Conservatism and Liberalism influenced by social environment before

Some of you may recall Harpending's and Quintana's studies that
revealed human adaptation rates soared 100 fold after the "Cultural
Explosion" 60,000 BCE. Leveling this curve to an average of around 25
fold results in the same number of mutations as in the 1.5 million
years before.

Obviously much of this was due to migration, change of diet, etc. But
given that it was the human social environment that caused this
change, changes in instincts adapted to this new social environment
seem prime candidates indeed. Just as our guts have differing
adaptations since the dawn of agriculture, our brains should have
differing adaptations to human culture.

This was the "troop to tribe" transition from small clans locked in a
struggle over genes to the fusion of larger societies via memes such
as diplomatic trade, language, art, and technology. This was the era
where we transitioned from "Focus on the Family" to "It takes a
Village to Raise a Child". Try to imagine how we recently evolved
through the greatest environment change since the dinosaurs=97a change
caused by human culture=97but this left exactly the same imprint upon
our instincts for human culture.

Now take the template from these two eras and compare it to how our
species struggles for power. We don't have genes for immigration
policy, but we have genes for territoriality. We don't have genes for
birth control policy, but we certainly have genes that affect
fertility rates. Consider that conservatives have 41% more children.
Consider how recently evolved skills such as the arts or comedy are
almost exclusivly dominated by liberals. You also may have read
Hibbing's twin studies that revealed that conservatism and liberalism
are highly heritable. He was nice enough to write the foreword to =93The
Origin of Political Species=94.


Not that these are anywhere near the 50% genetic influence on our
personalities that preeminent psychologists such as Steven Pinker
claim. I think that the subtle power of our primal and more recent
genes comes from their ability to shape our politics over dozens of
generations, like a trickle of water shapes a canyon. Besides, we were
bound to choose sides over something.

Also, our present structural differences such as wealth align with
primal differences such as hierarchy versus more egalitarian
societies. This would give subtle instincts great leverage. Even
America's "winner takes all" voting system enhances their power
compared to proportional voting systems which shifts people to more
issue versus personality based politics.

Anyway, if you are interested in the first book that doesn=92t attempt
to square conservatism or liberalism with evolution, but instead
attempts to square both, you can read a big excerpt at:

www.politicalspecies.com

.

Relevant Pages

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