Early humans domesticated themselves, new genetic evidence suggests

Re:Early humans domesticated themselves, new genetic evidenc... by dr_dshiv on Thursday December 05, 2019 @01:21PM (#21714729)

A few speculative hypotheses for consideration:

1. Ultraviolence: An extremely violent cultural ritual developed that resulted in a much higher rate of fatality for participants. Then, the genetically predisposed to warlike behaviour would be killed off systematically before breeding. This would have the additional effect of clearing outgroup humanoids in the area.

2. Gender Roles: Male sexual selection for females focused on cooperation attributes -- or aesthetic attributes like the facial ones associated in the paper.

3. Cooperative warfare: Cooperative traits allowed for better outgroup warfare

4. BBQ Theory of Human Evolution: Cooperative traits allowed for better big-game hunting. Mammoth barbecues attracted mating prospects from large areas, resulting in the rapid sexual-selection effect of amplifying cooperative genes

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Re:Early humans domesticated themselves, new genetic evidenc... by hans05 on Thursday December 05, 2019 @01:36PM (#21714902)

Possibly the change could have coincided with humans learning to use weapons regularly during combat. This would have made violence much more deadly and potentially resulted in more violent individuals dying off early.

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