Page 499 - Cultures and Organizations

464 IMPLICATIONS

competition between groups do not exclude one another but rather hap-
pen simultaneously. Competition between individuals in a group could be
advantageous or detrimental to the survival of the group to which the
individuals belong, depending on contingencies. Throughout evolutionary
history, new replicators have been added while the old ones continue to
function. For instance, sexual selection uses genetic evolution to spread
attractive characteristics through the population, but it is itself constrained
by behavioral and symbolic evolution in the form of societal rules about
who do and do not qualify as acceptable partners for reproduction. In this
sense, we are both children and creators of evolution, in an increasingly
complex mix of proximate mechanisms. Also remember that all of evolu-
tion, whatever the replicator, is subject to chance in the form of drift. If a
certain replicator level has few instances, drift will be more prominent.
The current merging of societies to only a few hundred, associated with
loss of religions and languages, would seem to enhance drift. On the other
hand, within-society variation among subgroups of many kinds may well
be on the rise and can lead to new variety.

Evolution Beyond Selfi shness:
Groups over Individuals

Behavioral and symbolic selection operate between groups, as was argued.
Culture operates at the group level, as this book maintains. In evolutionary
terms, culture is a proximate mechanism of behavioral and symbolic selec-
tion at the group level. Even more proximate are the psychological mecha-
nisms on which culture builds. In particular, all people except sociopaths
strive to be good group members. “Good” is a culture-relative notion: what
is considered good depends on the cultural rules of the group, the con-

ditions, and one’s personal characteristics. Nevertheless, the tendency to
wish to be a good, upstanding member of the community is ubiquitous, and
human emotions associated with that tendency such as pride, awe, shame,
and guilt can be violent. These emotions cause people to devote their lives
to their group or even to risk their lives for it. On the other hand, tenden-

cies to compete for dominance or affiliation within one’s group, along with
emotions such as envy and jealousy, are also violent. Between-individual
competition is just as alive as is between-group competition.
These two replicators, groups and individuals, are themselves in com-
petition, but groups are winning. In Chapter 1 we used the example of

thirty people, strangers to one another, who find themselves stranded on a