Question

Explain how Cooperation has been a leading point to human success.

Answer 1

Cooperation leading to human success:

Humans cooperate on a larger scale than most other mammals. Over the last million years or so, people evolved the ability to learn from each other, creating the possibility of cumulative, non-genetic evolution. These capacities were favoured by ordinary natural selection in the rapidly varying climates of the Middle and Upper Pleistocene, because cumulative cultural evolution allows humans to culturally evolve highly refined adaptations to local environments relatively quickly compared with genetic evolution.
Cooperating humans would lead to greater survival, greater reproduction and colonization. Cooperation helps in situations of hunting, foraging, child rearing or migrating, humans with culture, in pursuit of shared goals. Communal breeding, for example, reduces stress on bonnet macaques creating greater reproductive success. Describing how field work with the !Kung people of southern Africa gave her insight into cooperation first hand.

The beginning of human cognition, for example, is the result of the development of a larger brain, which can be represented by artifacts—stone tools, weapons—or productions that signify greater abilities for thinking and innovation, said archaeologist and paleoanthropologist John Shea of Stony Brook University.

In addition, although the adaptation of a larger brain may separate humans from their primate relatives, it also came at a cost of increased fuel requirements. A human brain uses at least 20 percent of an individual's resting metabolism, said Jean-Jacques Hublin of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany.

Evidence of early humans' use of fire could be used to mark how they overcame their energy needs. Heat helps free up energy by softening foods, denaturing their proteins and breaking down toxins.

culture, a product of thinking and social learning facilitated by language, creativity and innovation. The passing on of knowledge from generation to generation is metaphorically referred to as a cultural "ratchet effect," which creates greater complexity of culture over time. In the wild, a lone human would not be able to survive without culture. Technology may have led humans to gain a broad and resilient human ecological niche.

human psychology has changed in ways that support larger, more cooperative societies that characterize modern humans. Rapid cultural adaptation also leads to persistent differences between local social groups, and then competition between groups leads to the spread of behaviours that enhance their competitive ability. Then, in such culturally evolved cooperative social environments, natural selection within groups favoured genes that gave rise to new, more pro-social motives. Moral systems enforced by systems of sanctions and rewards increased the reproductive success of individuals who functioned well in such environments, and this in turn led to the evolution of other regarding motives like empathy and social emotions like shame.

Rapid cultural adaptation also vastly increased heritable variation between groups. Systems of reciprocity and reputation can stabilize a vast range of behaviours ranging from ruthless spite to prosocial cooperation. Rapid cultural adaptation can then lead to persistent differences between local social groups, and then competition between groups leads to the spread of behaviours that enhance the competitive ability of groups.