ANTH 002 Lecture Notes - Lecture 17: Modern Synthesis (20Th Century), Theodosius Dobzhansky, Selective Breeding
15 Jul 2020
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Document Summary
Key features of human life history: long lifespan (and long female post-reproductive lifespan, delayed reproduction, a large brain endowed with a number of cognitive adaptions. Proximate explanations: mechanism or development, examples: physiology, neurobiology, hormones, upbringing. Ultimate explanations: function or history, examples: phylogenetic similarity, adaptation. Everything has both proximate and ultimate explanations. The tendency to equate natural or traditional with correct . Just because it"s natural doesn"t mean its right or good or wrong or bad. Posits that the human brain/mind is the product of natural selection. As such, the mind is adapted to solve recurrent problems that faced our ancestors. Can use our knowledge about the past to formulate hypotheses about how the mind might work. Other than these basic commonalities, different evolutionary psychologists may have widely different hypotheses about the mind. Selected topics of study: cooperation, group-formation (identity, cognitive biases in decision making and memory, emotion and motivation, personality, parenting, economic behavior, religious behavior, mating.
