I haven't seen anyone groveling on about the loss of Neanderthals. You'll always be in my heart *insert Tim the Tool Man Taylor grunts*

The genus homo originated as a result of tribal warfare and tech innovation. Tribes with a stronger tribal dynamic - internal amity coupled with external enmity - would consistently prevail in competition over resources.

'Prevailing' usually meant killing or enslaving all the males and incorporating all the females. As a result our brains were forced to grow at an unnatural and unsustainable rate.

"Apparently Darwin had formed the opinion that natural selection acts to a great extent through intergroup competition. In his own words, "natural selection, arising from the competition of tribe with tribe,...would, under favourable conditions, have sufficed to raise man to his high position" (Darwin, 1871, i: 97).
This competition, in his opinion, could be carried out through direct conflict, even in bloody forms. "When of two adjoining tribes one becomes less numerous and less powerful than the other", he maintained, "the contest is settled by war, slaughter, cannibalism, slavery, and absorption". He was quite aware, however, that competition between groups had to be combined with cooperation within them (e.g., Melotti, 1987)"
http://rint.recht...rid2.htm

-Those with better strategies, better weapons, better communication and cooperation skills, better memories and better imaginations would consistently prevail over the competition.

-Those with better strategies, better weapons, better communication and cooperation skills, better memories and better imaginations would consistently prevail over the competition.

Those with the MOST cheese and the MOST pepperoni...

'When the only tool you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail.'

Oh man. here we go again! Dredging up Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century stupostitions in the smugly racist pseudo-science of eugenics.

The utter disaster of miss-breeding racehorses is just the most visible outcome of Calvinist/Presbyterian doctrines of Predeterminism and Predestination.

Next, I suppose you people will dig out your brass spirit horns to loudly proclaim the "Science" of Phrenology?

Oh man. here we go again! Dredging up Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century stupostitions in the smugly racist pseudo-science of eugenics

What are you talking about specifically? Are you saying that group selection is racist but evolution is not?

Tribalism is undeniably racist. It means we are all inherently bigoted, and that egalitarianism is a learned behavior.

The perception of the universal tribe is exceedingly difficult to maintain and requires constant reinforcement. It also requires the constant reamalgamation of the species; constant displacement, the fracturing of households and communities, the constant encouragement of interracial comingling and the suppression of traditional cultural influence.

This is the real eugenics and it is taking place all around you.

Oh man. here we go again! Dredging up Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century stupostitions in the smugly racist pseudo-science of eugenics.

The utter disaster of miss-breeding racehorses is just the most visible outcome of Calvinist/Presbyterian doctrines of Predeterminism and Predestination.

Next, I suppose you people will dig out your brass spirit horns to loudly proclaim the "Science" of Phrenology?

Too much elaborated words for so few valuable infos.

Tribalism is undeniably racist. It means we are all inherently bigoted, and that egalitarianism is a learned behavior.

I don't think it's a binary issue that must be either one or else the other. If individuals have a range of natural acceptance of extra-tribal strangers, there are probably situations where that's the advantage, others where tighter tribalism is the advantage. There's also the need to breed outside the tribe so we have to be at least a little accepting of novelty. My layman's bet is both traits are partly genetic and partly learned.