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Ancestral Footprints: An Adaptationist Approach to Vernon Jordan’s Life-Story
Abstract Civil Rights leader Vernon Jordan’s autobiography is an excellent example of African American self-writing, a genre explored by Roland Williams in African American Autobiography and the Quest for Freedom. An adaptationist approach yields fresh insights into Jordan’s work and the genre it represents. ********* Ancestral Footprints: An Adaptationist Approach to Vernon Jordan’s Life-Story Vernon Jordan’s [...]
Imitation and Literary Evolution
Abstract The connection between imitation and literature has been discussed since Plato. Theories of literary evolution have existed almost as long as Darwin’s theory itself. Recent research in psychology and related fields have put the study of imitation on firm enough ground that we can now make a productive analysis of imitation’s role in cultural [...]
From Morality to Law: The Role of Kinship, Tradition and Politics
Abstract To address whether culture is biological, we document differences between the system of behavioral codes found in kinship-based societies, which resemble those of our distant ancestors, and the behavioral code found in the early state. One key difference is the “axiom of kinship amity” found in kinship-based societies: altruism was to be provided to [...]
Music, Fire, and Evolution
Abstract In a recent book, Aniruddh Patel argues that music behaviors are not adaptations; they are, like the control of fire, culturally propagated technologies. I critically examine both views. Patel unduly exaggerates differences he finds between music and language in arguing that only the latter is an adaptation. And there are significant differences between music [...]
SYMPOSIUM ON THE QUESTION “HOW IS CULTURE BIOLOGICAL?” ~ Six Essays and Discussions: Essay # 5, by Robert Karl Stonjek, “A Brief but Plausible History of Culture”
Abstract I probe the interface between our chimp-like ancestor and the modern human to discover what triggered the explosion in cultural diversity that so comprehensively exceeded the sophistication of the individual humans that created it. Responses by Joseph Carroll, Diana Kornbrot, and Anja Müller-Wood & John Carter Wood Rejoinder by Robert Karl Stonjek ********* Robert [...]
Of Morality, Proverbial Wisdom, and Bernard Malamud’s God’s Grace
Abstract Bernard Malamud’s God’s Grace (1982) is a neo-Darwinian beast fable about morality in a thermonuclear age. It serves me as a starting point for a fresh look at the fundamental questions surrounding morality and altruism. I also look at thirty five thousands proverbs from around the world and at the patterns of individual and group behaviour they [...]
Musical Truth in Musorgsky’s Boris Godunov
Abstract: Our interest in the role played by social intelligence in politics suffices to generate much of the aesthetic attraction of Musorgsky’s Boris Godunov. Not only is the opera a remarkably faithful reenactment of Russia’s dynastic struggle in 1598-1605, it is replete with cases of deceit and also passages of unprecedented psychological insight. The composer’s [...]
Are Liberals Mutants? Human History As Evolutionary History
Abstract A change in human culture occurred across Eurasia in the 6th century BCE. A new form of non-sensory cognition is evident in laws, governmental institutions, moral philosophy, and art. That change was due to an epigenetic modification in response to human-made environmental pressures. Assortative mating assured the change was unequally distributed. Human history records [...]
Notes Toward a Darwinian Left