Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-lj6df Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-12T08:14:22.435Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Mother–infant cultural group selection

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 March 2016

James S. Chisholm
Affiliation:
School of Anatomy, Physiology, and Human Biology, University of Western Australia, Crawley, WA 6009, Australia. jchisholm@anhb.uwa.edu.auhttp://www.uwa.edu.au/people/jim.chisholm
David A. Coall
Affiliation:
University of Western Australia, School of Psychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences, Crawley, WA 6009, Australia. School of Medical Sciences, Edith Cowan University, Joondalup, WA 6027, Australia. d.coall@ecu.edu.auhttp://www.ecu.edu.au/schools/medical-sciences/staff/profiles/senior-lecturers/dr-david-coall
Leslie Atkinson
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Ryerson University, Toronto, ON M5B 2K3, Canada. atkinson@psych.ryerson.cahttp://www.ryerson.ca/psychology/faculty/atkinson/

Abstract

Richerson et al. argue that “cultural group selection plays an essential role in explaining human cooperation.” We believe that cooperation came first, making culture and thus cultural group selection possible. Cooperation and culture began – and begins – in mother–infant interaction.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2016 

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

Ayala, F. J. (2010) The difference of being human: Morality. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 107(Suppl. 2):8897–901.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Baumgartner, T., Heinrichs, M., Vonlanthen, A., Fischbacher, U. & Fehr, E. (2008) Oxytocin shapes the neural circuitry of trust and trust adaptation in humans. Neuron 58(4):639–50.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Beebe, B. & Lachmann, F. M. (2014) The origins of attachment. Routledge.Google Scholar
Belyaev, D. K., Plyusnina, I. Z. & Trut, L. N. (1985) Domestication of the silver fox (Vulpes fulvus Desm): Changes in physiological boundaries of the sensitive period of primary socialization. Applied Animal Behavior Science 13:359–70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bowlby, J. (1946) Psychology and democracy. Political Quarterly 17:6176.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cassidy, J. (2008) The nature of the child's ties. In: Handbook of attachment: Theory, research, and clinical applications, ed. Cassidy, J. & Shaver, P. R., pp. 322. Guilford Press.Google Scholar
Chisholm, J. S. (2003) Uncertainty, contingency and attachment: A life history theory of theory of mind. In: From mating to mentality: Evaluating evolutionary psychology, ed. Sterelny, K. & Fitness, J., pp. 125–53. Psychology Press.Google Scholar
Damasio, A. (1994) Descartes' error: Emotion, reason, and the human brain. Putnam.Google Scholar
Damasio, A. (1999) The feeling of what happens: Body and emotion in the making of consciousness. Harcourt Brace.Google Scholar
Fearon, R. P., Bakermans-Kranenburg, M. J., van IJzendoorn, M. H., Lapsley, A.-M. & Roisman, G. I. (2010) The significance of insecure attachment and disorganization in the development of children's externalizing behavior: A meta-analytic study. Child Development 81:435–56.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Fonagy, P., Gergely, G. & Target, M. (2007) The parent-infant dyad and the construction of the subjective self. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry 48:288–28.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Fonagy, P. & Target, M. (1997) Attachment and reflective function: Their role in self-organization. Development and Psychopathology 9(4):679700.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hare, B., Plyusnina, I., Ignacio, N., Schepina, O., Stepika, A., Wrangham, R. & Trut, L. (2005) Social cognitive evolution in captive foxes is a correlated by-product of experimental domestication. Current Biology 15:226–30.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hobson, P. (2004) The cradle of thought: Exploring the origins of thinking. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Kosfeld, M., Heinrichs, M., Zak, P. J., Fischbacher, U. & Fehr, E. (2005) Oxytocin increases trust in humans. Nature 435:673–76.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lane, A., Luminet, O., Rimé, B., Gross, J. J., de Timary, P. & Mikolajczak, M. (2013) Oxytocin increases willingness to socially share one's emotions. International Journal of Psychology 48(4):676–81.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Meins, E., Fernyhough, C., Wainwright, R., Das Gupta, M., Fradley, E. & Tuckey, M. (2002) Maternal mind–mindedness and attachment security as predictors of theory of mind understanding. Child Development 73(6):1715–26.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Nelson, E. E. & Panksepp, J. (1998) Brain substrates of infant–mother attachment: Contributions of opioids, oxytocin, and norepinephrine. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews 22(3):437–52.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Panksepp, J. (2011) The basic emotional circuits of mammalian brains: Do animals have affective lives? Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews 35:1791–804.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Schore, A. (2013) Bowlby's “environment of evolutionary adaptedness”: Recent studies on the interpersonal neurobiology of attachment and emotional development. In: Evolution, early experience and human development, ed. Narvaez, D., Panksepp, J., Schore, A. & Gleason, T., pp. 3167. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Strathearn, L. (2011) Maternal neglect: Oxytocin, dopamine and the neurobiology of attachment. Journal of Neuroendocrinology 23(11):1054–65.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Suddendorf, T. (2013) The gap: The science of what separates us from other animals. Basic Books.Google Scholar
Tomasello, M., Carpenter, M., Call, J., Behne, T. & Moll, H. (2005) Understanding and sharing intentions: The origins of cultural cognition. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 28(5):675–91. doi: 10.1017/S0140525X05000129.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Trevarthen, C. (2007) The intersubjective psychobiology of human meaning: Learning of culture depends on interest for co-operative practical work – and affection for the joyful art of good company. Psychoanalytic Dialogues: The International Journal of Relational Perspectives 19(5):507–18.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Trevarthen, C. (2011) What is it like to be a person who knows nothing? Defining the active intersubjective mind of a newborn human being. Infant and Child Development 20(1):119–35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tronick, E. Z. (2007) The neurobehavioral and social-emotional development of infants and children. W. W. Norton.Google Scholar
Trut, L. (1999) Early canid domestication: The farm-fox experiment. American Scientist 87:160–69.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weingarten, C. & Chisholm, J. (2009) Attachment and cooperation in religious groups: An example of a mechanism for cultural group selection. Current Anthropology 50(6):759–85.CrossRefGoogle Scholar