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ANTHROPOLOGY 169: The Evolution of Cooperation Fall 2008 T R 2:00-3:15 2001A HSSB http://www.anth.ucsb.edu/faculty/gurven/coop2008.htm |
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Office
Hours: T 3:15-5:00pm or by appointment Office: 2059 HSSB, Tel: 893-2202 (office); e-mail:
gurven@anth.ucsb.edu
Required Textbooks:
Coursepak
(Available on reserve in Library Reserve room, or can be purchased at Alternative
Copy Shop, Pardall Ave. Isla Vista); additional readings for grad students
are available to download on class website
Course Objectives:
This class is designed as an advanced introduction to many exciting aspects of human sociality. Whether we are discussing the existence of widespread cooperative or "pro-social" behavior among humans, the problem of maintaining cooperation in large groups, whether or not to divide meat and how much to give to whom after a successful hunt among foragers, or the high levels of consumerist consumption in modern state-level societies, the fields of behavioral ecology and evolutionary psychology provide us with powerful theoretical and methodological tools to explore ideas about human social behavior throughout ancient history, on contemporary African savannahs, Amazonian rain forests, medieval Europe, Los Angeles, a kids’ playground, or within the walls of a Wall Street boardroom.
Some
questions we will explore include: how common is cooperation in nature?
what are the obstacles to building cooperation among individuals/groups/nations/
corporations? Is world peace a realistic
goal? In what kinds of social environments
have our brains evolved? Are our brains wired to encourage cooperation? Why
is the male=hunter, female=gatherer sexual division of labor so common ethnographically?
Is this a result of cooperation or competition? Why do humans live in groups?
To what extent do humans conserve their resources or limit their consumption?
Why do we care about rank and status so much?
How have our emotions, or moral sentiments, shaped and been shaped
by our pro-social tendencies? Do we cooperate too much or too little in modern
societies? This will be a readings-based discussion course emphasizing both
classic and new papers from biology, anthropology, economics, and psychology.
In this class you will a) become very familiar with evolutionary perspectives
on cooperation, b) learn how to read source and secondary academic literature
with a critical eye, c) learn to apply what you learn in a creative final
project.
Class Requirements:
Students should have at least a basic
understanding of evolutionary principles, and should have therefore taken
Anth 5, 7, or an equivalent. Students should not
be timid, and will be expected to contribute to class discussions. The format
of the class will mainly include open discussions about the readings, and
brief lectures providing overviews of confusing topics. All students should
come prepared to class informed with questions and comments, having carefully
read the appropriate articles for that class. Remember this is a readings-based
class, so if you don't intend to do the readings, then drop the class now!
Involved discussion is a very important component of the class. 15% of the grade for this course comes from
the quality of in-class discussions, 20% for midterm, 30% for a final project,
and 35% for reaction summaries. Thus, attendance is mandatory, and participation
is crucial. This requirement is designed to encourage students to engage in
scholarly critiques and explorations of some of the field’s classic and more
recent papers. Students must write a ~10 page paper on any aspect of human
social behavior (but see below). After this class, students will be fluent
with many of the fundamental ideas and empirical evidence bearing on human
social behavior. It is also a great primer course for graduate school. (Additional
readings are required for graduate students. Undergraduates are free to read
these as well, but will not be tested on them).
Midterm: There will be a brief
take-home midterm towards the middle of the quarter that will count as 20%
of your grade. It will consist of questions that will require you to either
compare and contrast positions/views/ideas.
Final project: The project allows you to explore any aspect
of human cooperation that may interest you. This may include extensions of
topics discussed in class, or you may link the ideas we develop in class to
other interests. You must develop a clear question or goal for your project.
You are free to use any methodology or medium you wish – e.g. research paper,
archival sources, run your own games or experiments, Socratic dialogue, a
theatrical performance, paintings, movie, etc. You're only limited by your own
imagination and creativity. The project counts as 30% of your grade.
Discussion: 15% of your grade
is just based on in-class discussion. (Attendence
and lateness is also included here totaling 5-10% of your grade). Passive
learning is discouraged in this class! For most classes, 2-4 students will
be assigned as experts on a particular article. One student will act as advocate,
the other as devil’s advocate. This does not mean that only these students
discuss the article. They will briefly summarize the main argument of the
article (not go through a laundry list of every aspect of the article),
then the class should be prepared to attack and defend. All students should
write down their own questions they have for each assigned article. This will
make class discussion flow more smoothly.
Reaction summaries: 35%
of your grade is based on brief reaction papers to the readings. There are
29+ readings. You need to write a "reaction" to a minimum of 14
of the articles throughout the quarter (18 for grad students). A "reaction"
should be an intelligent response, evaluation, opinions of the reading for
a given class, as well as study questions, and MUST be turned in the day we
discuss the readings in class (not after) in order to be counted. It should
only be a page or two, and shouldn’t take more than a half hour or hour to
write after reading the articles. It should NOT be a summary of the article,
and should not be a mini-term paper.
Class Prerequisites: You should have taken at least ANTH 5, 7 or some other equivalent course in biological anthropology or ecology that explores evolutionary approaches to behavior.
Be warned: this class emphasizes scientific reasoning and evolutionary logic!
NOTE:
1) In order for a class absence to be excused, notification must be made prior to the missed class, not after. No exceptions.
2) Handing in papers, midterm, projects, or homework assignments late will not be tolerated. There will be a letter grade deduction for each day an assignment is turned in late. No exceptions.
3) Students are responsible for getting any work missed during absences, and updated changes to the schedule, and so claims of "I didn't know" or "You didn't tell me" will not be tolerated.
4) Students should be aware of University policies on plagiarism. Plagiarism in any form can result in temporary expulsion. And remember that Wikipedia and non-scholarly websites are not valid bibliographic sources for papers written in this class.
5) Turn your cellphones off before class. Absolutely no texting allowed in class.
6) The class schedule is flexible and is likely to change. Do not panic. Be aware that the dates given below are only tentative. Readings and homework assignments for the next couple of classes will always be repeated at the beginning of class.
7) If you ever have questions I encourage you to visit me during office hours, or we can set up an appointment. I’m eager to help students in need but you must take the initiative to meet with me. Also, I don’t answer big questions by email, and certainly not last minute questions. Please use office hours for communication.
Class Schedule:
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WEEK 1: What is cooperation?
Lessons in micro-economics and game theory 1) Sen (1990) Rational fools: a critique of the
behavioral foundations of economic theory. 2) Elster (1990) Selfishness and
altruism. 3) Jencks (1990) Varieties of
altruism. 4)
Axelrod and
Hamilton (1981) The evolution of cooperation. Science 211:1390-96. 5) Axelrod and Dion (1988) The further evolution of cooperation. Science 242:1385-90. |
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WEEK 2: Animal cooperation, kin
selection, tit-for-tat 1)
Dugatkin (1997) Cooperation among animals, Ch. 2 (reference) 2)
Dugatkin (1997) Cooperation among animals,
Ch. 5-6 |
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WEEK 3: Cooperative foraging and sharing 1) Winterhalder
(1997). Social foraging and the behavioral ecology of intragroup
resource transfers. Evolutionary Anthropology 46-56. 2) Gurven,
M. 2006. The evolution of contingent cooperation. Current Anthropology 47(1):185-192. 3) Hill, K (2002) Altruistic
cooperation during foraging by the Ache, and the evolved human predisposition
to cooperate. Human Nature 13:105–128
4)
Alvard and Nolin (2002) Rousseau’s
whale hunt? coordination among big game hunters.
Current Anthropology 43: 533-567. |
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WEEK 4-5: Sexual division of labor
and human family 1)
Kaplan et al. (2000) A theory of human life history evolution: diet,
intelligence, and longevity. Evolutionary
Anthropology. 2)
Bird, R. (1999) The
evolution of the sexual division of labor. Evolutionary Anthropology. 3)
Dunbar, R. (1998)
The social brain hypothesis. Evolutionary
Anthropology 178-90. 4)
Silk, J.B.
(2003) Cooperation without counting: the puzzle of friendship. In: Genetic
and Cultural Evolution of Cooperation. (ed
P. Hammerstein). MIT Press: |
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Take-home Mid-term exam – Due in 1 week
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WEEK 5-6: Tragedy of the commons and resource conservation 1) Hardin (1960) The tragedy of the commons. Science 2) Lu, Flora.
(2001) The common property regime of the Huaorani Indians of Ecuador: implications and challenges
to conservation. Human Ecology 29:425-47. 3) Ridley, M, B.
Low. (1993) Can Selfishness Save the Environment? Atlantic Monthly
272(3):76-86. 4) Alvard
(1998) Evolutionary Ecology and Resource Conservation. Evolutionary Anthropology 7:62-74. 5) Low
(1996) Behavioral ecology of conservation in traditional societies. Human Nature 7:353-379. 6) Thomas Dietz, Elinor Ostrom, and Paul C.
Stern. (2003) The Struggle to Govern the Commons Science 302:
1907-1912. |
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WEEK 7-8: Fairness, culture, emotions, and social norms 1) Henrich et al. (2005) 'Economic Man' in
cross-cultural perspective: economic experiments in 15 small scale societies.
Behavioral and Brain Sciences 28(6):795-855.
2)
Fehr, E.,
and Gachter, S. (2002) Altruistic punishment in humans.
Nature 415:137-40. 3) Richerson, P.J., Boyd, R.T., Henrich, J. (2003) Cultural evolution of human
cooperation. In: Genetic
and Cultural Evolution of Cooperation. (ed P.
Hammerstein). MIT Press:
4)
Young, H.P. (2003) The power of norms. In: Genetic and Cultural
Evolution of Cooperation. (ed P. Hammerstein).
MIT Press: |
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WEEK
8-9:
Morality and religion 1)
Frank, R. (1990) A theory of moral sentiments. 2)
Fessler, D., Haley, K. (2003) The strategy of affect:
emotions in human cooperation. In: Genetic and Cultural Evolution of
Cooperation. (ed P. Hammerstein). MIT Press: 3)
Irons, W. (1991) How did morality evolve? Zygon
26:49-89. 4) Sosis,
R. (2000) Religion and intragroup cooperation:
preliminary results of a comparative
5)
Fong, C.M., Bowles, S., Gintis, H. Reciprocity
and the welfare state. In: Moral Sentiments 6)
Tyson, T. (1990) Believing that everyone else is less ethical: implications
for work behavior |
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WEEK 10: Catch-up, project presentation
Grads: Cesarini, D, Dawes, CT, Fowler, JH, Johannesson, M, Lichtenstein, P. (2008) Heritability of cooperative behavior in the trust game. PNAS 105:3721-3726. |
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Take-home Final
project – must
be in my hands by 5:00pm, DECEMBER 6, 2008
Note: Class
schedule is subject to change. Up-to-date details are given in class.
Related Web Resources:
Annotated bibliography on the Evolution of Cooperation