Steps to individuality in biology and culture

Author:

Davison Dinah R.1ORCID,Michod Richard E.1ORCID

Affiliation:

1. Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, College of Science, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA

Abstract

Did human culture arise through an evolutionary transition in individuality (ETI)? To address this question, we examine the steps of biological ETIs to see how they could apply to the evolution of human culture. For concreteness, we illustrate the ETI stages using a well-studied example, the evolution of multicellularity in the volvocine algae. We then consider how those stages could apply to a cultural transition involving integrated groups of cultural traditions and the hominins that create and transmit traditions. We focus primarily on the early Pleistocene and examine hominin carnivory and the cultural change from Oldowan to Acheulean technology. We usePanbehaviour as an outgroup comparison. We summarize the important similarities and differences we find between ETI stages in the biological and cultural realms. As we are not cultural anthropologists, we may overlook or be mistaken in the processes we associate with each step. We hope that by clearly describing these steps to individuality and illustrating them with cultural principles and processes, other researchers may build upon our initial exercise. Our analysis supports the hypothesis that human culture has undergone an ETI beginning with aPan-like ancestor, continuing during the Pleistocene, and culminating in modern human culture.This article is part of the theme issue ‘Human socio-cultural evolution in light of evolutionary transitions’.

Funder

National Science Foundation

Publisher

The Royal Society

Subject

General Agricultural and Biological Sciences,General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology

Reference139 articles.

1. Human socio-cultural evolution in light of evolutionary transitions: introduction to the theme issue

2. Hanschen ER, Davison DR, Grochau-Wright ZI, Michod RE. 2017 Individuality and the major evolutionary transitions. In Landscapes of collectivity in the life sciences (eds S Gissis, E. Lamm, A Shavit), pp. 255. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

3. Evolutionary Transitions in Individuality: Multicellularity and Sex

4. Michod RE. 1999 Darwinian dynamics: evolutionary transitions in fitness and individuality. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

5. Evolution and the Levels of Selection

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