Posted By Irina Slav | New Historian
A new study of early humans has challenged one of the main tenets of Darwin’s evolutionary theory, the idea of the survival of the fittest, by suggesting compassion and the ability to accommodate “defective” members of the community actually played a significant role in how humans developed.
The study, by anthropologists Isabelle Winder and her father Nick Winder, focused on small and isolated populations of early humans who were forced to mate in ways that had a negative effect on the diversity of the gene pool. In spite of the inherent risks, they managed not only to survive but also to advance by overcoming the challenges represented by defective genes. The authors call their hypothesis the ‘Vulnerable Ape’ model, in which the central idea is that it wasn’t the individuals with the strongest and healthiest genes that had the best survival chances, but the ones who could survive despite their “weak” genes and even turn them into advantages.
Some of these “defective” genes was responsible for hominins having to cope with hair-free skin or with straight feet that made climbing trees much more difficult. What allowed them to cope with these defects was the compassion of other members of the community, and the ability to innovate, the ability to learn new behavior and the willingness to experiment, the Winders believe. The need for socialization must also have played a lead part in this, writes Phys.org.
