Re: Darwin and Hamilton


<whitesickle@xxxxxxx> wrote in message news:dos4dh$oic$1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> (d) is kin selection/group selection
> still necessary in our evolution. Is it adaptive?

I suspect that the question you are really trying to ask here
is whether instincts toward xenophobia and group solidarity
and tendencies to be swayed by genocidal propaganda are still
adaptive.

There is some evidence that they are not. Participants in
recent attempted or partial genocides in the Balkans and
central Africa have not necessarily improved their own
reproductive success, nor that of their kin or ethnic grouping.
But we need to look at more than just the past few decades
to give a decisive answer.

IMO, genocide is a political phenomenon rather than a biological
one. It is almost always fomented by a political leadership
against a group which is likely to oppose that leadership.


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