Mogens H. Sørensen sur Twitter : "Just think of it: Every creature is part of a chain of incredibly lucky individuals #evolution. TOM THE DANCING BUG: What is the product of the most incredible unbroken winning streak in the history of life on Earth? Coursera.org. How Culture Drove Human Evolution | Conversation | Edge. The two systems begin interacting over time, and the most important selection pressures over the course of human evolution are the things that culture creates—like tools. Compared to chimpanzees, we have high levels of manual dexterity. We're good at throwing objects. We can thread a needle. There are aspects of our brain that seem to be consistent with that as being an innate ability, but tools and artifacts (the kinds of things that one finds useful to throw or finds useful to manipulate) are themselves products of cultural evolution.
Another example here is fire and cooking. Richard Wrangham, for example, has argued that fire and cooking have been important selection pressures, but what often gets overlooked in understanding fire and cooking is that they're culturally transmitted—we're terrible at making fires actually. We have no innate fire-making ability. Another area that we've worked on is social status. We don't see this in other kinds of animals. The False Allure Of Group Selection. I am often asked whether I agree with the new group selectionists, and the questioners are always surprised when I say I do not. After all, group selection sounds like a reasonable extension of evolutionary theory and a plausible explanation of the social nature of humans.
Also, the group selectionists tend to declare victory, and write as if their theory has already superseded a narrow, reductionist dogma that selection acts only at the level of genes. In this essay, I'll explain why I think that this reasonableness is an illusion. The more carefully you think about group selection, the less sense it makes, and the more poorly it fits the facts of human psychology and history.
Why does this matter? The first big problem with group selection is that the term itself sows so much confusion. First I'll examine the idea that group selection is a viable explanation of the traits of human groups such as tribes, religions, cultures, and nations. 1. What about groups? 2. 3. Harry White Design. Harvard sociobiologist E.O. Wilson on the origins of the arts | Harvard Magazine May-Jun 2012.