Toward a Developmental Evolutionary Ecology of Humans

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In the past decade sociobiology has massively transformed theory and research in the social and behavioral sciences but has had little impact on the developmental sciences. The reason for sociobiology’s successes — and the one concept that makes it different from the other, older evolutionary approaches to behavior — is the concept of inclusive fitness. This is because being against the concept of inclusive fitness is like being against the concept of gravity: the logic of inclusive fitness theory is simply irrefutable. At the same time, however, the reasons for sociobiology’s failure in the developmental sciences is also due to the concept of inclusive fitness, for this concept tells us little about the relationship of the genotype to the phenotype (e.g., Bateson, 1982). Since the relationship of the genotype to the phenotype can only be a developmental one, it stands that any evolutionary approach to behavior must be based on more than the concept of inclusive fitness. It must also be based on an evolutionary model of development. My purpose in this chapter is thus to outline some of the features such models will likely incorporate, and in so doing, to illustrate the value of thinking about human development in the terms of life history theory.