ANTH 204 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Evolutionary Arms Race, Cooperative Breeding, Homo Erectus
6 Feb 2017
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Document Summary
Altruism and mutualism: the puzzle of human nature-culture. Humans selectively invest in some babes, but not others. Environmental, economic, and cultural pressures are important factors in this mediation. Human mothers (with exception of challitrds) are the only social mammals that let others hold their babies. Why is this an important piece in the puzzle of what makes humans unique (so good at perspective-taking and empathy?) Our ability to put ourselves in the perspective other people is part of what makes us unique (theory of mind) Empathy: affective ability which requires perspective taking and caring for the thoughts and feelings of others. About 2 million years go in the homo erectus lineage, humans developed larger brains and better perspective-taking abilities by relying on the alloparental care of offspring (involvement of fathers, (cid:498)uncles and aunts(cid:499), grandmothers, grandfathers) The collective was important it wasn"t just the mother and grandmother. Dependents more neutrally disposed to be other-regarding were better cared for.
