Domestication is not an ancient moment of selection for prosociality: Insights from dogs and modern humans

2021 ◽  
pp. 146960532110554
Author(s):  
Robert J. Losey
Keyword(s):  
Human Evolution ◽  
Modern Humans ◽  
Past Event ◽  
Multiple Generations ◽  
Ongoing Process ◽  
Entry Points ◽  
Human Intention ◽  
Selection For ◽  
Material Things

Domestication is often portrayed as a long-past event, at times even in archaeological literature. The term domestication is also now applied to other processes, including human evolution. In such contexts, domestication means selection for friendliness or prosociality and the bodily results of such selective choices. Both such perspectives are misleading. Using dogs and modern humans as entry points, this paper explores why conceiving of domestication as a threshold event consisting of selection for prosociality is both incomplete and inaccurate. Domestication is an ongoing process, not a moment or an achievement. Selection in breeding, including for prosociality, is a part of many domestication histories, but it alone does not sustain this process over multiple generations. Further, much selection in domestication has little to do with human intention. Care, taming, commensalism, material things, and places are critical in carrying domestic relationships forward.

scholarly journals The transition to foraging for dense and predictable resources and its impact on the evolution of modern humans

2016 ◽  
Vol 371 (1698) ◽  
pp. 20150239 ◽  
Author(s):  
Curtis W. Marean
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Human Evolution ◽  
Cultural Evolution ◽  
Food Production ◽  
Modern Humans ◽  
Major Transitions ◽  
Rivers And Lakes ◽  
Broad Spectrum Revolution ◽  
Selection For ◽  
Empirical Record

Scientists have identified a series of milestones in the evolution of the human food quest that are anticipated to have had far-reaching impacts on biological, behavioural and cultural evolution: the inclusion of substantial portions of meat, the broad spectrum revolution and the transition to food production. The foraging shift to dense and predictable resources is another key milestone that had consequential impacts on the later part of human evolution. The theory of economic defendability predicts that this shift had an important consequence—elevated levels of intergroup territoriality and conflict. In this paper, this theory is integrated with a well-established general theory of hunter–gatherer adaptations and is used to make predictions for the sequence of appearance of several evolved traits of modern humans. The distribution of dense and predictable resources in Africa is reviewed and found to occur only in aquatic contexts (coasts, rivers and lakes). The palaeoanthropological empirical record contains recurrent evidence for a shift to the exploitation of dense and predictable resources by 110 000 years ago, and the first known occurrence is in a marine coastal context in South Africa. Some theory predicts that this elevated conflict would have provided the conditions for selection for the hyperprosocial behaviours unique to modern humans. This article is part of the themed issue ‘Major transitions in human evolution’.

A Story of Us

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lesley Newson ◽  
Peter Richerson
Keyword(s):  
Human Evolution ◽  
Cultural Evolution ◽  
Ice Age ◽  
Modern Humans ◽  
Evolutionary Path ◽  
Modern Times ◽  
Science Book ◽  
Early Humans ◽  
Last Ice Age ◽  
New Evidence

It’s time for a new story of our origins. One reason is that there a great deal of new evidence about what humans are like and the conditions that shaped human evolution. Another is that the thinking on human evolution has shifted. Evolutionists recognize that humans are very different from other animals, and they have been working to explain the different evolutionary path that humans took. There are still many gaps in the story, but this book describes seven points in our ancestors’ tale and explains the evidence behind these descriptions. The story begins seven million years ago, with the life of our ape ancestors, which were also the ancestors of today’s chimpanzees and bonobos. The second point is three million years ago with an ape that walked upright and lived outside the forest. Then follows a description of the life of early humans who lived one and a half million years ago. At the fourth point, 100,000 years ago, humans lived in Africa who were physically very similar to modern humans. The fifth is 30,000 years ago, during the last ice age, when our ancestors had evolved more complex cultures. The sixth is the period of accelerating cultural evolution that began as the planet started to recover from this ice age. Finally, beginning in the 1700s, there is the transformational period we are in now, which we call “modern times.” The style of this book is unusual for a science book because it has narrative sections that illustrate the lives of our ancestors and the problems they faced.

What determines evolutionary brain growth?

2001 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 278-279 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francisco Aboitiz
Keyword(s):  
Human Evolution ◽  
Brain Size ◽  
Processing Capacity ◽  
Brain Growth ◽  
Developmental Constraints ◽  
Size Evolution ◽  
Selection For

Finlay et al. address the importance of developmental constraints in brain size evolution. I discuss some aspects of this view such as the relation of brain size with processing capacity. In particular, I argue that in human evolution there must have been specific selection for increased processing capacity, and as a consequence for increased brain size.

scholarly journals Brain enlargement and dental reduction were not linked in hominin evolution

2017 ◽  
Vol 114 (3) ◽  
pp. 468-473 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aida Gómez-Robles ◽  
Jeroen B. Smaers ◽  
Ralph L. Holloway ◽  
P. David Polly ◽  
Bernard A. Wood
Keyword(s):  
Brain Size ◽  
Behavioral Changes ◽  
Modern Humans ◽  
Distinctive Features ◽  
Hominin Evolution ◽  
Large Brain ◽  
Dental Reduction ◽  
Selection For ◽  
Brain Reorganization ◽  
Evolutionary Simulations

The large brain and small postcanine teeth of modern humans are among our most distinctive features, and trends in their evolution are well studied within the hominin clade. Classic accounts hypothesize that larger brains and smaller teeth coevolved because behavioral changes associated with increased brain size allowed a subsequent dental reduction. However, recent studies have found mismatches between trends in brain enlargement and posterior tooth size reduction in some hominin species. We use a multiple-variance Brownian motion approach in association with evolutionary simulations to measure the tempo and mode of the evolution of endocranial and dental size and shape within the hominin clade. We show that hominin postcanine teeth have evolved at a relatively consistent neutral rate, whereas brain size evolved at comparatively more heterogeneous rates that cannot be explained by a neutral model, with rapid pulses in the branches leading to later Homo species. Brain reorganization shows evidence of elevated rates only much later in hominin evolution, suggesting that fast-evolving traits such as the acquisition of a globular shape may be the result of direct or indirect selection for functional or structural traits typical of modern humans.

scholarly journals Something old, something borrowed: Admixture and adaptation in human evolution

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Dannemann ◽  
Fernando Racimo
Keyword(s):  
Human Evolution ◽  
Ancient Dna ◽  
Gene Pool ◽  
Recent Literature ◽  
Genetic Material ◽  
Modern Human ◽  
Human Populations ◽  
Modern Humans ◽  
Functional Assays ◽  
Over Time

Almost a decade ago, the sequencing of ancient DNA from archaic humans - Neanderthals and Denisovans - revealed that modern and archaic humans interbred at least twice during the Pleistocene. The field of human paleogenomics has now turned its attention towards understanding the nature of this genetic legacy in the gene pool of present-day humans. What exactly did modern humans obtain from interbreeding with Neanderthals and Denisovans? Were introgressed genetic material beneficial, neutral or maladaptive? Can differences in phenotypes among present-day human populations be explained by archaic human introgression? These questions are of prime importance for our understanding of recent human evolution, but will require careful computational modeling and extensive functional assays before they can be answered in full. Here, we review the recent literature characterizing introgressed DNA and the likely biological consequences for their modern human carriers. We focus particularly on archaic human haplotypes that were beneficial to modern humans as they expanded across the globe, and on ways to understand how populations harboring these haplotypes evolved over time.

scholarly journals Something old, something borrowed: Admixture and adaptation in human evolution

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Dannemann ◽  
Fernando Racimo
Keyword(s):  
Human Evolution ◽  
Ancient Dna ◽  
Gene Pool ◽  
Recent Literature ◽  
Genetic Material ◽  
Modern Human ◽  
Human Populations ◽  
Modern Humans ◽  
Functional Assays ◽  
Over Time

Almost a decade ago, the sequencing of ancient DNA from archaic humans - Neanderthals and Denisovans - revealed that modern and archaic humans interbred at least twice during the Pleistocene. The field of human paleogenomics has now turned its attention towards understanding the nature of this genetic legacy in the gene pool of present-day humans. What exactly did modern humans obtain from interbreeding with Neanderthals and Denisovans? Were introgressed genetic material beneficial, neutral or maladaptive? Can differences in phenotypes among present-day human populations be explained by archaic human introgression? These questions are of prime importance for our understanding of recent human evolution, but will require careful computational modeling and extensive functional assays before they can be answered in full. Here, we review the recent literature characterizing introgressed DNA and the likely biological consequences for their modern human carriers. We focus particularly on archaic human haplotypes that were beneficial to modern humans as they expanded across the globe, and on ways to understand how populations harboring these haplotypes evolved over time.

scholarly journals The Most Recent Common Ancestor of Modern Humans was Born in Eurasia

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
vicente cabrera
Keyword(s):  
Human Evolution ◽  
Genome Sequencing ◽  
Common Ancestor ◽  
Recent Common Ancestor ◽  
Whole Genome ◽  
African Origin ◽  
Modern Humans ◽  
Most Recent Common Ancestor ◽  
History Of ◽  
New Vision

Ancient DNA has given a new vision to the recent history of human evolution. However, by always relying on the information provided by whole genome sequencing, some relevant relationships between modern humans and its archaic relatives have been misinterpreted by hybridization and recombination causes. In contrast, the congruent phylogeny, obtained from non-recombinant uniparental markers, indicates that humans and Neanderthals are sister subspecies, and that the most recent common ancestor of modern humans was not of African origin but Eurasian.

scholarly journals Recensiones

1998 ◽  
Author(s):  
Almudena Villar Calvo ◽  
Susana Rubio Jara ◽  
Pablo J. Morales Grajera ◽  
Juan Antonio Martos Romeno ◽  
Marta Giménez la Rosa ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Human Evolution ◽  
Cultural Change ◽  
Lithic Technology ◽  
Ecological Perspective ◽  
Human Diversity ◽  
Modern Humans ◽  
Princeton University ◽  
Anatomically Modern Humans

RESEÑA 1 de : Kuhn, Steven L.. Mousterian Lithic Technology. An Ecological Perspective. Princeton : Princeton University Press, 1995.RESEÑA 2 de : Politis, Gustavo G. Nukak. Colombia : Instituto Amazónico de Investigaciones Científicas (SINCHI), 1996.RESEÑA 3 de : Carbonell, Eudald; Vaquero, Manuel. The last neandertals, the first anatomically modern humans : a tale about the human diversity. Cultural change and human evolution : the crisis at 40 KA BP. Universitat Rovira i Virgili, 1996.RESEÑA 4 de : Moure Romanillo, Alfonso. El hombre fósil : 80 años después. Santander : Universidad de Cantabria, Fundación Marcelino Botín, Institute For Preliistoric Investigations, 1996.RESEÑA 5 de : Lori, Hager. Women in Human Evolution. Londres y Nueva York : Routledge, 1997.RESEÑA 6 de : Mither, Steven. Arqueología de la Mente. Orígenes del arte, de la religión y de la ciencia. Barcelona : Ed. Crítica (Grijalbo Mondadori), 1998.RESEÑA 7 de : Arzuaga, J.L.; Martínez, I. La especie elegida : la larga marcha de la evolución humana. Ed. Temas de Hoy, 1998.

Creative Farmers of the Northeast: A New View of Indian Maize Horticulture

1995 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 235-252 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frederica R. Dimmick
Keyword(s):  
Native American ◽  
New England ◽  
Theoretical Models ◽  
Native Peoples ◽  
Improved Varieties ◽  
Ongoing Process ◽  
Maize Varieties ◽  
American Maize ◽  
Selection For

Native American maize horticulture in New England has long been studied but often has not been viewed as part of an ongoing process of domestication. This process can be viewed as consisting of the four basic activities of perception of differences, selection for improved varieties, maintenance of genotypes, and dispersal of improved varieties. Information on maize horticulture from Native American informants and the ethnohistoric and archaeological records of the region has been analyzed for placement within these domestication activities. In New England, there is evidence that native peoples actively sought to improve maize and its production to suit their needs during the Contact and Early Historic periods. Native horticulturists developed maize varieties adapted to the New England climate and their maize technology allowed the long-term use of the same locations. Information from the sources of this study has been viewed in light of various theoretical models regarding the domestication of corn.

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