Ecological influences on human behavioural diversity: a review of recent findings

Human societies are remarkably variable in terms of their size, complexity, social structure, marriage systems and norms. This diversity has sometimes been raised as an obstacle to taking an evolutionary approach to human behaviour. However, a substantial proportion of the variation between human so...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Trends in ecology & evolution (Amsterdam) 2009-11, Vol.24 (11), p.618-624
Main Author: Nettle, Daniel
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animal and plant ecology
Animal, plant and microbial ecology
Anthropology, Cultural
Biological and medical sciences
Biological Evolution
Communicable Diseases - epidemiology
Ecosystem
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
General aspects
Humans
Social Behavior
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Summary:Human societies are remarkably variable in terms of their size, complexity, social structure, marriage systems and norms. This diversity has sometimes been raised as an obstacle to taking an evolutionary approach to human behaviour. However, a substantial proportion of the variation between human societies might represent local adaptation to ecological conditions and would thus be very much amenable to evolutionary explanation. I review recent studies correlating inter-population differences in humans with ecological factors, specifically pathogen prevalence. Many questions remain unanswered, such as whether we correctly understand the causal pathways and what the mechanisms producing local adaptation are, but the strength of correlations between social and ecological parameters is striking.
ISSN:0169-5347
1872-8383
DOI:10.1016/j.tree.2009.05.013