Tag Archives: Richard Wrangham

Flattery Will Get You Everywhere: E.O. Wilson’s Social Conquest of Earth

Edward O. Wilson was the first speaker for this year’s ALLELE series at the University of Alabama.  I began a post on his talk soon after but found it so boring I didn’t come back to it.  Then Max Stein … Continue reading

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The Campfire as a Social Nexus

Wrangham (2009) & McClenon (2006) describe the campfire in evolutionary history as something like a social nexus. Wrangham says it’s where hominids came to & learned to tolerate each other. McClenon says it’s where hominids developed their relaxation skills, by … Continue reading

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The Psychophysiology of Fireside Relaxation

Following is a draft of the abstract I am working on for a poster I will propose to present at the 2013 Human Biology Association meeting in Knoxville, TN (yay, I can drive there!).  Feedback is welcome. The psychophysiology of … Continue reading

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Wrangham’s “Catching Fire” and Selection for Calmness

Several years back sociologist James McClenon speculated in a 1997 article in the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion that selection for prosocial calmness took place in Homo erectus when they started manipulating fire. I took issue with this, … Continue reading

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