Transcript Document

Did Climate Deterioration Play
Major Roles in Human
Evolution?
With thanks to Robert Boyd and
Robert Bettinger
http://www.des.ucdavis.edu/Faculty/richerson/richerson.htm
CEFOM Symposium
Cultural and Ecological Foundations of the Mind
Hokkaido University, June 25, 2003
Intensive Agriculture
Center
foraging
begins
Near East
15,000
11,500
North China
11,500
9,500
South China
12,000?
8,000
Sub-Sahara Africa
9,000
4,500
South-Central Andes
7,000
5,250
Central Mexico
7,000
5,750
Eastern US
6,000
5,250
Australia
3,500
N/A
Barrett Nature 2003
2002 Report of the
National Academy of Sciences’
Committee on
Abrupt Climate Change
Chaired by
Richard B. Alley
“Available evidence suggests that
abrupt climate change is not only
possible but likely, potentially with
large impacts on ecosystems and
societies.”
“We do not yet understand abrupt
climate changes well enough to
predict them.”
“Societies and ecosystems have an
easier time dealing with slower or
better anticipated changes, so the
abruptness and unpredictability
of the possible changes may be
disquieting.”
• Cultural differences in psychological functioning
– Adaptation to diverse environments in time and space
– Cultural pseudo-speciation
• Institutions and cultural differences
– Social organizational adaptations diverse
– Non-adaptive diversity via design complexity (folk
theorem, games of coordination)
• Methods of analysis
– Field studies of microevolution
– Laboratory studies of microevolution