Core 2651 THE CULTURED APE Winter 2009 Overview of Human Evolutionary History; The Conceptual Basis of Evolutionary

Psychology I. Slide Show: An Overview of Human Biocultural Evolution A. Were tracking the rise of the Cultured Ape (i.e., modern humans) from human beginnings 6-8 million years ago. B. Were not concerned with how this happenedalthough we have a very good idea only that it did. C. Were mostly interested in what the pattern of our biological and cultural evolution implies about the nature of our psychological and social biases and predispositions. II. The Conceptual Basis of Evolutionary Psychology as a Field of Inquiry (Pinker, chapters 3-5, especially pp. 51-58) A. Mind Modularity 1. innate, domain-specific programs; e.g., epigenetic rules or mechanisms for language acquisition (Pinker, chapter 3), predator avoidance (fear of snakessee Wilson, p. 21), incest avoidance (Wilson, p. 23), etc. * Epigenetic Rules: Hereditary regularities or biases in the growth of individual minds and behavior (Wilson, p. 21, p. 24) 2. limited brain plasticity (Pinker, pp. 83-102) a. cortex responds to environment b. sub-cortex is relatively stable (p. 89) B. Proximate vs. Ultimate causation (Pinker, p. 54). C. Adaptation by Natural Selection to the Ancestral EEA (Environment of Evolutionary Adaptedness) * EEA: is not a specific place or time. Rather, it is a set of composite selection pressures that stimulated specific adaptive responses by our human ancestors, which form the hereditary regularities that constitute human nature.

* The EEAarguablyproduced the following adaptive responses among human ancestors 1. certain reproductive imperatives, including a. male preferences for younger females (trophy wives) b. female preferences for well-resourced males (sugar daddies) c. risky sex by both males and females 2. cravings for fat and sugar 3. tribal instincts 4. thirst for revenge (couldnt call upon social institutions, or call 911, in the EEA) 5. passion for technology? D. Universality of some behaviors (Browns Universal People)suggests a common logic across cultures (Pinker, p. 55-58; p. 73; see Appendix). * Biopsychological Unity of Humankind: Pinker on Boas, p. 23. E. Mismatch between Stone Age Minds and Space Age Environments. F. Adjustability, if not Changeability, of human behavior to meet the social challenges of modern environments (Pinker, p. 58).