Hunting for the Hat Gene 16 Nov 2009 Mark Liberman has a good essay on why we shouldn’t be seeking genes for X here. Biology Evolution Genetics Philosophy Science
Evolution Gods above 6 Jul 200922 Jun 2018 It’s no real coincidence that the standard metaphor for approaching gods is one of height. Humans not only defer to those who are “above” them in the social hierarchy, they also tend to defer to people who are literally taller than they are. Taller individuals tend to have higher status… Read More
Book Our inner ape 18 Nov 200718 Sep 2017 I have always enjoyed reading the work of Frans de Waal, a primatologist who focuses on the social structure and psychology of apes, particularly the two chimp species, and monkeys. His previous books, Good Natured: The Origins of Right and Wrong in Humans and Other Animals, The Ape and the… Read More
Evolution Do low status primates eat badly? 9 Jun 2008 A blog that I have just come across is Deric Bownds’ Mindblog. He covers issues of standard and evolutionary psychology and is well worth reading. One of his posts is this: Social heirarchy, stress, and diet, in which he presents recent evidence that stressed primates (in this case humans) eat… Read More
Years and years ago, in the first heyday of Sociobiology, in the mid 70s I think, there were lots of people talking about the gene for this and that — with even less basis, obviously, than at present. The reductio ad absurdum that someone proposed then was the gene for cooking. After all, the behavior is universal and advantageous and unique to our clade, so there must be a gene for it.