Evolution, Mind, and Behavior Conference at UCSB
Joint UCLA-UCSB Conferences held quarterly by
UCSB's Evolution, Mind, and Behavior Program (EMB)
and
UCLA's Human Nature and Society Program (HNAS)
The Evolution, Mind and
Behavior conference is THIS SATURDAY at UCSB.
Details follow, and maps and directions can be
found on the Center for
Evolutionary Psychology website
(www.psych.ucsb.edu/research/cep).
Saturday 2 November 2002
Location: Harbor Room,
University Center (UCEN), UCSB
(see directions below)
Schedule:
9:30 AM Breakfast buffet
opens
10:30 AM First talk: Steve
Rothstein, Cultural stability and variation in
bird song: evidence,
reasons, and relations to song development and
function
12:00 PM Lunch.
1:30 PM Second talk: Phil
Walker, Human evolution from the Fourth
Horseman's perspective: What
do we know about patterns of death in earlier
human populations?
3:00 PM Coffee break
3:30 PM Third talk: Jim
Sidanius, The Interactive Nature of Patriarchy and
Arbitrary-set Hierarchy: The
Dynamics of Sexism and Racism from An
Evolutionary and Social
Dominance Perspective
5:30 PM Adjourn for no-host
dinner, Ming Dynasty (see below)
ABSTRACTS FOLLOW. For
directions to UCSB and parking, see the Center for
Evolutionary Psychology
website at www.psych.ucsb.edu/research/cep
10:30
Steve Rothstein Department
of Ecology, Evolution, and Marine Biology, UCSB
rothstei@lifesci.ucsb.edu
Cultural stability and
variation in bird song:
Evidence, reasons, and
relations to song development and function
Abstract. Bird song has
served as a model system in biology for a number
of reasons: developmental
processes that are similar to those that occur
in human speech, cultural
variation that provides parallels with human
traditions, key functional
aspects that affect fitness in critical ways as
regards inter- and
intra-sexual interactions and neurological processes
and structures that relate
to complex behaviors. In this talk, I will
review some of our on going
studies of song development and function in
cowbirds with special
emphasis on song variation as a cultural trait.
Although they are brood
parasites reared by numerous other species of
birds, cowbirds learn song
variations only from conspecifics. One category
of cowbird songs, flight
whistles (FWs), appears to develop from a
virtually blank slate and
can assume any type of sound structure that
songbirds are capable of
producing. Different FW types or cultures occur
as well defined dialects
with discrete spatial borders and vary so much
that cowbirds and human
birdwatchers fail to recognize some previously
unheard dialects as cowbird
vocalizations. Although there is considerable
dispersal and gene flow,
dialects are temporally stable because males that
disperse learn to produce
their new dialect and females, which do not
sing, learn to prefer mates
that give the appropriate local dialect. Males
with the "correct"
local dialect are probably preferred because many males
do not complete vocal
development until 2 years of age so that FW type is
an uncheatable indicator of
age and indirectly of genetic quality. The
high social valence of
performing the correct local dialect is the likely
reason dialects are stable
and this stability is maintained within
populations even during
genetic change due to extensive gene flow. Thus
although cultural evolution
is generally thought to be more dynamic than
genetic evolution, the
reverse is true in this and possibly other systems
in which conformity to a
local culture is a key social convention.
12:00-1:30
Lunch, UCEN
1:30
Phil Walker UCSB
Anthropology pwalker@anth.ucsb.edu
Human evolution from the
Fourth Horseman's perspective:
What do we know about
patterns of death in earlier human populations?
Abstract. Understanding the
mortality patterns of our ancestors is
obviously fundamental to any
Darwinian analysis of modern human
adaptations, including our
evolved cognitive capabilities. Death is a
depressing subject and,
perhaps because of this, there is a strong
tendency for evolutionary
biologists to view human "reproductive success"
from the rosy, positive side
of the birth-to-death ratio.
in earlier human populations
reveals the depth of our ignorance concerning
basic demographic parameters
such as average age at death and how it has
changed through time.
Although collections of ancient human skeletal
remains seem at first glance
to be an easy to interpret source of
paleodemographic
information, the interpretive problems such collections
present are formidable.
Bioarchaeological studies clearly show that age
and sex-specific patterns of
differential deposition and recovery can
greatly skew the demographic
profiles of skeletal collections.
Paleodemographers are also
beginning to reluctantly accept the
counterintuitive fact that
the age distributions of skeletal collections
provide us with more
information about fertility rates than they do about
average age at death.
about the history of human
mortality patterns? First, there is the obvious
fact of population growth:
beginning in the Upper Paleolithic period, a
long-term demographic
equilibrium shifted in the direction of excess
births. This has led to the
pattern of exponential growth that is by far
the most important adaptive
challenge modern humans face.
Bioarchaeological data
provide a number of insights into the causes of
this growth. They suggest
that factors influencing the mortality rates of
young women are key to
understanding human demographic evolution.
3:00-3:30
Blood sugar break
3:30
Jim Sidanius UCLA Psychology
sidanius@psych.ucla.edu
The Interactive Nature of
Patriarchy and Arbitrary-set Hierarchy:
The Dynamics of Sexism and
Racism from An Evolutionary and Social
Dominance Perspective
Abstract. Using evolutionary
psychology and social dominance theory (SDT)
as the theoretical
frameworks, this presentation will suggest that we
re-think the problem of
prejudice and discrimination in a number of
specific ways. This
re-thinking includes: a) fully appreciating the fact
that the problems of
prejudice and discrimination are most probably not
primarily a question of
intergroup antipathy, b) possibly accepting the
fact that discrimination and
intergroup oppression is intimately
associated with the
apparently ubiquitous tendency for human social
systems to form and maintain
group-based social hierarchies, c) fully
embracing the necessity of
understanding the problem of discrimination and
intergroup conflict using multiple
levels of analysis, and even theorizing
about the intersections
among these levels of analysis, and d) accepting
the fact that the some of
the essential dynamics of discrimination and
prejudice might be
qualitatively different, depending upon the targets of
that discrimination. Thus,
the subordinate-male-target hypothesis within
SDT suggests that, while
related to one another, sexism is a qualitatively
different phenomenon than
racism.
5:30
Self-funded dinner at Ming
Dynasty
(Ming Dynasty 805-968-1308,
290 Storke Road, at the intersection of Storke
and Hollister in Goleta. In
the unlikely event you are coming from 101,
take Storke exit North of
UCSB).
Cosponsored by the UCSB
Center for Evolutionary Psychology and the UCLA
Center for Behavior, Evolution
and Culture. This event is organized as a
working seminar for faculty
and graduate students. For more information,
please contact Leda Cosmides
or John Tooby or call 805-893-8720.
UCLA and UCSB will hold a
Saturday conference once a quarter, alternating
between the two campuses.
This one, the first in 2002-2003, will be in the
UCSB University Center,
Harbor Room (downstairs).