The Journal of Heredity 1981:72(2):70-77
© 1981 The American Genetic Association 72:70-77
research-article |
Epigenesis and the evolution of social systems
This is a revised version of the seventeenth Wilhelmine E. Key Lecture, which was delivered at the Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, Massachusetts, on July 21,1980. The Key Lecture series was established by the American Genetic Association through funds bequeathed by Dr. Wilhelmine E. Key for the support of lectures in genetics. The author's research reported in this paper has been supported in part by a grant from the National Science Foundation (No. DEB77-27515).
Abstract
The remaining great problems of biology, which include the nature of the molecular regulation of development, the relation between micro- and macroevolution, the mind/body association, and the linkage between genetic and cultural evolution, all appear to be most readily soluble by attention to the epigenesis of individual organisms. Societies offer special advantages in the analysis of epigenesis. The constituent parts, consisting of the whole member organisms, can be observed more directly than cells and organelles. In the case of social insects, the components can be separated and reassembled as "pseudomutant" colonies, which can then be compared with the normal forms of the very same colonies studied on alternate days. Using this technique, for example, I have analyzed the optimization of some aspects of the division of labor in leaf-cutting ants and identified net energetic yield as the apparent aspect of foraging that has been maximized in the division of labor. A comparable approach can be applied in the study of human genetic and cultural evolution. The choices made by individuals during socialization, which in many categories of cognition and behavior display innate bias, can be translated with appropriate techniques into statistical descriptions of cultural diversity. Natural selection acting on behavior within particular cultures alters the frequencies of the genes underlying the developmental processes of cognition and behavior. The result is postulated to be a "co-evolutionary circuit" that links genetic and cultural evolution in an inseverable manner.