Hostile Forces of Nature Flashcards
Explain the hunting hypothesis
Global cooling a few million years ago marked a dramatic decrease in plant-based food sources, making animal hunting the more attractive food source
Evidence of the hunting hypothesis
- Physiological evidence
- Paleontological evidence
Explain the provisioning hypothesis
Meat from big game hunting is a highly economical and concentrated food resource and is thus more cost-effective than foraged items
Provisioning hypothesis explains…
- Strong male coalition
- Reciprocal altruism and social exchange
- Sexual division of labor
- Emergence of stone tools
The show-off hypothesis
Women are more likely to offer benefits to men who can provide gifts of food, particularly in times of shortage
According to the show-off hypothesis, men who pursue risky hunting strategies would benefit in…
- Increased sexual access to women
- High odds of offspring survival via better provision of care
- Gaining social status within the group
Explain the gathering hypothesis
A competing hypothesis to the hunting hypothesis, which speculates that the emergence of tools was not driven by hunting but by digging and gathering plants
How did food drive human evolution in men?
- Superior navigational ability
- Abstract and Euclidian direction orientation
- Superior mental rotation
How did food drive human evolution in women?
- Superior recognition and recall of spatial configuration of objects
- Landmark-based direction orientation
- Superior object perception and perceptual memory
Example of evolved food preferences via antimicrobial hypothesis
Spices, as they are chemicals that are produced by plants to kill germs often effectively kill foodborne bacteria when used in human diets
-> Cusine as an adaptive cultural practice
Example of evolved food aversion
- Neophobia
- Avoidance of bitterness
Explain why humans have alcoholism
Humans have adaptive preference for ripe fruit and alcoholism may be a byproduct of this adaptation
What is the behavioral immune system hypothesis?
A hypothesized set of adaptations that facilitate behavioral avoidance of infectious diseases
Input: Smell, look, symptoms
Output: Disgust
What predictions can be made from the BIS hypothesis?
- Disgust should be the most strongly evoked by disease-carrying substances
- As all humans face the adaptive problem of avoiding diseases, BIS should be universal
- Disgust should trigger a physiological response associated with the immune response
- People should show a strong memory for potential sources of contamination
- Sex differences in disgust sensitivity
What is the savanna hypothesis?
Humans face the adaptive problem of surviving hostile elements of nature; the African savannas meet the requirements.
