ANT211H5 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Human Sexual Activity, Proximate And Ultimate Causation, Sociobiology
Document Summary
Sociobiology: the study of behavior based on darwinian paradigm, basis in population genetics and evolutionary theory, started by e. o. Natural selection allows us to answer to why questions of human behavior. Darwin"s theory: survival of the fittest : survival is relevant only in the service of reproduction, being fit in biology means reproductive success, when talking about fitness we are talking about reproduction, not just survival but about reproductive success. Genetic fitness genetic fitness: reproductive success, can be estimated numerically to predict the rate at which genes are eliminated or spread over generations, always expressed relative to alternatives. Is a function of the environment and even of the particular set of other genes at other loci within the same organism. Is specific to a particular population at a particular time: always be thinking in terms of reproductive successes, reproduction over generations.
