A while ago, I picked up, on ANTHRO-L, the following press release from the University of Missouri-Columbia. It is certainly worth reading, if only to ask questions and/or criticize. Fully aware of the nature of the document and having nothing better to do, I have, felt a need to come up with a few quick, minor notes & comments (see below, in
).
Human Brains Evolved For Social Competition.
Medical News Today - 09 Aug 2004Why did human ancestors evolve such large brains?
[‘Why’ or ‘How’? I always have had problems with this one.]While humans have an unusual array of characteristics that distinguish us from other species, it is our cognitive abilities and open-ended thinking that are most remarkable. University of Missouri-Columbia researchers found that the ability to excel at social problem solving led human brains to surpass other species in size, developing ecological dominance 1.5 to 2 million years ago.
[Putting on my “green” hat, I’ll say that “ecological dominance” is at par with Francis Fukuyama’s “End of History” and recent silly statements regarding the “end of Evolution”. If we had collectively achieved “ecological dominance”, we wouldn’t have to worry about climatic changes.]Mark Flinn and Carol Ward, associate professors of anthropology, along with psychology professor David Geary have integrated this new theory of human intelligence evolution with recent developments in the fields of paleoanthropology, cognitive psychology and neurobiology.
[As far as I know, “intelligence” is somewhat poorly defined and/or controversial concept, but I am glad to see that the authors do not seem to be bothered by such uncertainty.] Through testing fossils for brain size, body size and archaeological evidence of behavior, along with recent comparisons of our mental abilities to those of apes, the researchers have found support for a theory proposed by zoologist Richard Alexander that humans evolved large brains to negotiate and manipulate complex social relationships.
[The “why” question again. Anyway, until very recently, humans, like all other living forms, did not “evolve” things. They just happened to undergo evolutionary changes in response to a very broad range of selection pressures, over which they had, on the very long (evolutionary) term, no conscious, effective control, and whether or not we are now in a position to begin tweeking things around remains to be seen. Only our unreadable distant future will tell].“Most traditional theories, including that of Charles Darwin, suggested some combination of tool use and hunting were the key selective pressures favoring big brains, but increasing evidence of hunting and tool use in other species such as chimpanzees indicates our ancestors were not unique in that regard,” Flinn said. “The most exceptional of our mental gifts involves understanding what is going on in other people’s minds by using skills such as empathy and self-awareness.”
[Some people earn their living by saying/writing that so are/do chimps – admittedly, at a different level. Incidentally, I find the contrast being made between Darwin’s traditional – read “Old” – theory and this “New”, seminal theory rather amazingly expectable.]Ward says the hominid brain increased 250 percent in less than 3 million years, particularly in the neocortex area that controls cognitive development. She said scientific evidence says absolute, not relative, brain size is more closely tied to intelligence
[See above]. She credits the increasing importance of complex social coalitions with the human brain’s evolution.
[Likely in conjunction with many other identified and yet-to-be identified factors, including, I believe, a lot of stochastic ones].“Great apes did have a lot of interaction with non-kin, seeking subordinate leverage and depending on the good graces of others, but hominids not only competed against other hominids, they competed against other groups much like sports teams do today,”
[A typically western view – and a rather simplistic and unwarranted analogy. When they are done with their highly organized ‘games’, sport teams members go home. They normally don’t have to collectively pick up the pieces, live with them in the long term, and pass them on] Ward said. “Eventually, competing against other hominids became the driving force and, at some point, became a factor in ecological dominance.”
[“Force”, “dominance” again. I may be wrong, here, but isn’t there in this curious discourse a smell of “Social Darwinism”? At any rate, it certainly appears to be coloured by or be in line with Evolutionary Psychology’s very resourceful EEA concept].Geary said the ability to think ahead and mentally stimulate
[simulate?] what others might do is another reason humans achieved dominance.
[This should make one wonder about the dinosaurs’ mental capabilities.]“As our ancestors gained control of other species, through hunting and other means, the most important impediment to their ability to survive, reproduce and thrive was the competing interests of other people,” Geary said. “And so it remains.”
[How about a long list of other of real constraints, of the kinds that really count on an evolutionarty scale, such as lasting environmental ones, like, for example, the Ice Age around the corner.]The researchers hope their cross-disciplinary approach and results will re-invigorate the debate and encourage further study.
“A lot of scientists have most of the puzzle,” Ward said. “We think this model explains the data better than any other model. The tests available, although not comprehensive, certainly support it and provide a better explanation than the other ideas out there.”
[In the spirit of “Social Darwinism” and since evolutionary competition is the ultimate driving force that must also affect social scientists, it should come as no surprise that “ideas” like this one are a dime a dozen.]Flinn, Geary and Ward’s paper, “Ecological Dominance, Social Competition and Coalitionary Arms Races: Why Humans Evolved Extraordinary Intelligence,” will be published later this year in the journal Evolution and Human Behavior. Geary also has authored a book on the subject. The Origin of Mind: Evolution of Brain, Cognition and General Intelligence will be published in October. Flinn and Ward have related papers on the links between an extended childhood and the evolution of intelligence that are being published in Origins of the social mind: Evolutionary psychology and child development and in Evolutionary perspectives on child development.
University of Missouri-Columbia
News Office Website
http://www.missouri.edu/~news 
