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Human Social Evolution: Self-Domestication or Self-Control?

Dor Shilton¹, Mati Breski¹, Daniel Dor²

¹The Cohn Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and Ideas, Tel Aviv University, Tel-Aviv, Israel.

Frontiers in Psychology

|March 3, 2020

Summary

Human social evolution is driven by selection for emotional control and plasticity, not self-domestication. This process, distinct from mammalian domestication, occurred in two stages linked to communication and language evolution.

Keywords:

emotional control human social evolution language evolution music evolution self-domestication hypothesis

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Area of Science:

Evolutionary anthropology
Social psychology
Neuroscience

Background:

The self-domestication hypothesis posits humans evolved via selection against aggression, akin to domesticated mammals.
This hypothesis suggests human social evolution is a form of self-domestication, driven by reduced aggression.

Purpose of the Study:

To challenge the human self-domestication hypothesis by proposing an alternative model for human social evolution.
To highlight the unique aspects of human social evolution, emphasizing emotional control and plasticity.

Main Methods:

Comparative analysis of human social evolution with that of social mammals and domesticated mammals.
Theoretical framework integrating stages of human evolution, communication, and emotional development.

Main Results:

Human social evolution shares more similarities with social mammals than domesticated ones, contradicting self-domestication.
Human evolution involved two stages of socially mediated emotional control and plasticity, influenced by mimetic communication and language.

Conclusions:

Human social evolution is distinct from mammalian domestication, driven by selection for emotional control and plasticity.
The evolution of language and complex communication fundamentally shaped human sociality and emotional regulation, differentiating humans from domesticates.