Complex Animal Societies, Domestication and Human Uniqueness

Abstract

This article proposes that features of human biology and behavior that are often considered are associated with the evolution of complex society, in humans. These features are often analogous to physiological and behavioral differences found in other animals with complex societies (some species of ants, wasps and bees). process of social evolution is itself a selective agent and produces parallel features in animal species across genera and distinguishes those with complex societies from closely related species within their own genera in ways that make them appear (1). This is especially seen in humans as we have become a species with complex society in a short period of time, only one species has survived and achieved complexity and this complexity has had what seems to be a dramatic effect on the environment. Because human features that are considered are relatively new in human evolution or have unknown dates of origin (2) the conditions leading to their appearance is of interest. Aspects of mammalian social systems (e.g. monogamy & polygyny) have been shown to vary due to a number of factors (3). It is apparent, however, that we are ignorant of how quickly other complex animal societies appeared and what their immediate effect was on the environment. Some features of complexity that seem unique may also be associated with domestication. This approach is an advance in anthropology as it places recent human evolution in the context of the evolution of social complexity of other animal species who have achieved food production and domestication of other species and it reasserts Boasian emphasis of uniformitarianism of evolution over resurgent concepts of The Great Chain of Being or man as the crown of creation.