Biological Or Organic Evolution

By Author: peter
Total Articles: 191

Biological or organic evolution takes place as a result of the process of natural selection affecting a pool of normal variability within a living population. This genetically based variability principally involves the physical characteristics of the individuals who make up the population, such as size, shape, coloration, or susceptibility to disease. For many years these alone were thought to be the only mechanisms of evolutionary change. Animal behavior was studied as a discipline on its own, and human behavior and human cultures were studied similarly in relative isolation. It has come to be realized, however, Cartier Replica that behavioral traits in animals and in humans may under certain circumstances have profound effects on breeding patterns, mate selection, and the survival of offspring. If this is the case, then these behavioral and, in man, cultural attributes will affect the course of organic evolution through their modification of the selective processes operating on the gene pool. The study of these behavioral and cultural effects in relation to evolution has been termed sociobiology.

Most animal behavior is directed toward the reproductive advantage of the individual. Occasionally among social insects such as ants or bees, however, workers are seen not to take part in reproduction, a behavior called altruistic with respect to the colony and its future. In other species, different forms of altruistic behavior can be observed, such as "ants" sharing the rearing of young; in all cases, such behavior is paradoxical from the viewpoint of individual selection. It may be, however, that the donor and the recipient of this type of behavior share a larger number of genes or gene types than previously had been believed, so that the "sacrifice” ‘may help the genes held in common with the recipient to survive and multiply. If this is true, then the altruism of close relatives is given purpose and kin selection is an effective strategy.

There are those who believe that these ideas can be transferred from animal behavioral studies to the more complex realm of human behavior and culture, but the study of sociobiology is not without controversy. For example, the relationships between mothers and infants are strong in all mammals; in some mammals and birds pair-bonding is lifelong, but in others, in eluding primates, are found males with harem groups and altruistic behavior by "aunts" and "uncles" toward "nephews" and "nieces." If comparisons are made with human kinship systems — the stuff of social anthropology — the typical pattern is that of monogamy (single pair bond) , with less frequency of polygon (multiple-female, single-male groups) and, occasionally, even polyandry (multiple-male, single-female Breitling Replica groups). Unlike the animal system, however, the basis of the human system may be cultural or even economic, and there appears to be no correlation between cultural kinship (i, e., shared behavior) and genetic kinship (shared genes).

The relationship between organic evolution and cultural evolution is complicated, since
each form appears to have differing mechanisms. Culture as a uniquely human attribute seems bound to affect the totality of humanity and through this totality the patterns and results of human reproductive behavior; this, in turn, must affect the human gene pool and the selective processes that act upon it, which is the essence of human evolution.