Wired for Culture: Origins of the Human Social Mind (58 page)

Rwanda, 88–89

Safi, Mahmoud, 152

Sagan, Carl, 174

salivary amylase, 48

Sally-Anne test, 42

Samburu tribe, 25

San Bushmen, 92, 256

persistence hunting style of, 249–50, 257

Sanskrit language, 296

Sassoon, Siegfried, 224

Saudi Arabia, 32

Saunders, Peter, 125

scale-free mechanisms, 348–49

Science,
313, 336

Scotland, 19, 27

red hair in, 34

Seabright, Paul, 346–47

sea levels, 35, 61

seashells, as jewelry, 32, 44

Selepet speakers, 51

self, sense of, 269–73, 305

self-awareness, 249, 324–34

self-deception, 307, 308, 312, 316–24

self-interest, 8, 13–14, 85, 86, 120, 176–77, 199, 201, 202, 281, 337, 363, 367

cooperation vs., 71–73

discriminatory, 232

enlightened, 72

group selection vs., 198

specialization and, 101–8

suicidal self-sacrifice in, 73, 80, 96–98

selfish cheats, 71–72, 78, 79–80, 86, 173–74, 176–77, 180, 187–88, 190, 191, 192–93, 194, 199, 200, 208–18, 226–27, 229, 312

Selfish Gene, The
(Dawkins), 249, 307

“selfish” herds, 246

selfishness, 85, 187–88, 189, 195–96, 201, 208

self-organization, 349–58

self-sacrifice, 8, 13–14, 152, 180

kin selection and, 174–76, 179–81

for reputations, 225

see also
altruism

self-sacrifice, suicidal, 71, 76–87, 175

group selection and, 96–98

killing off competitors in, 85, 152

kin selection and, 81–85, 211–12

in self-interest, 73, 80, 96–98

of social amoebae, 77–80, 82, 83, 85

of suicide bombers, 85, 97, 152, 201

in warfare, 71, 73, 80, 83–85, 96, 97, 175, 202, 225

sex chromosomes, 318

sexual selection, 153–55, 260–62

hairlessness in, 260–61

handicap principle in, 154–55

steatopygia in, 261–62

Shakespeare, William, 165–66

shame, 88, 123, 224, 225

Shaw, George Bernard, 58

Siberia, 31, 35, 44

woolly musk oxen of, 45–46

Siena, Italy, 103, 121–22

Silent Spring
(Carson), 37

“six degrees of separation” notion, 364

Skinner, B. F., 141–45

skylarks, 214, 215, 232

slavery, 94, 185–86

Slavic languages, 297, 298

slime molds,
see
social amoebae

“small world” experiment, 364

social amoebae (slime molds), 77–80, 82, 83, 85, 86, 87, 207–8

social anthropology, 129

social contract, 180, 226

social deprivation, 101

social environments, 102, 113, 119

Social Evolution
(Trivers), 149

social insects, 74, 345, 346

eusociality of, 73, 202

reproductive success of, 67

shared vehicles of, 76–77

specialization of, 106

warfare of, 71, 73, 152, 175

social intelligence, 244–51, 311

levels of, 248

social competition and, 246–51

theory of mind in, 248–50

social learning, 2, 37–49, 59, 62, 68, 105, 205, 236–42, 254, 255–56, 258, 362

by animals, 38–43

complexity increased by, 46–47

cumulative adaptation through, 45–49

imitation of new behaviors in, 37–45, 61, 69–73, 236–44, 335–40

improvement in, 38, 39, 40–42, 43, 46–47, 237–38

by Neanderthals, 43–45, 70, 254, 278

theory of mind in, 41–43

as visual theft, 69–73, 186, 280, 337–38

social networks, 364–66

social preferences, 51

social viscosity, 365–66

Sociopath Next Door, The
(Stout), 123–24

sociopaths, 123–24, 362, 363

Socrates, 167

Sokal, Robert, 55–56

Somerset, Major Fitzroy Richard, 4th Baron Raglan, 1

songbirds, 100

American, near eradication of, 37

dialects of, 8

South Africa, 32

South America, 35, 36

Soviet Union:

arms race with, 174

collapse of, 59, 363

Stalin’s purges in, 159

space shuttle, 241–42

Spain, 297, 309–10

Spanish language, 297–98, 300, 306

specialization, 75, 99–113, 183, 184, 185, 348, 356–57, 366

of cells in multicellular organisms, 105–6

competition engendered by, 108, 125

latent abilities unmasked by, 108–13

in Middle Ages, 102–3

painting as, 109–12

Ricardo’s law of comparative advantage in, 104–6, 108, 109, 121

self-interest and, 101–8

of social insects, 106

win-stay, lose-shift
strategy in, 106–8, 109, 123

“Species of Thought” (Wilson), 150–51

Spencer, Herbert, 64

spite, 187, 188, 280–81

for unfairness, 198–200

Stark, Rodney, 148

Star Wars,
355

Stealth fighter planes, 293

stem cells, 354, 355

Stengel, Casey, 334

stimulus enhancement, 40–42

stimulus-independent thought, 271–72, 331

Stoneking, Mark, 259

stone tools, 4, 32, 130

flaking of, 39–40, 41

stotting behavior, 214–15, 230

Stout, Martha, 123–24

strangers, wariness of, 8, 210–11, 216, 232

trust vs., 346–48

Stravinsky, Igor, 308

Strepsiptera,
317–18

Stringer, Chris, 44

strong reciprocity, 197–98, 199, 200–201

Stylites, Christian, 21–22

subliminal messages, 325–26

Sudan, 9

suicide, 23, 24, 26, 73, 195–96, 202, 225

bacterial, genes spread by, 319

see also
self-sacrifice, suicidal

suicide bombers, 85, 97, 152, 201

soldier termites as, 175

suicide cults, mass, 162

“Suicide in the Trenches” (Sassoon), 224

Sumerians, 167

superego, 321–22, 323

superstitious beliefs, 141–45

supply and demand, law of, 121–22, 200

survival of the fittest, 14, 64, 80, 154, 186, 272

survival strategies, x, 6, 7, 10–11, 13, 22, 66, 72, 73, 118–19, 150, 158, 235, 239, 309, 352–53

Swadesh, Morris, 294

Swaythling, England, 38–39

Swedes, 58

symbolic thinking, 32–33, 38, 112, 113, 219–20, 236, 278

systemizing, 128

Szathmáry, Eörs, 75

tabula rasa,
doctrine of, 4–5

Tahiti, warfare in, 92

talents, 99–131, 236, 355–56

artistic, 109–13

environmental influences on, 102, 113–19

evolutionarily stable strategies in, 119–25

genetic factors in, 100–102, 110, 113–19, 122–29

latent, 108–13, 127

musical, 109, 112

see also
specialization

Tanzania, 30, 43, 299–30, 306

task sharing, 100, 102

Tasmania, 61

Tate Britain art gallery, 138

taxi drivers, payment of, 196, 200

T-cells, 25

technology, social management of, 330

teleology, 140, 141

televangelists, 162

Tennyson, Alfred Lord, ix

Teresa, Mother, 213, 218

Terminator
series, 22, 312

termites, 39, 40, 41, 73, 74, 76–77, 106, 345

Australian compass, 76, 352

as local rules agents, 351–53

warfare of, 175

terrorism, 204, 225

Te Toki a Tapiri
Maori war canoe, 94

theory of mind, 41–43, 248–50

in animals, 42

in deception, 311–12, 330–31

mental simulations and, 249–50, 330–31

Theory of the Leisure Class, The
(Veblen), 155

Tibetans, 9, 48, 262

Tierra del Fuego, 35, 61, 260

tit-for-tat
strategy, 193–94, 199

togetherness, sense of, 366–69

Tomasello, Michael, 41

Tooby, John, 208–9

totipotent cells, 354, 355–56

Tour de France bicycle race, 85–86

Tower of Babel, story of, 276, 303–4

tragedy of the commons, 226–27

transferability, 218–22, 225

transposons, 285–87

trees, rule of two and, 63

tribal groups, vii–ix, 1–2, 7, 12–15, 49–59, 338–40, 346, 366

see also
cultural survival vehicles; hunter-gatherers

tribalism, 205–6

Trivers, Robert, ix, 149, 189, 199, 201, 307, 312

trust, 88–89, 153, 176–77, 191, 261–62, 204, 210, 223–24, 232, 280–81, 312, 365–66, 368

money as system of, 219–20

in strangers, 346–48

in warfare, 83–84, 216–17

truth, 307–9, 334–40

risk assessment and, 338–40

working definition of, 334

tsunami of December 2004, 174–75

Turkana, Lake, vii

Turkana tribe, 52

twin studies, 115–17

2001: A Space Odyssey,
22, 43

ultimatum game, 196–200

ultra-sociality, 73, 81, 82, 202, 204

United Kingdom, 19

declining crime rates in, 266

Ur, 346

ur
-ancestors, 74

vampire bats, 190–91

Vanuatu islands, linguistic density of, 49–50, 53

Veblen, Thorstein, 155–56, 214–15

vehicles, 45–46, 64, 133–34, 283, 343

cooperative, 73–77

as genetic transmitters, 79–80

RNA, 74–75

of social insects, 76–77

as term, 12

see also
cultural survival vehicles

venture capitalists, 212–13

Venus statues, 261–62, 336

Vietnam War, 159

Vikings, 36

violence, 73, 88–98, 150–53, 159–60, 185–86, 193, 223, 360, 362, 367

instinctive moral rejection of, 329

of moralistic aggression, 89, 90–91, 94–95, 195–96, 224, 226

of murder, 89, 92, 94–95, 309–11

natural selection against, 266

parochialism in, 88–90, 91–94, 98, 150, 231–32

psychological dispositions to, 88–95

slavery as, 94

of suicide bombers, 85, 97, 152, 201

see also
warfare

viruses, 20, 65–66, 248, 257

mind, 136, 152, 160–62

rapid evolution of, 25

visual theft, 69–73, 186, 280, 337–38

Voltaire, 140

Vuré speakers, 50

Wales, 83

Wanambre speakers, 49

War
(Junger), 83–84

War Before Civilization
(Keeley), 92, 193

war canoes, Maori, 93–94

warfare, 3, 8, 33, 88–98, 102, 124, 128, 159–60, 198, 204, 221

chess as game of, 332

courage and bravery in, 72, 73, 96, 217

genocidal, 88–89

Henry V’s St. Crispin’s Day speech in, 165–66

among hunter-gatherers, 92–94

meme-meme, 152

religious, 83, 159

“short timers” in, 85

of social insects, 71, 73, 152, 175

suicidal self-sacrifice in, 71, 73, 80, 83–85, 96, 97, 175, 202, 225

tit-for-tat
revenge cycles in, 193–94

trench, 73, 97, 192, 224

trust in, 83–84, 216–17

wasps, 73, 74, 76–77, 106, 345

waste, conspicuous, 153–56, 163, 166, 213–16, 217, 230, 362

Watson, Thomas, Jr., 334

wealth creation, 359, 360

Webster, Noah, 305

Weinberg, Steven, 91

whales, 8

“Where’s George,” Web site, 365

White on White
(Malevich), 132

Wilde, Oscar, 58

William the Conqueror, 57

Wilson, David Sloan, 96, 150–51

Wilson, E. O., 22, 26, 275–76, 279–80

Wilson, Margo, 315

Wind in the Willows
(Grahame), 281

win-stay, lose-shift
strategy, 106–8, 109, 123

in cooperation, 194–95

Wittgenstein, Ludwig, 281

Wizard of Oz, The,
334

Wolbachia,
319

Womble, W. H., 55

women, 316, 317

English, moralistic aggression of, 224

honor killings of, 224–25

Kenyan, jewelry of, 52

menopause of, 67, 265

reproduction rates of, 66–67

reproductive lifespans of, 67

reproductive potential of, 260–61, 320–21

Wooding, S., 259–60

World According to Garp, The
(Irving), 273

World History
(Polybius), 243

World War I, 159

moralistic aggression in, 224

trench warfare of, 73, 97, 192, 224

World War II, 73, 159, 164, 225

Wrangham, Richard, 235

writing, 128, 244, 265

cuneiform, 167

oral traditions vs., 166–68

X chromosomes, 318

xenophobia, 8, 27, 81–82, 98, 150, 207, 231–32, 367–69

X-woman, 31, 33

Yankton Indians, 185

Y chromosomes, 318

yeast, 64, 284

yeti, 34

York (slave), 185–86

Y2K (millennium bug), 22

Zahavi, Amotz, 154–55, 156, 213–15, 230

Zanzibar, 94

Zipf, George Kingsley, 300–301

Zipf’s law, 301

Copyright © 2012 by Mark Pagel

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Pagel, Mark D.

Wired for culture : origins of the human social mind / Mark Pagel. — 1st ed.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-0-393-06587-9 (hardcover)

1. Human evolution. 2. Social evolution. 3. Evolution (Biology) 4. Evolutionary genetics. I. Title.

GN281.P32 2012

303.4—dc23

2011044465

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