Wilson describes a growing consensus concerning the role of culture in human evolution. While not everyone is yet a member (he excepts advocates of memetics and evoked culture), I am heartened by much of what Wilson describes. I readily join this consensus when it holds that cultural inheritance is an important tool that has allowed […]
Mark Pagel. Adapted, Yes, but for Whom or What? A Commentary on David Sloan Wilson
October 7, 2012 by SEF Editor
David Sloan Wilson’s essay Human Cultures are Primarily Adaptive at the Group Level is helpful in calling attention to the fundamental role that the human social group has played throughout our evolutionary history. But Sloan Wilson is mistaken, in my view, in seeming to use the phrase “primarily adaptive at the group level” to mean […]
Martin Hewson. Consensus and Dissensus on Cultural Evolution: A Commentary on David Sloan Wilson
October 5, 2012 by SEF Editor
David Sloan Wilson detects signs of an emergent consensus around a broad notion of evolution which encompasses both genetic and cultural history and which recognizes as driving forces selection among groups, individuals, and genes. I hope so. Movement in that direction would be welcome. The comprehensiveness of Wilson’s view of evolution is highly attractive. For […]
David Sloan Wilson: Human Cultures are Primarily Adaptive at the Group Level
October 2, 2012 by SEF Editor
The question of whether a given trait qualifies as an adaptation must be answered on a case-by-case basis. Nevertheless, a strong case can be made for species as primarily adapted to their environments. A similar argument can be made for human cultures as primarily adapted to their environments at the group level. The reason that […]
The Social Evolutionary Roles of Internal versus External Wars
August 9, 2012 by Peter Turchin
Joe Anoatubby raises a number of good points, with many of which I find myself in complete agreement. However, one thing I cannot emphasize too much is that generic violence is not a good conceptual category. We need to look at different sides of it separately, for reasons that actually have a lot to do […]
Michael Hochberg. Pinker redux: We need data
July 18, 2012 by SEF Editor
The Pinker essay has generated a lot of commentary on different websites. This can only be a good thing, insofar as channels for reactions remain open. The Social Evolution Forum is committed to this. Needless to say, there is a tinge of hegemony in various essays on the Edge website. How can two individuals, who are […]
Douglas M. Jones: History and Group Consciousness
July 16, 2012 by SEF Editor
I teach a course every year or two called “The Anthropology of Violence and Non-Violence.” I’ve used Peter Turchin’s “War and Peace and War” as one of the assigned books the last several times; the next time I’ll be adding Steven Pinker’s “The Better Angels of Our Natures” to the reading list. Pinker’s book reflects […]
Antony Harper: Response to Pinker
July 15, 2012 by SEF Editor
Professor Pinker’s critique of group selection rests broadly on three points. First, he suggests that the concept is inexplicit as “it refers to too many things”. Second, if group selection is used to explain cultural traits, it contributes nothing new, i.e. nothing that cannot be explained by anthropologists, historians, social scientists, and the like without […]
David Sloan Wilson. Clash of Paradigms: Why Proponents of Multilevel Selection Theory and Inclusive Fitness Theory Sometimes (But Not Always) Misunderstand Each Other
July 13, 2012 by SEF Editor
Thomas Kuhn (1970) forever changed the conception of science with his notion of paradigms. Before, science was often seen as a relatively straight path to the truth through the repeated formation and testing of hypotheses. What could be simpler? Kuhn observed that scientists sometimes get stuck viewing a topic a certain way. Their particular configuration […]
May 20, 2013 by Peter Turchin
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