Sociology essay
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12_biologically-inspired_evolutionary_theories.pptxBiologically-inspired evolutionary theories
Chapter 12
Principles of genetics
Genotype and phenotype
Nature and nurture
Mendel’s peas
At the group level
Gene pool
Genetic drift
sociobiology
Breakthrough!
Evolution only occurs when something selects on variation
Mutation isn’t the driving force
Emergence of sociobiology
Advocates of group selection processes
Sociologists say, “Duh!”
Advocates of individual processes (biologists)
Genic selection
Key behaviors
Inclusive fitness
Propensity to cooperate with kin rather than strangers
Reciprocal altruism
Altruism is likely to be reciprocated and increase fitness by keeping genes in the gene pool
Selfish gene (Richard Dawkins)
Genes as copy machines looking to reproduce themselves
Clever genes!
Solution: House themselves in bodies (phenotypes)
Bodies as vehicle to preserve genes
Coercion: genes make us do it
Increases fitness for those who coerce
Increases capacity to organize large societies
Increase fitness of society
Increases survival of genes
Ethnicity as biological drive of genes
Distinctive phenotypes
Culture and history
Ethnic group as adaptive strategy for people sharing characteristics
Suspicious assumptions
Organisms as survivor machines for genes
Phenotypes as adaptive strategies in response to pressure from genes
Universal behaviors and social structures as genic selection
Biological underpinnings to all sociocultural phenomena
Evolutionary psychology
Sociobiology
Brain operation
Evolutionary psychology
Key assumptions
The brain is an information-processing organ that evolves like any other organ
Evolves through natural selection
Various neural mechanisms specialized to address selection pressures from our past
Our mind is a stone-age mind from the Pleistocene
Most brain activity is unconscious
Human psychology consists of the activity of specialized modules of neurons that process information to produce behaviors, interactions, social structures, and cultures
examples
Human speech
Emotional capacities
“Just-so stories”
Young men want/ need access to women (to pass their genes) but lack resources
They are more likely to commit violent crimes in all societies
Natural selection creates a brain module to encourage them to take risks
Maximizing reproductive fitness
Women
Few eggs
Long-time commitment
Men
Many sperms
Fleeting attachment
Look for stable partner
Look to multiply their partners
The issues
Where are those famous modules?
No predictive power
Explanations retrofitted to the theory
Cross-species comparisons
Richard machalek
Analytical protocol
Identify a social form present in at least two species
Identify the design problems that may constrain the development of the social form
Identify the processes that generate the social form
Identify benefits and beneficiaries of the social form that explain its persistence
What makes human macro societies possible?
And how come only humans and insects have them?
Constraints to overcome
Organismic
Ecological
Cost-benefit
Sociological
Organismic constraints
Morphology
Ability to engage in diverse productive behaviors
Ecological constraints
Diversity of other species
Competition for resources
Number of predators
Mortality rate from disease
Cost-benefit constraints
Benefits
Costs
Complex division of labor
Social parasitism
Compensates for small size
Sociological constraints: developing macro sociality
Ability to engage in impersonal cooperation
Division of labor in distinct social categories
Integration and coordination of division of labor
Ants vs. people
Ants
Remote chemical communication
Casts
Humans
Cognitive culture
Status-roles constructs
Usefulness of analysis
Discover how a social form evolved in human societies
Understand value of sociality in response to environmental challenges
Identify design features that may help address problems common to diverse species
Maryanski: learning from apes
The pool
Chimpanzees
Gorillas
Orangutans
Gibbons
Examination of social ties
Propensity for individualism, autonomy, mobility, and weak social ties
Distant mirror for ourselves
Genetically-coded traits that are probably part of human nature too
Common ancestor who was solitary beyond short-lived ties to offsprings
We don’t have powerful urges for sociality and collective social bonding
Contradicts what sociologists and social philosophers argue
