Human evolution’s selecting environment is recurring face-to-face group configurations

Evidence

A theoretical perspective for human evo-devo requires an account of recurrence and a model about the selective domain. In the standard evolutionary psychology model, genes account for all recurrence, and the selective domain is hunter-gatherer groups in the Plio-Pleistocene. In the evo-devo model that we use, recurrence results from the repeated assembly of multiple resources (including cultural and artifactual resources). The selective domains for uniquely human capacities are core configurations of face-to-face groups that recur in daily life, in development, and plausibly in human evolutionary history. — Roderick M. Kramer, Geoffrey J. Leonardelli, Robert W. Livingston, Social Cognition, Social Identity, and…, 390

Categorization

• XREF: Parallels the repeated-interaction equilibria logic in Milgrom’s law-merchant work and the trust literature: recurring face-to-face groups as the unit of selection echoes recurring trade relationships as the unit of cooperation. — connects to: The situation resembles an evolutionary environment structuring adaptation — Christine Daigle, Jacob Golomb (eds.), Beauvoir and Sartre: The Riddle of…, 444; Residence norms measurably shape patterns of human genetic variation — Joseph Henrich, The Secret of Our Success: How Culture…, 311; Within-patch population dynamics partly result from sorting of genotypes over time — S. T. A. Pickett and P. S. White, eds., The Ecology of Natural Disturbance and…, 1639