From: Ramez Naam (mez@apexnano.com)
Date: Wed Apr 16 2003 - 00:37:50 MDT
From: spike66 [mailto:spike66@attbi.com]
> In a society in which mate selection is driven
> by female choice, would we not see a different
> set of characteristics emerge than in a society
> in which mate selection is driven by male choice?
Spike, this is an interesting idea. I'm not convinced that mate
selection in modern western societies is dominated by female choice,
but if it were so I see the logic in what you're proposing.
I'd encourage you to pick up a copy of Jared Diamond's _The Third
Chimpanzee_ (if you haven't read it already) for a short primer on
sexual selection in humans. Diamond documents that across all studied
human cultures, humans select mates with characteristics similar to
the people they were exposed to in childhood. Since for most of
evolutionary history you were exposed primarily to your relatives in
childhood, people tend to choose mates with characteristics similar to
their own.
Interestingly enough, the data Diamond presents show that sexual
selection preferences are much stronger for /personality/ attributes
than for /physical/ attributes. Humans tend to be exceptionally
similar to their mates in basic personality traits such as
agreeableness, neuroticism, and novelty-seeking.
The book also gives a good overview of the differences in mating
behavior between various primate species - including humans - and how
that has affected the evolution of those species. Quite interesting.
> Since human babies have relatively large heads
> with respect to their bodies, perhaps female-
> choice societies would tend to evolve populations
> with bulbous heads. That is the best way I can
> explain how humans came to have such enormous
> brains, making us far smarter than is optimal
> for mere survival, and far smarter than is optimal
> for maximum reproduction.
I believe the standard theory at this point is that our big brains
arose as part of an evolutionary arms race /within/ the human species.
Our ability to model other humans put us in a situation where we could
try to out-think and out-plan competitors inside or outside of our
tribe, particularly in the search for mates and food. This put heavy
selection pressure on human modeling abilities. Stephen Pinker
presents this hypothesis in _How the Mind Works_.
cheers,
mez
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