Cooperative breeding scholars commonly estimate that cooperative breeding arose with homo erectus, ca. This book highlights the theoretical, empirical and technical advances. Fitness tradeoffs in the history and evolution of delegated mothering with special reference to wetnursing, abandonment, and infanticide. Cooperative feeding and breeding, and the evolution of executive. Cooperative feeding and breeding, and the evolution of executive control. Revisiting the consequences of cooperative breeding uzh.
Implications of this evolutionary context for the sociocognitive and emotional. I argue that a cooperative breeding model provides a more compelling explanation for distinctive human emotional and mental aptitudes than do competing hypotheses. It may also correlate with a social system in which each person is identified with their matriline their mothers lineage and which can involve the inheritance of property andor titles. Evolutionary social psychology 105 common descent or common ecological demands, some are uniquely designed to solve particular problems encountered by a given species e. Gender identity may exist in the brain as a cognitive lens that controls who to focus on as a developmental tutor. Cooperative breeding and human cognitive evolution j. No evidence for larger brains in cooperatively breeding. Mutual policing and repression of competition in the evolution of cooperative groups.
Cooperative feeding and breeding, and the evolution of. Humans take more or less twenty years to reach reproductive ma. Use features like bookmarks, note taking and highlighting while reading cooperative breeding in vertebrates. Despite sharing a recent common ancestor, humans are surprisingly different from other great apes. Group territorial behavior and cooperative breeding are now recognized as widespread phenomena among birds of warmtemperate, subtropical, and tropical climates.
Cooperative breeding and human cognitive evolution. The most obvious discontinuities are related to our cognitive. Using an integrated data set from the fossil record and contemporary human and nonhuman primate biology, we provide a fresh perspective on three important shifts in human evolutionary history. Suzuki2 abstract cooperative breeding is a widespread and intense form of coop eration, in which individuals help raise offspring that are not their own. Here we propose that these cognitive consequences of cooperative breeding could have become more pervasive in the human lineage because the psychological changes were added to an apelevel cognitive system capable of understanding simple mental states, albeit mainly in. The evolution of cooperative breeding is particularly complex in humans because many other traits that directly affect parental care shorter birth intervals, increased offspring survivorship, juvenile dependence, and older ages at dispersal also emerge during the pleistocene. Kramer one conspicuous lifehistory feature of primates generally and humans speci. Humans and chimps are the most unlike in on these measures, with humans showing a very similar profile to callitrichids. Our proposal here is that a comprehensive account of the evolution of human cooperationand the psychological skills and motivations of shared intentionality that go with itrequires insights from both the interdependence and the cooperative breeding hypotheses. An extension of the social brains hypothesis, known as the cooperative breeding brain hypothesis, postulates that cooperatively breeding species, which live in stable social groups and provide allocare, face particularly pronounced cognitive demands because they must recognize, remember, and differentially respond to multiple group members.
Modem evolutionary theorists assume that many features related to. Figure 2 framework for studying the molecular basis of human brain evolution. This behaviour is particularly well studied in birds, using both longterm and comparative studies that have provided insights into the evolution of reproductive altruism. This book, which grew out of that meeting, addresses such topics as emotions in human cooperation, reciprocity, biological markets, cooperation and conflict in multicellularity, genomic and intercellular cooperation, the origins of human cooperation, and the cultural evolution of cooperation. Let me start with dubreuils timing of cooperative breeding. Cooperative breeding encompasses a range of unusually flexible monogamous, polygynous and polyandrous mating systems in which individuals of either sex may mate sequentially or at the same time with one more partners, with one common feature. Building on decades of research, hrdy 2009 and others e. Proponents of the cbh argue that cooperative breeding leads to increased cognitive performance, calling upon cognitive and motivational processes including spontaneous prosocial tendencies, attending to and learning from. The human brain stands out among mammals by being unusually large. Energetics and the evolution of human brain size nature. First, i explain that cooperative feeding and cooperative breeding are poor. Similarities between cooperative breeding among humans and among platyrrhines are strikingly concrete and specific. Genetic and cultural evolution of cooperation the mit press. Cooperative breeding and monogamy in mammalian societies.
Assuming that human ancestors were endowed with the basic perspectivetaking skills found in other great apes, reductions in androgen activity in recent human evolution may have been a catalyst both for the elaboration of these abilities and for their application to new types of cooperative social interactions. Cooperative breeders are species in which more than a pair of individuals assist in the production of young. Cooperative breeding is found in only a few hundred bird species worldwide, and understanding this often strikingly altruistic behaviour has remained an important challenge in behavioural ecology for over 30 years. Pdf cooperative feeding and breeding, and the evolution. This breeding system permitted hominid females to produce offspring without increasing interbirth intervals, and allowed for movement into new habitats.
Several hypotheses propose that cooperative breeding leads to increased cognitive performance, in both nonhuman and human primates, but systematic evidence for such a relationship is missing. The most obvious discontinuities are related to our cognitive abilities, including language, but we also have a markedly different, cooperative breeding system. Studies of ecology, evolution, and behavior kindle edition by walter d. Evolution of cooperative breeding in birds and mammals. Cooperative breeding and human cognitive evolution burkart. Adult sex ratios and partner scarcity among huntergatherers. Oxford handbook of language evolution oxford handbooks. First, cooperative breeding is favored where successful dispersal is difficult, and infant helping positively affects survival rates. Cooperative breeding and human cognitive evolution wiley online. The cooperative breeding hypothesis cbh states that cooperative breeding. The most obvious discontinuities are related to our cognitive abilities, including language, but we also have a markedly different, coopera. Examples include the evolution of flight, warning coloration, complex eyes 1 or cooperative breeding 2,3. Cooperative breeding is a widespread and intense form of cooperation, in which individuals help raise offspring that are not their own. Alternative cognitive explanations of hunting and food sharing.
Cognitive consequences of cooperative breeding in primates. Cooperative breeding and human evolution request pdf. Van schaik despite sharing a recent common ancestor, humans are surprisingly different from other great apes. A sketch of the evidence volume 39 peter richerson, ryan baldini, adrian v. First, romantic love is a commitment device for motivating pairbonding in. A matriline is a line of descent from a female ancestor to a descendant of either sex in which the individuals in all intervening. Hrdy is professor emerita at the university of california. Ecological factors which cause selection for group territorial behavior are considered to be high adult survival and saturation of suitable habitat, modified by the demands of different feeding strategies.
Recent years have seen the emergence of a novel variant of this hypothesis, suggesting that cooperative breeding is associated with the elaboration of. For full access to this pdf, sign in to an existing account, or purchase an annual subscription. Her recently published book on cooperative breeding presents an analysis of maya family economics and reproductive decisions. Most scholars of language evolution recognize that the first use of language, in particular words, presupposed an unusual ability to cooperate. Bell, kathryn demps, karl frost, vicken hillis, sarah mathew, emily k. Therefore, although the whole of human cognition may be unparalleled in the animal kingdom, key components of our cognitive phenotype can be found in other taxa, including not only great apes, but also more distantly related species bearing cognitive resemblances to humans as a result of convergent evolution. She is considered a highly recognized pioneer in modernizing our understanding of the evolutionary basis of female behavior in both nonhuman and human primates. Recent fossil and archaeological finds have complicated our interpretation of the origin and early evolution of genus homo. We propose that the evolution of these derived features was a consequence of the adoption of cooperative breeding by early homo. Second, i show that dubreuil likely misdates the occurrence of human cooperative feeding and cooperative breeding section 4. The role of ontogeny in the evolution of human cooperation. Transgender identity is the acceptance of a tutor from the opposite sex. Abstract despite sharing a recent common ancestor, humans are surprisingly different from other great apes.
Long term studies of ecology and behaviour a variety of authors give detailed and fascinating descriptions of cooperation in birds, from the splendid fairywren and noisy miner of australia to such birds as the green woodhoopoe and arabian babbler of the great rift valley desert belts to a number of. The oxford handbook of language evolution presents critical accounts of every aspect of the field. Among primates, humans and callitrichid monkeys are the only. Download it once and read it on your kindle device, pc, phones or tablets. Cooperative feeding and breeding, and the evolution of executive control article pdf available in biology and philosophy 271. Interdisciplinary activity has produced fundamental advances in the understanding of language evolution and in human and primate evolution more generally. Fundamental problems with the cooperative breeding hypothesis. Here we propose that these cognitive consequences of cooperative breeding. Matrilineality is the tracing of kinship through the female line. Humans are strikingly different from our close relatives, the great apes, in mind, behavior and life history. Hrdy university of california, department of anthropology, davis, ca 956168522, u. Optimizing models are commonly used to describe behavior not because they mimic the cognitive processes of the actors. A causal link might exist because motivational and cognitive processes necessary for the execution and coordination of helping behaviors could also favor cognitive performance in contexts.
Ecology and evolution of cooperative breeding in birds. Since extrapair paternity is relatively uncommon in socially monogamous and cooperatively breeding mammals, our analyses support the suggestion that high levels of average kinship between group members have played an important role in the evolution of cooperative breeding in nonhuman mammals, as well as in birds and insects. However, while it is possible that cooperative or communal breeding developed at a relatively early stage of human evolution and facilitated the subsequent evolution of prosociality and cognitive development, the existence of reproductive cooperation does not necessarily generate an extension of cooperation to other activities, such as foraging of hunting, and there is little evidence of any close relationship between cooperative or communal breeding and cognitive development in other. Occasional cooperative breeding in birds and the robustness of comparative analyses concerning the evolution of cooperative breeding michael griesser1,2 and toshitaka n. Evolutionary social psychology university of michigan. Owens department of zoology, university of queensland, st lucia, brisbane, queensland 4072, australia in approximately 3. These behavioral correlates of cooperative breeding can have implications for understanding human evolution burkart et al. Cultural group selection plays an essential role in explaining human cooperation. Looking at the entire range of human evolutionary history, melvin konner tells the compelling and complex story of how crosscultural and universal characteristics of our growth from infancy to adolescence became rooted in genetically inherited characteristics of the human brain. With this cooperative breeding hypothesis cbh rapidly gaining currency, the time is ripe for a critical appraisal. Although the evolution of cooperative breeding has often been. Pdf despite sharing a recent common ancestor, humans are surprisingly different from other great apes. Cooperative breeding and human cognitive evolution, evolutionary anthropology 18 2009.
Humans are not cooperative breeders in surveys of the literature on breeding systems, cluttonbrock 2002 and hrdy 2009 reported that between 510% of mammalian species are cooperative in breeding. Pdf cooperative breeding and human cognitive evolution. Kin selection and mutualism in cooperative vertebrates tim cluttonbrock in cooperatively breeding vertebrates, nonbreeding helpers raise young produced by dominant breeders. This book presents a wideranging summation of work in all the disciplines involved. Cooperative breeding and human cognitive evolution core. The role of cooperative breeding in modern human evolution. Bobe r, leakey mg 2009 ecology of pliopleistocene mammals in the omoturkana basin and the emergence of homo. This article evaluates a thesis containing three interconnected propositions. The expensivetissue hypothesis 1 explains its evolution by proposing a tradeoff between the size of the brain and that of the. Reliance on allomaternal assistance would make maternal commitment more dependent on the mothers. One of the questions raised by evolutionary theory is how cooperative behavior, which benefits other members of a species at a cost to the individual, came to exist. Unraveling the evolution of uniquely human cognition. Human reciprocity and its evolution as want to read. Cooperative behavior meshes with evolutionary theory.
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