Commentary on Janet Landa's Paper

Abstract

In her paper, Janet Landa argues that the key behind the success of the ethnically homogeneous Chinese middleman group (EHMG) is their highly developed in-group cooperation. She places the EHMG phenomenon within the framework of evolutionary biology by calling it 'a cultural transmission unit' subject to the influence of both genes and culture. Landa suggests that the individual members of the EHMG comprise the units of selection for EHMG groups much like the genes comprise the units of selection for individual organisms. However, evolution occurs through the differential survival and reproduction of individual organisms. In order to meet the criteria of biological group selection, it would have to be demonstrated that groups in competition with EHMGs had gone extinct. The fact that the EHMGs are simply faring better than their competitors is not evidence for group selection. The other reason biological group selection is not really applicable to EHMGs is that there are no physical/biological barriers to exogamous mating, and cultural barriers are intrinsically unstable.