Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-rcrh6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T08:02:07.354Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Life History Theory and the Industrial Revolution

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2019

Marion Blute*
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada, M5S 2J4. marion.blute@utoronto.cahttp://individual.utoronto.ca/marionblute/

Abstract

The most general theory of life history evolution, that of r versus K selection, implies that innovation in the form of plasticity is more likely to be adaptive under poor rather than good resource conditions, the opposite of how Baumard has it. However, this does focus on benefits rather than costs, and including both allows for greater diversity of outcomes.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2019 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Blute, M. (2010) Darwinian sociocultural evolution: Solutions to dilemmas in cultural and social theory. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Blute, M. (2016) Density-dependent selection revisited: Mechanisms linking explanantia and explananda. Biological Theory 11(2):113–21.Google Scholar
Boyd, R. & Richerson, P. J. (1985) Culture and the evolutionary process. University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Cavalli-Sforza, L. L. & Feldman, M. W. (1981) Cultural transmission and evolution: A quantitative approach. Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Jones, O. R., Scheuerlein, A. & Salguero-Gómez, R. (2014) Diversity of ageing across the tree of life. Nature 504:169–73.Google Scholar
MacArthur, R. H. (1962) Some generalized theorems of natural selection. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 48:1893–97.Google Scholar
MacArthur, R. H. & Wilson, E. O. (1967) The theory of island biogeography. Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Reznick, D., Bryant, M. J. & Bashey, F. (2002) r- and K- Selection revisited: The role of population regulation in life-history evolution. Ecology 83:1509–520.Google Scholar
Roff, D. A. (2002) Life history evolution. Sinauer.Google Scholar