MPIB LIFE Seminar

Discussion seminar held at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development (MPIB) in Berlin, for their graduate school in the Human Life Course (LIFE).

Transcript

1. Evolutionary Ecology of Human Adaptation Richard McElreath Behavior, Culture, and Life History Department of Human Behavior, Ecology, and Culture Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
3. www.smbc-comics.com
4. Superb bird of paradise
7. Evolutionary Ecology of Human Adaptation • Humans: Late, long, slow, successful • Culture and human adaptation • Open questions
9. How Does Our Species Do It? • No natural weapons, armor • Unstable bipedal locomotion • Helpless offspring • Slow growth, reproduction Humans: Successful member of very unsuccessful clade
10. Jones 2011. Primates and the Evolution of Long, Slow Life Histories Primates: Late, Long, and Slow Primates, bats, and other mammals ding is ubiquitous in single, suicidal bout Charnov and Schaffer some authors [14,30]. This mathematical abstraction is backed by a very straightforward intuition: longer genera- tion times mean that individuals sample a longer range 2 4 6 8 0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 log10 adult mass (g) log10 adult mass (g) log10 adult mass (g) log10 AFR (months) 2 4 6 8 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0 log10 maximum lifespan (months) 2 4 6 8 −0.5 0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 Current Biology log10 annual fertility A B C
11. Aché (Paraguay) Hadza (Tanzania)
12. Hall 1865. Arctic Researches and Life Among the Esquimaux
13. Nardoo Spores Millstone
14. Cultural Adaptation • Decades to learn, generations to evolve • Extraordinary adult productivity • Productivity based on acquired skills • Long childhood (for learning?) • Delayed body growth, early brain growth • Childhood supported by productive adults • Long lifespan amortizes learning
15. McElreath & Koster 2014 Cultural Adaptation How long does it take to become a productive adult? 80 0 40 80 38 80 147 (14364) 0 40 80 38 16 ACH - production 147 (14364)
16. Kuzawa et al 2014. Metabolic costs & evolutionary implications of human brain development Cultural Adaptation brains bodies male female z-score growth rate z-score growth rate
17. Rogers 1988. Does Biology Constrain Culture? Social learning is (sometimes) adaptive 0 20 40 60 80 100 0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0 generation proportion social learners 0 20 40 60 80 100 0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0 generation proportion adaptive behavior
18. Rogers 1988. Does Biology Constrain Culture? Social learning is (sometimes) adaptive 0 20 40 60 80 100 0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0 generation proportion social learners 0 20 40 60 80 100 2 3 4 5 6 generation mean fitness
19. Henrich & McElreath 2003 Social learning is (sometimes) adaptive Box 3. Cultural Learning Mechanisms e y- or e- a- ct al e- n- y c- e- n- or s n: e- e for either genetically transmitted cognitive structures (as in Boyer’s argument) or culturally acquired imitated”) and make the ideas, men- tal representations, or behavior of their possessor more likely to trans- Evolutionary Anthropology 129
20. Aplin et al 2017 Conformity does not perpetuate suboptimal traditions in a wild population of songbirds Social learning is (sometimes) adaptive T1 T2 T3 T4 T1 Equal High Payoffs Equ 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 Proportion of each variant in all solves (a) (b) 1. (a) A puzzle-box where visiting individuals can slide the door open from either the blue/left side (varia 0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 social learning weight (s) updating rate (g) (a) 0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 1 2 3 4 social learning weight (s) conformity exponent (lambda) (b) .07 (y) (c) 0.8 1.0 tion (d) 0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.0 social learning weight (s) 0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.03 0.05 0.07 social learning weight (s) payoff bias weight (y) (c) 0.6 ht (a) (c)
21. McElreath 2010. The coevolution of genes, innovation and culture in human evolution Social learning is (sometimes) adaptive 0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0 0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0 innovation social learning 0 1000 2000 3000 4000 0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0 generation behavior
23. Henrich & Henrich 2010 Culture can be adaptive 0 rock cod baracuda m oray eel shark sea turtle octopus land m eat porpupine fish freshw ater eel spice/lim e shellfish sw eets yam s fruit diary cassava vegetables 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1.0 fraction of sample consensus grouping intermediate grouping no avoidance e 1. Taboos reported by women for 17 types of food during pregnancy (n ¼ 70) and breastfeeding (n ¼ 61). The are 95% exact confidence intervals. Dark grey bars, breastfeeding; light grey bars, pregnancy. J. Henrich & N. Henrich Adaptive taboos on December 19, 2017 http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/ Downloaded from Breastfeeding Pregnancy
24. Henrich & Henrich 2010 Culture can be adaptive 0.9 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.5 0.3 0.4 fraction of sample (n = 44) 0.1 0.2 0 0.1 direct experience medical person aunt gwadi wise women yalewa vuku elders qase mother-in-law vugoqu grandmom tai mom tinaqu ure 2. Distribution of reports about how women learned their food taboos. Error bars are 95% exact confidence intervals Adaptive taboos J. Henrich & N. Henrich 3719 on December 19, 2017 http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/ Downloaded from
25. Open Problems