The red queen and her king: Cooperation at all levels of life

Weiss, Kenneth M.; Buchanan, Anne V.; Lambert, Brian

doi:10.1002/ajpa.21608

Cited by 11 publications

(15 citation statements)

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“…The Musul–Nabo fusion also clarifies that evolutionary processes may be more tolerant, have larger acceptability spaces (Weiss and Buchanan,2009), and allow for more variance than most evolutionary time arguments assume. What these baboons did for more than 4 years was not a perfect fit to the layers of complexity in their life but it seems to have been “good enough.” Are they on the road to success or to extirpation?…”

Section: Part 2: Managing Complexitymentioning

confidence: 98%

“…There are analogous arguments about structure from other fields. For example, the value of structure in biological systems is well summarized by Weiss and Buchanan (2009). For humans, a variety of theories argue for the benefit of structure to reduce uncertainty, minimize cognitive dissonance, build social relationships, and facilitate social exchange (for cybernetics, see Bateson,1967; Watzlawick and Bevin,1967; Harries‐Jones,1995).…”

Section: Part 2: Managing Complexitymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…An underlying assumption of evolutionary arguments is that there are winners and losers (Weiss and Buchanan,2009; Watts,2010). Yet, in the vast span of life on earth, more than 99% of all species have gone extinct (Raup,1986; Wilson,2002; Barnosky et al,2011).…”

Section: Part 2: Managing Complexitymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The broad integrative approach of Weiss and Buchanan (2009; Weiss et al,2011) documents the importance of chance, contingency, and history (and emergence) in the “history of life.” Their EcoDevoEvo perspective advocates going from evolutionary to developmental and ecological time scales [see Fig. 2.2 in Weiss and Buchanan (2009, p. 12) for an instructive diagram], and illustrates why chance is “always built into conception, inheritance, birth, death, and much that happens in between” (Weiss and Buchanan,2009, p. 197). Context and history, for Weiss and Buchanan, are essential to understanding how, for example, a gene network, cell, organism, or ecosystem gets from point a to point b.…”

Section: Part 2: Managing Complexitymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The data also support Weiss and Buchanan's framework ( The Mermaid's Tale: Four Billion Years of Cooperation in the Making of Living Things . Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press,2009. 305 p) with its alternative view of natural selection in which there is more slippage and tolerance, multiple solutions with larger acceptability spaces, and the possibility that an adaptive fit will be “good enough” rather than seamless.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Darwin's monkey: Why baboons can't become human

Strum

2012

American J Phys Anthropol

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Baboons were used in the past as models for human evolution. I utilize 40 years of data from my long-term study on baboons in Kenya to suggest that baboons are once again relevant for understanding human evolution, not as a referential model but to reset the starting conditions of the human experiment. The baboon data also offer a critique of widely held ideas about how natural selection might work by looking at real lives in real time. This situates competition in a matrix of collaboration and illustrates the critical role of chance, contingency, and history in baboon survival and success. I make three methodological moves to reach these conclusions. The first is to focus on process not just outcome. The second is to look at time scales longer than usual studies but shorter than evolutionary time as a way to open the black box that currently links behavior to evolutionary value. The third is to use comparative natural history, Darwin's method, as a way to capture and comprehend how complexity is generated and how baboons deal with it in their daily lives. These empirical and methodological turns lead to conclusions that run counter to widely held ideas about baboons, about primates, and about the determinism of natural selection. I follow my own research history to illustrate these points. The discussion ranges from alternative interpretations of the male and the female dominance hierarchies, to insights from a fission that happened when the foraging strategy of raiding and nonraiding baboons diverged, to evidence of adaptation after translocation, and finally to assessing two unusual fusions of baboon groups. Altogether, these natural histories yield baboon ''principles of the social'' with insights about cognition, cooperation, and culture and suggest why baboons can't become human. The data also support Weiss and Buchanan's framework (The Mermaid's Tale: Four Billion Years of Cooperation in the Making of Living Things. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2009. 305 p) with its alternative view of natural selection in which there is more slippage and tolerance, multiple solutions with larger acceptability spaces, and the possibility that an adaptive fit will be ''good enough'' rather than seamless. However, capturing behavioral complexity ''in the wild'' poses methodological challenges. Long-term field studies provide critical information but the current quantitative methods should be expanded also include natural history observations of behaviors and events across time, space, groups, and landscapes. Finally, the baboon natural histories illustrate how the evolutionary game has changed in the Anthropocene yielding a cautionary tale about the future for many primate species. Yrbk Phys Anthropol 55:3-23, 2012. Baboons have played a central role both in our understanding of primates and as models for human evolution beginning with Zuckerman's 1932 description of primate society. Based on his observations of Hamadryas baboons at the London Zoo, he argued for a society founded on sex, violence, and ma...

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Section: Part 2: Managing Complexitymentioning

confidence: 98%

Section: Part 2: Managing Complexitymentioning

confidence: 99%