Recently there was a discussion regarding Sex at Dawn. I recently skimmed this book at a friend’s house, and realized that the central idea of the book is dependent on a group selection hypothesis. (The idea being that our noble savage bonobo-like hunter-gatherer ancestors evolved a preference for paternal uncertainty as this led to better in group cooperation.) This was never stated in the sequence of posts on the book. Can someone who has read the book confirm/deny the accuracy of my impression that the book’s thesis relies on a group selection hypothesis?
“The model proposed by Christopher Ryan in “Sex at Dawn” (the women in a group have sex with the men in their group, and uncertain paternity leads all of the men to feel responsible for providing for the children) …”
Recently there was a discussion regarding Sex at Dawn. I recently skimmed this book at a friend’s house, and realized that the central idea of the book is dependent on a group selection hypothesis. (The idea being that our noble savage bonobo-like hunter-gatherer ancestors evolved a preference for paternal uncertainty as this led to better in group cooperation.) This was never stated in the sequence of posts on the book. Can someone who has read the book confirm/deny the accuracy of my impression that the book’s thesis relies on a group selection hypothesis?
A blog says:
“The model proposed by Christopher Ryan in “Sex at Dawn” (the women in a group have sex with the men in their group, and uncertain paternity leads all of the men to feel responsible for providing for the children) …”
That doesn’t require group selection.
No, but the book relies on kin selection to some extent: it’s beneficial to share resources with your tribe, but not other tribes.