Identity, Kinship, and the Evolution of Cooperation

Bibliographic Data

ID2227494
AuthorsBurton Voorhees (0000-0002-3052-5399), D Read (0000-0003-3125-0769, University of California, Los Angeles), Liane Gabora (0000-0002-0382-7711, Okanagan University College)
Year2020
Volume61
Issue2
Pages194-218
Publication date2020-04-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueCurrent Anthropology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0011-3204 • E-ISSN: 1537-5382
PublisherUniversity of Chicago Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1086/708176
OpenAlexW3012184859
LanguageEN
Citations received8
References cited171

Extensive cooperation among biologically unrelated individuals is uniquely human. It would be surprising if this uniqueness were not related to other uniquely human characteristics, yet current theories of human cooperation tend to ignore the human aspects of human behavior. This paper presents a theory of cooperation that draws on social, cultural, and psychological aspects of human uniqueness for which current theories have little or no explanation. We propose that the evolution of human cooperative behavior required (1) a capacity for self-sustained, self-referential thought manifested as an integrated worldview, including a sense of identity and point of view, and (2) the cultural formation of kinship-based social organizational systems within which social identities can be established and transmitted through enculturation. Human cooperative behavior arose, we argue, through the acquisition of a culturally grounded social identity that included the expectation of cooperation among kin. This identity is linked to basic survival instincts by emotions that are mentally experienced as culture-laden feelings. As a consequence, individuals are motivated to cooperate with those perceived culturally as kin, while deviations from expected social behavior are experienced as a threat to one's social identity, leading to punishment of those seen as violating cultural expectations regarding socially proper behavior

Aesthetics · Cultural identity · Enculturation · Epistemology · Feeling · Identity (music) · Instinct · Kinship · Social group · Social identity approach · Social identity theory · Sociobiology · Sociology · Anthropology · Evolutionary Game Theory and Cooperation · Evolutionary Psychology and Human Behavior · Experimental Behavioral Economics Studies · Insect and Arachnid Ecology and Behavior · Psychology · Social Psychology