| Records |
Author  |
Potts, R. |
| Title |
Variability selection in hominid evolution |
Type |
Journal Article |
| Year |
1998 |
Publication |
Evolutionary Anthropology: Issues, News, and Reviews |
Abbreviated Journal |
Evol. Anthropol. |
| Volume |
7 |
Issue |
3 |
Pages |
81-96 |
| Keywords |
variability selection; hominids; environment; adaptation; natural selection; evolution |
| Abstract |
Variability selection (abbreviated as VS) is a process considered to link adaptive change to large degrees of environment variability. Its application to hominid evolution is based, in part, on the pronounced rise in environmental remodeling that took place over the past several million years. The VS hypothesis differs from prior views of hominid evolution, which stress the consistent selective effects associated with specific habitats or directional trends (e.g., woodland, savanna expansion, cooling). According to the VS hypothesis, wide fluctuations over time created a growing disparity in adaptive conditions. Inconsistency in selection eventually caused habitat-specific adaptations to be replaced by structures and behaviors responsive to complex environmental change. Key hominid adaptations, in fact, emerged during times of heightened variability. Early bipedality, encephalized brains, and complex human sociality appear to signify a sequence of VS adaptations—i.e., a ratcheting up of versatility and responsiveness to novel environments experienced over the past 6 million years. The adaptive results of VS cannot be extrapolated from selection within a single environmental shift or relatively stable habitat. If some complex traits indeed require disparities in adaptive setting (and relative fitness) in order to evolve, the VS idea counters the prevailing view that adaptive change necessitates long-term, directional consistency in selection. © 1998 Wiley-Liss, Inc. |
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John Wiley & Sons, Inc. |
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1520-6505 |
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Equine Behaviour @ team @ |
Serial |
5461 |
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| Author |
Rogers, A.R. |
| Title |
Does Biology Constrain Culture? |
Type |
Journal Article |
| Year |
1988 |
Publication |
American Anthropologist |
Abbreviated Journal |
Am Anthropol |
| Volume |
90 |
Issue |
4 |
Pages |
819-831 |
| Keywords |
models, learning, evolution, culture, fitness, adaptive, environment, human, natural selection, behavior |
| Abstract |
Most social scientists would agree that the capacity for human culture was probably fashioned by natural selection, but they disagree about the implications of this supposition. Some believe that natural selection imposes important constraints on the ways in which culture can vary, while others believe that any such constraints must be negligible. This article employs a “thought experiment” to demonstrate that neither of these positions can be justified by appeal to general properties of culture or of evolution. Natural selection can produce mechanisms of cultural transmission that are neither adaptive nor consistent with the predictions of acultural evolutionary models (those ignoring cultural evolution). On the other hand, natural selection can also produce mechanisms of cultural transmission that are highly consistent with acultural models. Thus, neither side of the sociobiology debate is justified in dismissing the arguments of the other. Natural selection may impose significant constraints on some human behaviors, but negligible constraints on others. Models of simultaneous genetic/cultural evolution will be useful in identifying domains in which acultural evolutionary models are, and are not, likely to be useful. |
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Equine Behaviour @ team @ citeulike:907484 |
Serial |
4199 |
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